I only have a quite moderate interest in sports, but I still find the Olympics to be a nice break from regular routine. Maybe it’s because I sort of fill up most of my sports qouta during those two week events.

I don’t really like the fact that it is in Europe, though. I’ve always thought there is a certain something about staying up at odd hours, and maybe pay extra attention to some sport I’ve never bothered about while waiting for something else to start. That’s how I discovered curling, for example. That’s a typical olympic sport for me, not something that concerns me otherwise. And at times I’ve also found speed skating strangely mesmerizing, especially the longer distances. Probably something with the steady sching…sching…sching of the skates. And the female competitors, athletes with physiques that make you believe they can crack walnuts with their… sorry, I got a bit carried away.

Otherwise, I’d say the hockey is the main event for me. And this time there’s no risk that we’ll lose to Belarus… If I was asked to list most memorable sporting moments I would probably I would probably put the 1994 final against Canada as number one. That was one intense game. The cat behaved nervously for days after seeing me and mom jumping and screaming like crazy when Forsberg nailed that last shot.

I’ve also always had some fascination with the opening ceremonies. Probably my mother’s fault, she used to make a bit of an event out of that. And there’s nothing like a ridicilously extravagant display of pseudo-cultural kitsch once in while, is there? I actually think the whole concept is quite silly, but silly can be entertaining in itself. The displays have become somewhat more tasteful lately, though. The Greeks put up a quite appealing show in the last summer games, though. And I think the people who created the Torino opening did a good job as well. I think they finally have come to the conclusion that you only can have so many stiltwalkers, acrobats on strings and 15-person parade float-costumes before it goes over the top. Having had a bit of an interest in the movement I specifically liked the Futurism-inspired bit, with the dancer Bolle (dressed in the Futurists’ idea of a suit) performing against Umberto Boccione’s sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. The decision to include something as un-olympic (to me, at least) as a Formula 1 car burning donuts felt like a nice touch, and I guess it was a good representation for the love of speed shared by both the Futurists and later generations of Italians. But overall, I guess the aesthetics of the whole thing had the tradional gaudyness of “culture for the masses”.

Oh, and there’s one thing that puzzles me. The olympic games always comes with the message of peace, and all that, but still the flag was raised by some special Alpine soldiers. I know flag-handling has always been a military thing, but isn’t it at least a bit contradictory?