Personal Olympic Experiences

[Lantern7]

While I can't imagine any Brazilians attend these forums (and goodness knows they have enough on their minds these days), I figured that a few of you out there may have attended the Olympics (winter or summer), and I'd like to hear about that. Back when I was attending grad school at NYU, I wrote a piece on NYC2012 for one of my classes. While the IOC are probably FIFA-level scumbags, and the city would have been tough to negotiate (not to mention the horror of the West Side stadium), I probably would have tried to attend a few events . . . especially the ones slated for my home of Staten Island: road cycling, equestrian, and softball (which got shitcanned in '08). Oh, and I went to a few Goodwill Games things when the city hosted that . . . but c'mon, that probably never counted.

[MyAimIsTrue]

I participated in the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics.  Sort of.  I'd moved to Orlando a couple of years prior, ironically from Atlanta, and some of the early rounds of soccer were played here so there  was an organizing committee for a parade of nations at the Citrus Bowl because the players for those soccer teams would be here and not in Atlanta.

All countries were represented in the parade of nations, even those who had no presence here.  I carried the flag of Chad.  After circling inside the stadium I ran into the Nigerian men's soccer team as they watched the rest of the ceremony.  I made small talk with a few of the players, wished them well in the games, and they ended up winning the gold medal.

[Lantern7]

That counts. So would witnessing torch relays. I'm guessing the viewership here has a slim chance of seeing the Games in the U.S., Canada, England or Australia, so you can talk Olympics-adjacent stuff here.

[SnideAsides]

I saw the torch twice in 2000 - once in the mountains outside Melbourne, and then when it did a lap of honour around the stadium Melbourne used for the athletics events in 1956.

[Rick Kitchen]

I attended a lot of the Los Angeles events in 1984.  My favorite was being in the stands when the US Men's team won the gold in team gymnastics.  Though they never bothered to show the team totals during the whole event so we didn't know who had won till the teams came out for the medals ceremony.

 

I was working in El Segundo when the torch relay ran by, and took a long lunch so I could go down to the ocean to see the torch go by.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Rick Kitchen

[legaleagle53]

I was working in downtown Salt Lake City in 2002, only a few blocks from Ground Zero of the Winter Olympics.  While I couldn't afford to attend any of the events or visit any of the VIP areas, I did get to meet some members of the Austrian ski team one evening after work (not the athletes themselves but some of their medical crew), and we hung out for a few hours.  My German allowed me to keep up with them as long as they spoke directly to me, but I got left in the dust any time they started conversing amongst themselves in their native Austrian dialect (yes, it's that different from the standard High German that is taught in schools!).

Another time, I visited Japan House and bravely decided to put my Japanese to the test by ordering a meal in that language.  I pulled it off, but I felt as though I had just landed a quadruple Axel, because that's how shaky my Japanese was at the time!

One day, I ran into some of the members of the organizing committee for the Torino Games.  They found out that I spoke several languages fluently (including Italian), and one of them turned to his colleagues and said, "This is our new best friend!"  If I'd had my wits about me, I'd have given them my contact information, as they'd said they could use someone like me in Torino in four years.  Why do I never have a pen and paper handy when I need them?

And finally, about a week after the Olympics ended, I met one of the Russian Paralympic skiers. It was fun exercising my Russian with him and getting some of his impressions of the US and whether he felt that English or Russian was more difficult to learn (I said that I felt English was harder because our language is so inconsistent in the application of the rules -- he felt that Russian was harder!).

Edited July 17, 2016 by legaleagle53

[Rick Kitchen]

48 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

My German allowed me to keep up with them as long as they spoke directly to me, but I got left in the dust any time they started conversing amongst themselves in their native Austrian dialect (yes, it's that different from the standard High German that is taught in schools!).

When I was stationed in Germany with the Air Force, I was friends with a few German airmen who were stationed there, and they used to make fun of their colleagues from southern Germany for talking funny.  Even in western Germany, where I was stationed, the German they spoke there was different from the standard German I was taught in high school.

