I Fell In Love With The Olympics

I'll be sad when the Olympics is over, because I for one, am in love with the Games. Or maybe not so much with the Games, as the feelings the Games unlodges inside me, the wide range of rollercoaster emotions it took me through... I'm crazy in love with it, and not falling out anytime soon.

I wish I could live my life like that: going from one Olympics feel-good moment to the next. Yeah, I'm a punk-ette like that (punking out on real life... lol).

The Olympics are the Greatest Games On Earth for a reason... had me crying and motivated and then demotivated (looking at all the guys with their chiselled bodies, and all those girls just carved to a T), and then right back up there again...

I watched a woman win pole vault and keep jumping till she broke her own record because she could and she wanted to...

I watched a Jamaican man-boy become a man right before the world's eyes and watched the world turn into sour grapes gringos about it (Usain to the weerl, taking no prisoners, lol!)

I watched another Jamaican superstar, and a whole team of Jamaican and American relay super-star-ettes get humbled on international cameras and walk off that track like they were still people of colour on a mission...

I watched China get away with "bloody murder" and allegedly underaged athletes... (lol)

And I felt it deeply as once-great heroes fell before my eyes (Ato, you are dead to me), and others took their place (Usain, you are now my heartbeat, lol)

I watched all of this, in the space of nine days, and I'm left breathless and tired and emotionally drained and yet somehow pumped... even though I wasn't there.

I'm now filing the Olympics into that special place where I file all magical or magical-like moments in my life. I now look at it with reverence and deep, solemn respect. I now look forward to the Olympics as another great moment for me (even though Lord knows I ain't no athlete) because the emotional scope it offers is just any sap's dream. And that is exactly what I am: a big ole sap.

I cry for everything. So you know I cried when innocent-looking, fresh, young, first-timer Shelly-Ann Fraser took gold in the women's 100, right? And you know I cried when Sherone and Kerron missed that baton pass and rendered Jamaica gold-less in the 4x100 too? Bawled like a big ole baby, like it was me out there feeling the pressure of an entire nation and breaking...

Yep. I fell in love with Usain and Asafa (well, Asafa was always my baby, and I mean that in the most non-corny way possible, lol). And I fell in love with Veronica and Sherone (no I'm not gay) and Maurice and Chelsea. I fell in love with some Kenyan and Spanish and Russian and Belarusian dudes and chicks I dont even know the names of, and other people from countries whose names I can't even pronounce, and had never heard of before the Olympics and will probably never remember til the next one... They set my heart racing and then slowed it down and then speeded it back up again. For a week and bits, they had me eating out of the palms of their hands, drinking in their every moves... yeah, I fell in crazy, sweet love with the Olympics.

Now I HAVE to be at the next Games. And it's too late to tell me about money for plane fares and lodgings and food and expensive tickets and all that. It's already in my 4-year plan. I have to go see that for myself: up close, cause I need to get drunk like that again, on pure life and adrenaline and sweet non-drug-induced, oxygenic euphoria.

It's the natural high, baby. It's beautiful.

And I'm an unredeemable addict.

Bittersweet 4x100m...

Jamaica's finale in the Olympics 4x100 relay is a poignant lesson in the magnificent scope of the greatest, most anticipated Games on earth. The Olympics are about more than a spate of concurrent victories, more than mellifluous, perpetual praises: So easily we forget that for every handful of athletes who experience sweet victory, there are many, many more who have to learn the hard and gruelling lesson of disappointing defeat.

Much love and respect Jamaica's women's 4x100 relay team, who disqualified in the finals of the 4x1. We love you still.

Hats off to our boys who finished their relay in world record time...
You all did us proud.

Veronica To The Flippin' Weeerl (& Other Olympics Musings)

Too many things to talk about today:
First, big ups to the 2-time Olympics 200m gold medallist: Veronica Campbell-Brown. She never disappoints, and while she not into showBOLTing (lol, ma friend came up with that one, hadta use it), we still love her: nuff nuff nuff respect!! And congrats Kerron Stewart, you get silver and bronze in your first Olympics meet... girl yuh laaahge!!


