I am excited for the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic games to begin. I always look forward to the Winter Olympics as I enjoy watching the many winter sports such as snowboarding and all of the ice skating events.
My mom and I have watched the Winter Olympics for years, yelling for our teams, cringing if we mess up and doing our own narrating and judging. When I was home in July, Mom and I watched the Summer Olympics, and both agreed we like the winter events much better.
We laughingly said we should add a few to the summer events such as polar bear wrestling, 100-yard penguin race, and the 25-yard otter swimming race, just to name a few and to spice things up.
As I said, we are both more into watching the winter type of sports.
Mom and I also critique team fashions. We gave Teams USA and Canada an overall thumbs-up and had more than a little fun watching and sometimes wondering about some of the other nations’ clothing choices.
We did decide together, however, that the beach volleyball uniforms from all countries were a little (shall we say) lacking. I thought they looked very uncomfortable, and Mom was embarrassed to watch. The swim teams had more material on their bodies than the volleyball teams did.
I walked into the kitchen one night when we were carrying on in the living room to find my dad at the kitchen table, smiling. I asked what he was doing, and he said “enjoying the banter and commentary you and your mother have during the Olympics. This has gone on during every Olympics I can remember, when you were at home, so I’m enjoying every bit of it.”
It was true, and it made me smile, too. For this set of games, I’m going to have to FaceTime mom, so we can keep up our Olympic tradition.
One set of games I will be watching is paralympic ice hockey where Adam Kingsmill from Smithers will be playing. I am truly excited for Adam, as he is one dedicated and laser-focused guy.
I interviewed Adam for an Our Town article for The Interior News in Smithers and had one of the most enjoyable interviews, if you want to call it that. It was more just chatting, laughing and me asking absolutely none of the questions I had prepared, but more ones I have always just wondered about regarding Olympic athletes.
Adam was great about all my crazy questions, and as I said, we laughed a lot. I found him to be a remarkable young man, and I will be cheering him on every step of the way.
Having a hometown connection makes the coming games exciting to look forward to, but Adam is not our only connection.
Jamie McCartney, was born and raised in Smithers.
Jamie had a remarkable athletic career, which, unfortunately, due to injury, was cut short. Instead of leaving sports altogether though, Jamie pivoted and became a strength and conditioning coach for some of Canada’s most prestigious and well-known athletes in the world of alpine skiing, paralympic skiing, hockey, and currently, bobsled.
Jamie is also headed to Beijing Jan. 22 and we can cheer on Jamie and the Canadian bobsled team. I hope to catch him when he gets back for an article of all he experienced in Beijing, as I will with Adam.
Regardless of outcomes, Smithers can be very proud we have two Olympic participants in this Winter Olympic and Paralympic games.
I also think this will show young people here we have trailblazers and if you have a dream and work really hard, no matter where you are from, it too can come true.
Yell loud, Smithers!
Go Team Canada!