[Hanahope]

I attended several equestrian events during the LA Olympics in 1984 because I lived close to Santa Anita Racetrack.I saw several of the jumping events and one dressage.

 I remember that part of the whole "Olympic event" included performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company and I got to see Derek Jacobi perform in Much Ado About Nothing.  That was pretty special.

[ketchuplover]

I'm wearing a shirt from the Atlanta games which might have been bought in Atlanta.  I graduated HS in '79.  A woman from my class competed in judo in at least one games. Lynn Roethke is her name. Her info is online.  I have one every Olympic event ever contested ...in my mind :)

[luvbadtv]

I attended the games in Salt Lake.  It was the best spectator sports' fan experience ever.  I saw Sarah Hughes win gold (I was a Michelle Kwan fan :( ) and saw Apolo Ohno win gold.  The stadium was electric!  I also saw a hockey game between Sweden and some team I don't remember.  I saw a few Olympians walking around the village.  I would love to go again.

[Shannon L.]

The only Olympic events I've attended were the 1976 Opening Ceremonies and one of the soccer games.  The only memory I have of it was at one of the events, we were seated in the top tier of the stadium and it was incredibly steep.  I was only 7 years old and I spent a better part of the time with my hands griping the seat handles with my elbows locked, staring at the Olympic flame that was right below us because I was afraid I was going to fall in.  I also remember my parents trying to reassure me that I wasn't going to fall. 

In 1980, we didn't attend the games in Lake Placid, but we did go and buy a general ticket to watch the athletes practice (in the outdoor venues only--figure skating was extra money).

An attendance that could have happened, but didn't (once removed from me):  My parents were offered free tickets to the hockey game in 1980.  They turned them down because 1. it was a two hour drive and 2. Olympic village was a mess with people and traffic.  Absolutely insane.  So, my parents passed because those two factors weren't worth the bother for a game that they weren't going to win anyway.  I didn't watch much of the game, but I will never, ever, forget the comments from the living room "Omg....I don't believe this.  We could have been at this game!" lol!  They've always regretted turning down those tickets.

Olympic adjacent:  After one of the swimming championships (I forget which one--it was after the Australia Olympics) , I attended a small, private, celebration for Brendan Hansen for his newest world record.  He was very polite--fun and had good, old fashioned manners.  That was cool. I also met Jason Lezak and held one of his medals.  It was beautiful (and so was he :)

Edited July 26, 2016 by Shannon L.

[Lantern7]

Olympic Stadium in Montreal is the only one I've visited. Went there for an Expos game. Neither myself nor my mother was impressed. This was early-Nineties, before the team starting drawing four figures in attendance. We also passed by Turner Field on the way to the zoo in Atlanta.

[Shannon L.]

Yeah, we went to Expo games all the time and after seeing other venues, I'm not all that impressed with the stadium, either. 

[luvbadtv]

Oh yeah, I went to the Olympic swim trials this year in Omaha.

[ketchuplover]

On 7/22/2016 at 8:37 AM, Shannon L. said:

The only Olympic events I've attended were the 1976 Opening Ceremonies and one of the soccer games.  The only memory I have of it was at one of the events, we were seated in the top tier of the stadium and it was incredibly steep.  I was only 7 years old and I spent a better part of the time with my hands griping the seat handles with my elbows locked, staring at the Olympic flame that was right below us because I was afraid I was going to fall in.  I also remember my parents trying to reassure me that I wasn't going to fall. 

In 1980, we didn't attend the games in Lake Placid, but we did go and buy a general ticket to watch the athletes practice (in the outdoor venues only--figure skating was extra money).

A attendance that could have happened, but didn't (once removed from me):  My parents were offered free tickets to the hockey game in 1980.  They turned them down because 1. it was a two hour drive and 2. Olympic village was a mess with people and traffic.  Absolutely insane.  So, my parents passed because those two factors weren't worth the bother for a game that they weren't going to win anyway.  I didn't watch much of the game, but I will never, ever, forget the comments from the living room "Omg....I don't believe this.  We could have been at this game!" lol!  They've always regretted turning down those tickets.