Next, today is Usain Bolt's birthday. Happy 22nd. Read the tribute here.

On to relays: what is going down with the great US of A?? How them manage to lose the batons in both 4x1 races?? I was actually disappointed cause I wanted the finals to be the battle of the bests. Was it a case of too much pressure/too much effort, or was it just nerves? Or lack of practise? One'a my friends say is the goozum* that they trying to work on we backfire on them, LMAO. (*Goozum - Jamaican word for obeah, witchcraft). Ah well, such is life and life is such, and when Jamaica gets the gold, I sure as hell won't cry for America. But still, it look like somebody work summ'n on America, cause they just keep messing up...

And finally, one of my friends did a post on the sense of unity that has been sweeping over Jamaica since the Olympics (quote from his blog here):

what irks me is this false sense of unity, which has arisen as if the political and class divisions that separate us won't return when the Olympic Games are over.

Of course, I sent him a scathing response, cause I thought what he was saying was just cynical, pessimistic bull. But when you really think about it, after the Olympics, then what? We go back to killing each other every day like is a national hobby? The Olympics have inspired literal, tangible and visible lightness in this country's atmosphere. The sky seems clearer and twice as blue, birds' songs carry an intensified chiro of joy, bright smiles meet you everywhere you go... random strangers grinning off them 42 with each other like them is long-time friends. The entire nation is eclipsed in a happy, surreal euphoria: a heady, intoxicating joy/hope has washed over Jamaicans. Such a heavenly feeling caused by just five Olympic golds in three days... Like GC said, now if only somebody could do something about the crime...

Something Special About Usain Bolt

Dedicat to the Fastest Man on Earth, on his Birthday:
It's more than the lightning speed laced up in those spikes, more than the lizard-like lip-licking tongue movements; it's not the relaxed, at-home look on the track... there's something special about Usain Bolt...

Many reporters have captured the aura around this phenomenal youth, but still fail to explain that mysterious X factor. Is it the glimmer in his eyes? The way he smiles *swoon*? The almost-proud swagger that punctuates his walk, and declares his presence? Or is it the romanticised story of a man-boy overachiever, humanity's affinity with fairy-tales and lightning-quick happy endings?

In all his hype, there's something almost child-like in the way he delivers himself up to the people, something refreshing in the carefree way he owns up to being young and Jamaican, the way he can pop a 'nuh-linga' on international cameras, and laugh at a stunned and speechless world (like he can't see what all the fuss is about)...

It endears him to friends, frightens competitors, and constantly leaves the world's jaws dropped in utter amazement... What is it? I don't know, but there's something special about Usain Bolt.

Happy 22nd Birthday, Usain. You have given Jamaica soo much to be proud of. You are already a national hero in my books...

Double Goooold!!

Usain Bolt: Fine style & world record time: 19.30seconds!

Melaine Walker 'jumped' in: 400mh Olympic record 52.64s!!

And back at home, the celebration:
1. Half Way Tree Road was jammed with human traffic!!

2. Jamaican flags were selling like hot bread!!

3. Even the police forgot to do their job...
JAMAICA TO DI FLIPPIN' WEEEERL!!! YEAH MAN!!

Usain Under Attack??

Like anybody in the international spotlight, Usain Bolt has been coming under some serious attack for (of all things) his "braggadocious" attitude. Apparently, several people, including big-timers like Mike Costas and Ato Boldon, are hating on the Jamaican (dare I say it?) *super*star* for celebrating his Olympic success in fine style.

