Pain and boredom – Watching an Olympic event on TV

When very few can tell what the so-called Olympic Spirit is all about, many just enjoy watching athletes competing in the One World's One Arena, probably for bringing about One Dream of a certain kind by having empathy for their athletic idols.

Winning of the Olympic gold medal surely helps to boost patriotism. It is especially true for the Chinese in particular, who have spent more than 300 billion yuan on hosting the Games, and historically topped the list of the gold medals.

Many are simply so intoxicated with their athletic idols 'striking gold'. And it feels just as good seeing the hoisting of the 5-starred red flag and hearing the national anthem.

With good drinks and snacks, and also the comfort of the couch and air-conditioning, the Olympic Spirit brings very little into the cozy home in terms of inspiring people to do sweating physical exercise to keep the body and soul sound and fit.

Thanks to the acceleration of globalization, the Olympiad has already become a tiny little bit of the international show business now, without quite losing its illegitimate and subtle role in international politics though. Now even very unfit people love to watch the fittest, toughest or strongest of the world deliver incredible physical performances, just like some who cannot tell the note C sharp from C could have a true love for a certain kind of music.

I think the secret is empathy. Empathy can work in such a way that when you listen to a soprano singing beautifully, you feel like doing the same. When you watch athletes compete on TV, you feel like getting tired and hungry easily just sitting in the couch doing nothing but exclaiming with admiration. You may be desirous of an extra cushion and some extra calories.

When you are not willing to do something hard for your body to stay fit, you can always find a super sports idol who can do it for you perfectly well, provided that your empathy works effectively to enable you to become a faithful fan. As a faithful fan you dream what your idol actually does in the arena. And, of course, you contribute to your idol’s wealthiness by purchasing commodities that your idol advocates on TV and other media. I wonder if this phenomenon could be called sporto-commercialism, or sporto-patrio-commercialism.

Though I don't mind my patriotism being updated by simply watching the Beijing Olympic Games, I haven't enjoyed more than a handful of them on TV yet. My HDD recorder has been programmed to do its job so as to enable me to enjoy watching some of the events in later hours or later days if I would like to. But it is a pity that I have already missed most of those spectacular performances that must have shown the ultimate power of the human body and mind.

One of those games I didn't actually miss was the inaugural10 km open water swimming for women, young women only, of course.

There was a smart and powerful Russian girl called Larisa Ilchenko who harvested the gold medal after adhering to the feet of the British swimmers nearly all the way to the finish. She kept so funny a distance that her hands could have tapped the feet of one of the Brits ahead every now and then. It was not in the last couple of hundred or so metres that she overtook the British duo and led to the end to win the exhausting race. But this teen swimmer did not seem the least exhausted at all.

One of the British girls was annoyed, and she made some remarks about the German girl Maurer who came in fourth. She said it was not sportsmanship pulling on someone's feet. Of course it was not. But who cares! That German was no sportsman after all, she was a sportswoman.

That complaining girl has the same last name as the last British Governor of Hong Kong, which is Patten, which as an English word also means wooden shoe. This young Patten, who does float like a wooden shoe, was dubbed Britain's gold medal hope for the inaugural event. She failed to grab it. No wonder she was annoyed enough to have a word.

The other girl of the duo who nearly 'struck gold' was Payne. Well, she failed the glittering heavy metal for just being slow for as little as only one and a half seconds after having led for almost 2 long hours. Her last name Payne might not have anything to do with the word pain which pronounces exactly the same. She actually didn't show the least pain at all after completing the contention course. She seemed more than content with that bit of silver. Her smiles could be true, for she was not Britain's gold medal hope this time.

Even so, just what huge load of pain this young lady must have endured before she could be rewarded with that Olympic silver medal! She must not have been convinced that she still couldn't beat the teen Russian super power this time in Beijing. She had certainly trained for the gold, and not the silver.

I don't know what it is like stroking the water with the two arms and kicking it with the two feet in a man-made lake for two long hours on end, covering a distance of 10 whole kilometres, facing downward seeing nothing but lake water, and smelling the ecology of it, and also putting up with the irritating frequent tapping on the sensitive feet by a particular competitor unbeaten for 4 long years in other distance swimming. I cannot imagine going along with such boredom and nuisance for most of the 2 hard hours, and being engaged in some 'water wrestling' scenes to receive some kicking, knocking, grabbing and pulling. It just has to be painful. This young Payne didn't say a word about that.

This long distance swimming race reminds me that I do know something about the pain and boredom covering a distance of a whole 10 kilometres, by walking for nothing in my case of course, instead of swimming for an Olympic medal, in the dark immediately after sunset when there is not much left in the wilderness for viewing, with a backpack heavy enough to crush the spine, along the trail with rugged sections, uphill and down, from a remote site back to the road, racing with time for the last bus bound for town.

I don't enjoy very much doing nothing else but walk, and walk, and walk in the dark, for 3 long hours on end. Although I am used to long walk with a heavy load, it is still rather boring for the mind, and a bit painful for the body and limbs.

But certainly it is no match for a 10 km swimming, with the face immersed all the time; not to mention the competitive part, in which the body wants to quit, but the mind orders it to keep going as fast as IMPOSSIBLE in order to win a medal, followed by a lot of fame and money of course!

Most Olympic athletes have to endure much pain and stress during training and competing. They always want to, or dream to beat the others, so as to be the winner for a time. For this they endure all kinds of pain and stress to train really hard. Having such dream, never waking up, and always aiming at a higher goal makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.

Yet many participants who have the same dream realistically know they have no chance of victory at all in this World Arena, they participate for the sake of participation. They pile up to support the stage of pride, glory and fame. And this also makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.

Then at the end of the day they count the medals. And this also makes a good part of the Olympic Spirit.

For the non-sports world, the Olympics could have cheered up the spirits of billions of ordinary people who hardly do any physical exercise at all. Most wouldn't even climb a single flight of stairs during this short period of summer time, not before the Olympic fortnight, and not after it.