Olympic adjacent:  After one of the swimming championships (I forget which one--it was after the Australia Olympics) , I attended a small, private, celebration for Brendan Hansen for his newest world record.  He was very polite--fun and had good, old fashioned manners.  That was cool. I also met Jason Lezak and held one of his medals.  It was beautiful (and so was he :)

A Milwaukee,WI news man spoiled the outcome of the miracle game on ice.  He instantly became public enemy number 1.

[Shannon L.]

That's awful.  I was so happy that the news stations started airing spoiler warnings for a minute before they started talking about the latest Olympic news. 

[Lovecat]

I used to travel a lot for my job, and have seen various Olympic venues in Calgary, Mexico City, Salt Lake City, and Barcelona.  At that last one, I tore across town like my ass was on fire to be able to see the little museum before it closed--so worth it, because I got to see *the* arrow that was used to light the cauldron for the '92 Summer games!  I totally geeked out.

[MyAimIsTrue]

13 hours ago, Lovecat said:

so worth it, because I got to see *the* arrow that was used to light the cauldron for the '92 Summer games!  I totally geeked out.

Still my favorite cauldron lighting moment ever!!!

Quote

A Milwaukee,WI news man spoiled the outcome of the miracle game on ice.  He instantly became public enemy number 1.

We had the same problem where I lived as there was a news break during the game and the dumbasses spoiled the outcome.  Yes, we all knew the game was shown in tape delay but you'd think the station airing it would know they were airing it!

[andromeda331]

9 hours ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

Still my favorite cauldron lighting moment ever!!!

We had the same problem where I lived as there was a news break during the game and the dumbasses spoiled the outcome.  Yes, we all knew the game was shown in tape delay but you'd think the station airing it would know they were airing it!

Me too. That was the best one ever!

[NutMeg]

I attended two days of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and watched track and field and other athletics events. I saw Carl Lewis win gold! also Ben Johnson, who even I had heard off. Very fond memories, Olympics during the day and party late into the night. All the restaurants were packed full, and I remember once having to wait until 2am to be able to get a table for dinner.   

[Arynm]

I live in Atlanta and attended the 1996 Olympics. We saw the womens gold medal match for soccer, the gold medal match for mens beach volleyball and even saw Michael Johnson run in his gold shoes(he was so fast!) and Carl Lewis jump. It was all amazing! I was at Centennial Park about an hour before the bombing. I would go to another Olympics in a heartbeat!

[Lantern7]

I think this counts . . . Rick Reilly tries to hit every event in Barcelona on a very limited budget.

[Rinaldo]

Driving to work one day, summer of 1996, I ran into an altogether unprecedented traffic jam in our little college town just off I-95. I saw people around me turn off their cars, get out, and look at what was happening two blocks ahead. It was the Olympic torch passing through town (being carried by a runner for that stretch). I was so oblivious, I hadn't even known that was the day.

[Aliconehead]

I went to wrestling, track and field and soccer during the 84 Olympics. My uncle went to that opening ceremony. I went to college with a few Olympians, mostly soccer players but one of my dorm mates played basketball for Canada and lit the cauldron in 2010 Vancouver 

Edited August 7, 2016 by Aliconehead

[Rick Kitchen]

2 hours ago, Aliconehead said:

I went to wrestling, track and field and soccer during the 84 Olympics. My uncle went to that opening ceremony. I went to college with a few Olympians, mostly soccer players but one of my dorm mates played basketball for Canada and lite the cauldron in 2010 Vancouver 

I was at the wrestling.  :)

[Daisy]

9 hours ago, Aliconehead said:

I went to wrestling, track and field and soccer during the 84 Olympics. My uncle went to that opening ceremony. I went to college with a few Olympians, mostly soccer players but one of my dorm mates played basketball for Canada and lit the cauldron in 2010 Vancouver 

That is soo cooool. (teeheee. I know who your dorm mate is). but you can tell it's super early in the morning because i was like.... but Wayne Gretzky never played basketball..... (snorts). 

