If you’re like me, during this past Winter Olympics season you sat and watched your television in rapt fascination as various teams of women and men skated down a swath of ice, furiously sweeping a path in front of a gracefully gliding curling stone. Although this sport is the frosty cousin of shuffleboard, a game that has yet to really capture my imagination, I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the screen. Whether it was the grim looks of determination on the faces of those delivering the stone or the drama of those front end skaters rapidly sweeping their brooms before the stone, I managed to somehow forget my ambivalence toward shuffleboard-ish games and become genuinely engrossed in the competition. continue reading…
Browsing Posts tagged Olympic games
I’m highlighting this article because of it’s authors: three high school seniors from Michigan. They eloquently expressed their concerns about the costs for host nations and cities of the Olympic games, providing both concise comment that they backed up with factual information. This is just a quick look – I hope you’ll check out the entire article here.
Grace Hirzel is a senior at Otsego High School and is a member of the 2008-09 Gazette Young Editorial Staff:
In both former host countries [Australia & Greece], citizens are not only still paying for the games but also the upkeep of huge Olympic venues in their taxes. At least in Sydney these facilities are being put to good use. In other places, Olympic venues are closed up, falling apart and vandalized.
Trenton Bulat is a senior at Hartford High School and is a member of the 2008-09 Gazette Young Editorial Staff:
So, what is such an imperial monument [Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium] being used for today, hardly a year later? Nothing! The stadium has fallen on hard luck when it comes to attracting anything other than vendors around the Olympic Green, and seats have been shaved off in an effort to simplify the stadium’s design. In fact, Beijing’s own soccer club was ready to call the Bird’s Nest home, but backed out because of the still-intimidating capacity.
Ben Wells is a senior at Galesburg-Augusta High School and is a member of the 2008-09 Gazette Young Editorial Staff:
The honor the Olympics provides is not given to the city or country that has enough money to win a bidding war, but to the elite men and women who have what it takes to bring home a medal.
