The Sporting Life
1968 Olympic Games, Mexico City
The ongoing Olympic Games have me thinking about sports. I really like the spirit of the games, where there is a good mix of internationalism and national solidarity. I've been really happy during these games to see tiny little Ireland winning medals. As one of my favorite online Irish personalities put it yesterday, they were in 14th place, and he said it with obvious pride. Of course, there have been the totally gross attacks on two female boxers by agenda-driven right-wingers. I hope the victims of these attacks recover with the dignity they have shown so far. There are plenty of good people defending them.
I've never been blessed with much athletic skill. I'm a little taller than average, but I have short and stocky legs that don't lend themselves to speed. My hand-eye coordination is average at best. We moved a lot when I was growing up, and my chances for youth league sports were limited by that and by my attitude about not fitting in as the new kid. When my life settled down a bit in high school, I played on the football team on the offensive line, where there isn't a lot of running, and an aggressive attitude and a bit of hustle can make up for a lack of pure athletic skill.
As an adult, I discovered that I had a knack for endurance sports. I'm a recovering alcoholic, and when I sobered up, I got into long-distance cycling for a number of years. My specialty was the 100-mile, one-day ride known as The Century. I loved completing those, and I loved taking people who had never ridden one before out for their first attempt at it. Most cyclists, with a few months of riding behind them and the willingness to be a little uncomfortable for a few hours, can manage to finish a 100-mile ride if they eat and drink smartly on the day of the event. I met Wonder Woman at a bike ride I organized, and I got to know her while pedaling hundreds of miles around Eastern North Carolina.
Where I'm from, college basketball is king. Our big powerhouses are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, with an occasional standout season by North Carolina State University in Raleigh. As an IT guy in public schools, I always had to contend with Internet slowdowns during March when the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament occurs because so many students and teachers would stream the games on our network. Even die-hard liberals who think that post-secondary education is negatively affected by the emphasis placed on athletics can't seem to help but root for their favorite basketball team. Personally, I'm not that into it, but nobody really wants to hear my wet blanket side of the story, so I've learned to keep it to myself.
My other personal athletic claim to fame was the 156-day walk across 14 states that I took with Wonder Woman on our honeymoon. We were privileged enough to attempt and complete a thru-hike of the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail. The elevation we climbed during that adventure is equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest 16 times. It was 100% the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. The hardest part of the whole thing for me was having to work so hard and be so hungry at the same time. And what food I did have to eat wasn't nutritionally balanced or anything. It was mostly honey buns, Pop-Tarts, and Snickers Bars—none of which I eat anymore.
When it comes to following professional sports, I run hot and cold. My liberal political philosophy tends to get in the way of me enjoying football these days because of the high incidence of brain injuries. I stopped following pro baseball and cycling with much enthusiasm after performance-enhancing drug scandals. Every once in a while, a good story will break through my priggishness, and I will take joy in something like Lionel Messi coming to America or Mark Cavendish setting the record for the most Tour de France wins. I'm happy when that happens because sports do have a tremendous ability to unite people across all walks of life.
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