[doodlebug]

I attended the 1976 summer games in Montréal and the 1994 winter games in Lillehammer. 

In '76, I had just finished my freshman year of college and went with a couple of high school friends.  We drove to Montréal from our homes in Cleveland and stayed at a youth hostel in the basement of a church.  We slept on army cots in a common room for 3 bucks a night. BTW, several of Bruce Jenner's cousins were staying at the same place which was kind of cool. The 'shower' was a garden hose dropped through the window of the church garage (we decided to forego showering).  We attended several events including some preliminary track and field events and men's platform diving where we saw a teenage Greg Louganis get his first Olympic medal, a silver.  We missed the swimming and gymnastics and were too poor to afford to attend the big events.  Still, it was exciting to be there, the city was like a big party everywhere you went, major fun to be had on every corner.

In '94, I went to Lillehammer with a friend taking advantage of a tour package (I'd finished med school and had an actual job at this point), so we stayed in a nice hotel in comfort.  The showers worked well.  The main thing there was that Lillehammer was a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, and Norway is really a rural country,  Oslo is just about the only big city.  That meant that the events were spread out all over the countryside and it was a couple hours by bus to attend anything.  That meant going to an event was an all-day undertaking and going to 2 events in a day very difficult.  The country, however, was gorgeous and the people were so warm and friendly and most of them spoke perfect English (we'd gotten phrase books and tapes to learn some Norwegian which we never got to use).  The atmosphere was magical despite the fact that it probably never got above -10F and there were several feet of snow on the ground.  We saw the Women's Short Program in figure skating (Oksana did the dying swan) including Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.  The arena was tiny, sort of like a high school gym size, and every seat was terrific.  Norwegians don't love figure skating ever since their national hero, Sonya Henije, collaborate with the Nazis during WWII.  We also went to the practice the day of the ladies' final where we sat in the front row in seats that said 'Reserved for CBS' since no one was there.  Most impressive was the huge bruises on the legs of virtually every competitor and how tiny they all were.  At that practice, we, and hundreds of others, witnessed Souraya Bonaly of France's mother/coach shout at her and berate her complete with cussing in French as she practiced, causing Souraya to start sobbing.  I was never a fan of her skating, but I felt so sad for her that day.  We also saw the Figure Skating exhibition, a hockey game, ski jumping (major fun and rowdiness), short track skating, 2 man bobs, men's giant slalom (my friend had a thing for Alberto Tomba and was devastated when he missed a gate and DQ'd), and the closing ceremony.  Trip of a lifetime.  Walking uphill from the town of Lillehammer to the stadium for closing ceremonies, the locals had set out luminaria on the snowbanks along the road giving a beautiful glow to the surroundings.  Like, I said, magical.  I still have my 'Remember Sarajevo' flashlight we got to use at the closing ceremony.

As for Olympians, I've met Carol Heiss Jenkins ('60 gold medalist in figure skating) and her husband Hayes ('56 gold in men's figures).  Carol was a longtime coach in this area and a terrific lady, fun and gossipy; she kindly introduced me to many skaters at various skating events here in town, including many funny, sometimes off-color anecdotes. Carol, BTW, never did an ice show ('my mother wouldn't let me.  Nice girls didn't skate in the Ice Capades'). Instead, she made the cinematic classic, 'Snow White and the 3 Stooges' and made more dough in a couple weeks than she would've gotten in a year of touring back in 1960.  I went to college with a guy who was on the men's gold medal volleyball team in LA in '84 (he cried during his medal ceremony and so did I) and a co-worker, Houry Gebasian, is competing in gymnastics for Armenia today!  Go, Houry!

Edited August 7, 2016 by doodlebug
bad spelling

[MyAimIsTrue]

Lillehammer was probably the peak of my interest in figure skating (it's non-existent now) and I hate hearing that Surya Bonaly's mother truly was as horrible as she was rumored to be.

[doodlebug]

18 minutes ago, MyAimIsTrue said:

Lillehammer was probably the peak of my interest in figure skating (it's non-existent now) and I hate hearing that Surya Bonaly's mother truly was as horrible as she was rumored to be.

