I always get a little moist eyed when watching the Olympics. It seems to happen more the older I’ve gotten. It doesn’t matter if it’s summer or winter, if the athlete is from the U.S. or some other country, I see a great performance and I get emotional.
I can find a lot to get worked up over at the Winter Games and I’m not talking about the fence around the Olympic flame or the ice machine problems at the speed skating track.
I get excited watching cross country skiers from Norway and Sweden battle it out to shear exhaustion at the finish. Seeing snowboarders like Shaun White get unbelievable air and perform tricks you can’t even imagine.
Watching short track skaters slingshotting like NASCAR drivers into the lead or luge racers fly down the world’s fastest track only hours after watching a fellow competitor lose his life in a practice run.
But nothing gets to me more than watching the shear joy of an athlete when they know they’ve just come up with the best performance of their life when everything is on the line.
I have three girls, all adults now, who all competed in sports, so when I watched Lindsey Vonn win the women’s downhill and then cry through a post-race interview when discussing all the training and all the sacrifices she and her family had made over the years, I thought first of my girls.
None of them have competed at anywhere near the Olympic level, but all still compete, running marathons, taking part in long distance 60 mile walks. Like millions of us, they get out there push themselves to limits they didn’t know they could reach. Their stories aren’t told on network television, but that’s OK. Just like Vonn’s husband and parents waiting at the bottom as she raced to victory, I still get emotional seeing my kids achieve their sporting goals.
That’s what being a parent is all about.
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