The Need To Write (Or Not)

I began this Olympics-themed blog because I love the Olympics and wanted to write about it more than I thought the readers of my regular blog would want to read about it.

I couldn't wait for the London 2012 Olympics. I thought that I would write every day being so excited to share my thoughts and opinions.

So what happened? Where have I been?

The television coverage was so extensive that for the past two weeks, I would wake up and try to catch up on the coverage I had recorded. Often times, I wouldn't catch up until dinner. I would try to avoid the computer because I didn't want to find out results before seeing the events - but unfortunately often I did. Either the station I was watching would tell us results of events on channels I was recording or I would find out when I would try to post a Facebook or Twitter update.

The evenings were spent catching up with email, Facebook, Twitter, Olympic blogs and articles.

At the last Olympics, there weren't as many athletes on Twitter or with blogs so I really felt like I wanted to say what wasn't being said.

This time around, I am following over 300 Olympic athletes and enthusiasts who are tweeting 140 characters at a time, but also sharing photos and blog posts. I spent more hours reading during these Olympics than I could have writing.

There is still so many articles and blogs that I would love to read, and my preference in the past few weeks have been to read and absorb the Olympic fever rather than writing about it. Reading athletes' experiences and tweets was far more interesting than writing my own thoughts.

If I think about my goal for this website though, it was also to follow the athletes year-round not just during the Olympics. I wanted to know who our Olympians were before the Olympics and I did succeed at that.

I was not surprised when Richard Weinberger won bronze in the 10k open water swim. I knew he had won the test even in London last year and the Pan Am Games. When most people were talking about Karen Cockburn, I was expecting Rosie MacLennan to do better (although hoping for a double medal).

I am happy that I knew about most of our medallists before they won.

But more importantly, I knew who our Olympians were. I was cheering the personal bests and I was sharing in the heart break when the legs didn't have it, when we hit speed bumps or simply flopped.

One of the advantages to not winning as many medals as our neighbours to the south or the host country is that I (along with many Canadians) can tell you each medal that we won.

Gold:
Rosie MacLennan (trampoline)

Silver:
Adam van Koeverden (1000m kayak)
Women's 8 rowing
Men's 8 rowing
Ryan Cochrane (1500m freestyle)
Tonya Verbeek (wrestling)

Bronze:
Brent Hayden (100m freestyle)
Women's soccer
Mark Oldershaw (1000m canoe)
Mark deJonge (200m kayak)
Antoine Valois-Fortier (judo)
Richard Weinberger (10k open water swim)
Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel (3m diving synchro)
Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion (10m diving synchro)
Christine Girard (weightlifting)
Women's team pursuit (track cycling)
Carol Huynh (wrestling)
Derek Drouin (high jump)

Here's a great article summarizing in chronological order our medallists with a description of each. Click here.

So although I didn't write as much as I thought I would during the Olympics, it was for a good reason. The television coverage and the writing was so extensive that my days were filled with Olympics without me needing to write.