It was awful, embarrassing.  It was early in the morning and a lot of the American news networks were there filming because the Tonya/Nancy thing had catapulted figure skating into the limelight.  I'd also heard about how terrible her mother was, and what I saw was worse than that.

[MaryMitch]

I went to the 2nd week of the '96 Olympics. We saw track and field (saw Michael Johnson; he was so easy to pick out due to his posture running), baseball, women's basketball and volleyball (we saw Cuba and Brazil get into a fight!), the gymnastics exhibition, and synchronized swimming prelims.

Actually I enjoyed the synchro best because I knew the least about it but the people around us were very knowledgeable and explained so much about it that I became a fan. Now every time I watch I try to hold my breath as long as the swimmers do, and even from my comfortable couch I can't do it.

[ElDosEquis]

I saw all the torch relays and got to saw Mitt Romney do a little presentation for the SLC games.

I got to go to the opening ceremonies of the baseball tournament at Dodger stadium. That was rad, got to talk to the Italians that played the first game of the DH. There was only one player that didn't make the majors from that 84 roster. He played ball with my brother.

I got to go to the rowing twice, Saw the US win a bronze medal, their first on 10 zillion years and got to go see Greco Roman wrassling.

I'd go again.

[Aliconehead]

That 84 team was good. Will Clark, Mark McGuire, Chris Gwynn and Barry Larkin. 

[Lantern7]

I vaguely remember seeing the US baseball team play South Korea at Shea Stadium before a Mets game. My main takeaway at the age of eight? Koreans' last names were said first.

[friendperidot]

my only real Olympic moment was the torch relay in 96, when the torch came through KC, part of the route was in front of a good friend's house. Many of us gathered in the yard and screamed our heads off and cried. I don't remember who the torch bearer was, some local celeb or someone with contacts. But I found it interesting that there were so many vehicles accompanying the torch, I think there was a change-over very nearby too. I'd go watch again if the US were to get another games and I were able. I'd also jump at a chance to attend some games, winter or summer, but I don't ever want to live in a host city.

[Fostersmom]

This barely counts, but when I was in high school my mom drove a 1984 Buick Century and gave it to me when in 1994 when I was 17. The lady my mom bought it from said it had been an Olympic courtesy car and it did have the rings plastered all over the damn thing and the hood ornament. It was already a good 8 years old when my mom bought it. I don't know if it really was a courtesy car or if Buick put the rings on a whole ton of cars that summer or not. The funny thing was, I noticed one day that ALL the rings had been pried off and the hood ornament was missing. Honestly, they could have been missing for weeks before I noticed. The car didn't make it much longer after that, I was pulling out of a parking lot one day and suddenly, I had no breaks…. or motor for that matter. The whole thing just gave out, no notice. I just kept coasting along until it came to a stop at a speed bump! LOL! 

[Muffyn]

A friend lives in Rio.  He was at the opening ceremonies; said a lot  of it did not read well in the stadium.  He had to watch it on TV later to see what they missed.  He has spare tickets for the women's gymnastics final.  I was tempted to get on a flight to Rio!  He said tickets have been very easy to get to most events.  My jealousy is palpable. 

[sassykattt]

In 84, I worked in aerospace in LA.  Before the games, the paper was full of doom and gloom  and stories about how people were going to gouge and profit from the games.  We started work at 4AM so as to free up the freeways during peak traffic.  Once the games were underway, we had a blast.  People went out of their way to find out of towners to help.  Venues were expensive, but I saw the torch twice.  I Saw The Womans Marthon!, from 3 different places, and yes, she was always ahead. I saw lots of people sporting their countries colors and never saw any of them disrespected.  It was a blast.  Wonderful.  No kidding, if you have the chance, see if there isn't a way you can afford it.

[MaryMitch]

I posted earlier that I was at the '96 games in Atlanta. One think I remember is how crazy fun the Brazil fans were. Everyone was talking about "those crazy Brazilians". There was one guy we saw everywhere - he must have weight 350 lbs and he always wore a bright yellow shirt. Then there were 2 guys who wore the SAME shirt - I mean, one shirt with 2 neck openings. 

