It's Over

The winter Olympics came to an end today on a sad note--for me, anyway--with the Finnish hockey team losing to the Swedes. I sure would have liked to see the Finns win the gold, but they didn't. Now I can look forward to the return of the NHL and the rest of the games for the season. Go, Red Wings!

I didn't really get all caught up in Olympic fever like some people did. I did, however, concentrate on the hockey games--my favorite sport. But I couldn't help knowing some of what was going on in Torrino, and it wasn't really good for the US. It seemed as if most of the really big stories were negative and just put more faces of "ugly Americans" front and center for the rest of the world to scoff at.

Now, I NEVER have been athletic and I NEVER have been treated as specially as athletes are in this country, so I wouldn't know how my ego would be if I was a world-class athlete. I hope I would have been at least a little humble and thankful for all I had. Too bad there were too many examples of thanklessness and big egos with some of the Americans. How could we be proud of Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick, despite their medal wins--they were both petty and out for themselves, not for the pride of their country. Bode Miller gives drinking a bad name, for crying out loud--another example of an over-inflated ego. Johnny Weir is so WEIRd that he defies explanation. And Lindsey Jacobellis is totally immature--which, at her age, is understandable, at least. Of course, we can't leave out the US hockey team, Jeret Peterson, or any of the other people who took center stage for other than good sportsmanship and patriotic pride. Hopefully, lessons have been learned and the next Olympics will have our athletes represent our country better. It's time we do all we can to stop being "ugly Americans."