People like this guy are saying that Bolt should tone down his attitude and be "more respectful" to the 100m race (since when are athletes required to be 'respectful' to a frickin race? And how was Bolt disrespectful? Was it the gall he had to actually win a major race when he is only from a small Caribbean island? Was it the precocity, nay, effrontery and audacity he showed in already being an athletic force to reckon with at a mere 21? Tell me, where was the disrespect??) They even assume that he deliberately ran a "slow" record time for the million dollars he will get next time he breaks it (I say that's smart money management, lol, and 100m in 9.69s ain't slow baby!)

Still others, like this little fella, think that Bolt needs to develop a modest personality... (Where was this when all them other athletes were showing off for years and years?) He says Bolt was 'indulgent and over the top' (so what? I'd indulge myself a little, nay, a lot, if I did what he did). The article's last-line:

"I was reminded of snowboarder Lindsay Jacobellis who was set for gold in the Turin Olympics. She tried to show off on a jump and crashed out of first place. I hope the laidback Jamaican looks carefully over his shoulder."

Reeks of bad-mind, nuh true? And the difference is that Usain done win the gold already and them can't take it back from him (not unless them want start World War 3 up in ere)!!

Some people have gone so far as to accuse Usain of using performance enhancing substances. On that point, I say we are guilty as charged, but here are the performance enhancing substances our athletes use:





Yeah. Take a good look... nothing but some solid ground food and some all-natural juices!! Our athletes- and any Caribbean athlete for that matter- train for long hours and work very hard. When they finally achieve, I say if they want to strip themselves naked and run around that stadium, they deserve to!! All them haters can get upset if they want to: that in no way negates the fact that USAIN BOLT WON THAT MEDAL AND BROKE THAT RECORD! So tuff! We don't really care what they want to say. Our country just produces great sprint runners... no ands, ifs or drugs about it!!

1,2,3 Vic-to-ry!!

So you-know-who was late for church this morning because she, uh, she, well, she took a little longer than usual to "get ready". Couldn't miss this race for anything, and it was soo worth the wait... lol. Congratulations Shelly-Ann Fraser, Kerron Stewart and Sherone Simpson: First, Second and Second (tied) in the Olympic Women's 100m Final.


With Jamaica, it's always extremes: You either love us or hate us. So right now, I figure, the world is either celebrating our Olympic success or hating our guts... whatever they choose, the fact is that they have to sit up and take notice. Our presence is just too strong. Indifference is not an option...

Usain Lightning Bolt

Jamaica held its breath. Trinidad refused to breathe. The entire Caribbean froze in anticipation, the taste of victory thick on their tongues, a sweet scent wafting up in their nostrils. The second before the gun, the world was absolutely still. Even the birds refused to sing. Something great was about to happen. No-one made a sound. Then the gun, and they were off.

It only took 9.69 seconds for the world to find its voice again. Like Lightning, Usain Bolt struck and unsettled China's Bird's Nest, defying history's boundaries and shattering international, regional and national records, and giving Jamaica another reason to smile.

Words cannot describe the euphoria emanating from Beijing, China, since Usain ‘Lightning’ Bolt secured his place in history- at a delicate 21- as the first Jamaican to win the Olympic 100m gold, and the world’s fastest man. Caribbean sunshine flooded China’s Bird’s Nest when Trinidad’s Tyrone Thompson stood his own ground and took silver in the event, with Jamaica’s Asafa Powell and Michael Frater copping fifth and sixth places respectively, and Churandy Martina, from the Netherland Antilles, coming a close fourth. The dense smog must have lifted by at least a couple of inches, allowing a little bit of Caribbean light, laughter and even tears into the eyes and hearts of the spectators who witnessed this phenomenal, unmatchable moment in time.

In just under 10 short seconds, an unprecedented 6 Caribbean men participated in an Olympic 100m final. Carnival could never rival the effects of all 6 Caribbean nations caught up in celebration at once. Pot covers came out, whistles were exhausted, voices grew hoarse from strained overuse. The region climaxed in the ecstasy of its grandest accomplishment yet – proving that the Caribbean is indeed the world’s sprint capital, and that Jamaicans are a ‘little but tallawah’ people.