Whoops!

  I don't know if you remember the Wide World of Sports show?  I vaguely remember my father having it on most Saturdays so he could catch up on sports. When winter came, I loved watching the opening because there was this guy who tumbled down a ski jump and crashed into the snow several yards away at the bottom.  This particular clip always accompanied by a narrator saying "And the agony of defeat."

Every single time I saw it, I cringed even though I knew what would happen.  I think I even squeezed my eyes shut when he started tumbling because I felt so sorry for him.  It was years later, I found out the guy survived and wasn't really hurt at all except for his pride.

I remember liking winter sports better than the summer ones except for synchronized swimming. It seemed winter sports tended to be so much more graceful, except for hockey, and every one seemed so coordinated which is something I never was.

I did love watching the ice dancers and all ice skaters because they made it look so easy.  I can tell you from personal experience, it is not that easy.I tried ice skating in Tucson Arizona and actually learned to stand up without falling over or landing flat on my butt too often.  I managed to keep my ankles from buckling by lacing my ice skates as tight as I could. I wasn't even good enough to pretend I was a skating star!

I also loved watching down hill skiing.  Again, these professionals made it look so easy.  I tried plain downhill skiing and even signed up for a lesson.  First of all it was intimidating seeing these little kids whizzing down the expert trails.  Then I got the teacher who laughed when I asked how you stop if you start going down hill backwards.  He insisted that it was impossible to go downhill backwards.

Well, he was wrong!  I managed it on the bunny slope but I still did it.  I moved up to grab the tow rope and I found the only small bump in the area and started going down hill backwards until my butt made contact with a tree.  Talk about bruised ego's and butts.  After that I swore, I would never try skiing again.

Over the years, I come to the conclusion that I don't have to actually participate in the sport to enjoy its finer points.  I still enjoy watching ice skating and skiing on television but I've also added watching those extreme guys on the snow boards.  That is cool.