[Aliconehead]

I forgot to mention that one of the womens wrestling coaches is a member of my gym.  She told me why wrestling was briefly removed from the olympics.  It was all ego and power trips

[Arynm]

One of the most memorable things I remember from the '96 games ( I posted earlier, but didn't mention this) was the torch relay. I read in the paper it was going to be close to me one day and I thought it might be fun. I drove up there ( it was by a mall I think) and parked and waited with a semi-big crowd of others. As the flame got closer you could feel the excitement in the air. When the guy ran by and transferred the flame to another( I don't remember who) I just burst into tears. It was overwhelming, everyone was cheering and so happy to see this random guy carrying a torch. I actually drove to the next place to see the flame transferred again it was so amazing to see.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Arynm
spelling is important

[Rick Kitchen]

14 hours ago, Muffyn said:

A friend lives in Rio.  He was at the opening ceremonies; said a lot  of it did not read well in the stadium.  He had to watch it on TV later to see what they missed.  He has spare tickets for the women's gymnastics final.  I was tempted to get on a flight to Rio!  He said tickets have been very easy to get to most events.  My jealousy is palpable. 

That's interesting, because I saw complaints about people having to stand in line for three or four hours to pick up tickets they had already paid for.

[Growsonwalls]

My sister worked at a big NCAA school (have won two football championships). Many athletes both foreign and American train there. She talked to an athletic coach there who said the amount of doping American athletes who have a "squeaky clean rep" do is disgusting.

So ... take that for what you will next time you see Lilly King or whoever else getting all high and mighty.

[ElDosEquis]

19 hours ago, Aliconehead said:

That 84 team was good. Will Clark, Mark McGuire, Chris Gwynn and Barry Larkin. 

A lot of great players on that team.

Los Angeles rocked for those two weeks, other than the idiot who ran down the people in Westwood the night before the OCs?

15 hours ago, Fostersmom said:

This barely counts, but when I was in high school my mom drove a 1984 Buick Century and gave it to me when in 1994 when I was 17. The lady my mom bought it from said it had been an Olympic courtesy car and it did have the rings plastered all over the damn thing and the hood ornament. It was already a good 8 years old when my mom bought it. I don't know if it really was a courtesy car or if Buick put the rings on a whole ton of cars that summer or not. The funny thing was, I noticed one day that ALL the rings had been pried off and the hood ornament was missing. Honestly, they could have been missing for weeks before I noticed. The car didn't make it much longer after that, I was pulling out of a parking lot one day and suddenly, I had no breaks…. or motor for that matter. The whole thing just gave out, no notice. I just kept coasting along until it came to a stop at a speed bump! LOL! 

IF I remember correctly?

The cars were I saw were white with a tan interior and the badges were gold.. They WERE courtesy cars that Buick 'sponsored' for the El Lay games, they were sold to the public after the Olympics ended.  They rolled along for years after - you'd see one buzzing along and laugh - they slowly began to show up with taped up bumpers, broken windows and the outline of the rings, where they were stolen or fell off.

You did drive some history!

[Occasional Hope]

I'm in the UK.  The torch spent the night in my town during its tour in 2012, and I saw it three times - once on my way home (with big crowd), then next morning on my way into work, and finally later that morning when it came past my workplace and we all went outside and waved home made flags.  An ex-colleague who retired just before was one of the volunteers at London 2012.

[VintageJ]

On my bucket list is to see the summer Olympics, especially track and field.  But I did see where they light the original torch in Greece.  Trip of a lifetime for me.

[Rinaldo]

Just remembered. In addition to catching sight of the torch being carried (mentioned a few days ago), my father was good friends with Rowdy Gaines's father; they were business colleagues/friends (so, in the Chicago-based movie biz). Buddy Gaines stopped by our house a few times socially; I don't think I ever met Rowdy. But I remember when he started showing up on TV as a swimmer, Dad would point out "That's Buddy's boy there!"