Have you been watching the Olympics? I look forward to them and was glad when they made the decision to alternate the summer and winter Olympics so that some version of the Olympics would happen every two years instead of every four.

I’ve enjoyed the new sports– the Boardercross in particular has had me gulping a few times (and feeling old– how DO they do some of those aerial things and survive?!), but mostly I’ve been glad to see young talent being, well, talented.

Having said that, there is something that I miss, or that feels a little funny about these games. Maybe you’ve noticed it, too? I should probably say that I haven’t watched a LOT of the Olympics, so it’s entirely possible that I’ve missed some things, but it feels as if these Olympics have been sanitized. Maybe it’s the pressure of trying to show as many events as they can, but it seems as if all that makes it to prime time are the medal contenders in the big name sports. Thankfully, we got to see the Jamaican bobsled team, but it would have been nice to see the person who was the pride of the, say, Latvian team in some lesser known sport, too. Even if they “fail” in medal terms, they’ve won by being there. And, although those wipe-outs are gruesome, it reminds us of the huge risks that these athletes take for the sports that they love.

There’s a lot to be learned from the Olympics. I’ll look forward to new events and young athletes in the summer of 2016, and hope that it is not all completely sanitized for my viewing pleasure.

Yours in faith,
Cynthia