I went to see my first Olympic event last night, and perhaps my only Olympic event with the hours we’ve been putting in. My younger sister, Sonya, is here volunteering at the HBC store in the Canada Olympic House. Her friends have had a few spare tickets to several events this week so I tagged along to the Judo finals with Sonya and Gary (an American who is quite pleased with his country’s performance so far). The tickets were 80RMB each, about $11 or 12 CDN.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t know much about most sporting events and judo is no exception. We were an hour late because the three of us ended up at different entrances for the stadium. We walked in to loud cheers of “Jia You!”, which in Mandarin basically means Go Team Go! or You Can Do It! or any similar cheer. We sat down to what we thought was men’s judo, but then realized it was the women’s gold medal match. Gary gave Sonya and I a crash course in the rules of judo, just in time to see the Chinese throw the Japanese to the ground with 8 seconds to spare. The look on the winner’s face was pure joy. She ran over and picker up her tiny coach, swinging her around in a circle. It was a true Olympic moment.
Then in the men’s final match, I was pleased to see Uzbekistan as one of the finalists! I have decided with Canada’s rather dismal performance, my new team of choice this Olympics is Uzbekistan. I have wiki-ed to learn more about my Olympic fave – they have a population of 27 million. That is actually several million LESS than Canada, so the whole “per capita” argument means we should be doing just as well as Uzbekistan, if not better.
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Last night, I witnessed Uzbekistan win a silver medal in the men’s 100kg+ category. (Their SECOND medal of the Games…double Canada’s current tally.) A very proud moment for Uzbeks everywhere, and their newest fan. And if there is ever a flag naming contest, I will have no problem picking out the Uzbekistan flag.
Go Uzbekistan Go!!
Elaine
PS I’d post more photos of the actual event, but broadcast rules say I can’t.
My sister Sonya and I at the Judo finals. Go Uzbekistan!
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