Joy of Olympics – London 2012

While we are on the 10^th day of Olympics, I wished to write before a compilation of contests I have watched to this day, but it was meant to be today. I love Olympics and enjoy watching it since my childhood. I follow them regardless of the branches. So much so that, it breaks my heart every time I see dozens of sportspeople from many other countries in the disciplines we are almost unaware of. For years we continually brag about how young our population is, but no one talks about why we do not have hundreds of young sportspeople in different branches. Since this issue is not talked about and I believe it is not even considered, sport does not/cannot develop in Turkey in general terms.

There are some favorite branches in Olympics such as athletics and basketball. But I think Olympics means watching games in a number of various disciplines. To me, Olympics means to watch a number of various games played in other countries which we cannot watch in our daily lives, to understand how enriched a place the world is, and to ensure cultural amalgamation. I remember while watching the Olympics during my childhood, I would never watch some of the branches since I was too bored. Then I discovered a way on my own. :) In that, for instance, I was not initially interested in shot put or weight lifting. But when I really started to watch these –I am not talking about staring at TV- and get into the event, all of them would start to be very exciting after a while. This is how I solved this. Certainly, there are fields that I love more or games that I do not love and watch, but these are quite a few. :) 

Regardless of the branch, I often love both the sports and the arts. I have exclusive love and respect for the sportspeople. After all, the reason for me to create and write a blog was the fact that I could not find anyone to watch, enjoy and share the tennis matches with. :) I never felt like playing the game; I’m simply a spectator. Thus, I did not have a tennis circle to make any critics. Then I decided to reflect my love and interest for tennis by writing this blog!

I think the most glorious part of the Olympic games is the opening and closing ceremonies. I was fascinated by the opening day in Athena games in 2004. And it was also a special joy to watch it from the country of the first Olympics in history. In 2008, Chinese people broke a new ground in Beijing, and knew no limits in digital shows. It was a flood of light, fireworks all around. It was something else… This year the opening in London was sort of a very artistic musical; in fact, I liked it very much. They emphasized the contributions made by English people to the world in many areas with quite a theatrical show and in a very gracious manner. They made the audiences live the world’s agriculture and industry revolution, world war and the process to this day in a downright musical atmosphere. I have never watched anything like this before. As an individual of the world, I would like to thank Danny Boyle and everyone behind this show. :) The design of Olympics torch was quite different; I think anyone, who has never seen it before, should definitely watch the lighting of the torch. It would not be wrong to say that my eyes were filled with tears when I watched how those copper containers, which we see during the parade of the countries, turned into a torch with such an incredible design.

As for the games; I could watch the swimming series on the first day, and my admiration and respect for the sportspeople further increased when I watched this branch. Swimming is really a very difficult branch. I quite envied the swimming tradition of American team and the sportspeople they have trained. Michael Phelps could not reach his target during the 400-meter race on the first day. But he had such a great week that he had his name written in gold letters in the history of Olympics. With 22 Olympic medals, he became the sportsman who has won the highest number of medals; and 19 of them were gold! Missy Franklin and Allison Schmitt, the new generation female swimmers of the USA, did not give any chance to their opponents with their gold medals. I do not even mention the team races. The swimmers of this performance swim nearly 12-15 km a day. And it is not all about the swimming training. In order to make these achievements, I’m sure there are factors such as appropriate nutrition, scientific activities to improve swimming techniques and exercises required to strengthen physical strength and many others that I cannot even think of. There is also a relevant team apart from these sportspeople. Success does not come with the effort of an individual; even if it is possible, it cannot be on a continuous basis.

I wonder under what conditions our swimmers practice, and how long they swim a day in Turkey. If I remember correctly, we had a total of 3 swimmers who could arrive here and they could not be placed in the races. When I read the comments of our public on this issue in the gazettes, I regretfully realized once again why sports do not develop in Turkey. Everyone talks about how Derya Büyükuncu could not swim. But no one asks why only 3 people from such a big country could pass the threshold and managed to arrive the Olympics, why we have only 2 swimmers apart from one sportsman who is 35 years old, and why they cannot not be placed in the races. Swimmers become champions at the age of 15 around the world. We do not have any swimmers to arrive here; and those who actually manage to arrive are simply made fun of. Everyone cares about the magazine aspect of the event. More importantly, as far as I know, you cannot participate in the Olympics without being placed in the races. Therefore, it is a great success to be able to participate in the Olympics, but the public is completely unaware of this fact. Things are quite difficult for people who are engaged in individual sports in Turkey. I think that they may not be able to find sufficient opportunities, sponsors and support to be successful at such individual sports for years to come. This is because there is no such system; furthermore there is no mindset to create that system. Team games attract attention and can find support. There are also weightlifting and wrestling, but in fact we are quite unsuccessful in these two disciplines this year. We really need to examine these aspects thoroughly.

I watch the races almost every night regardless of the branches. After our volleyball team performed well below its capacity and was defeated in the first two matches, it was not very beneficial to have won the next two matches. Our team could not make its presence felt last evening against the US and it was eliminated. I think it is also very important to be experienced in playing as a team in such competitions. On the other hand, our basketball team took quite firm steps to make it to the quarter finals. I hope they will continue this success. Meanwhile, why our male basketball and volleyball teams could not even reach this point is also a very important problem and question.

I watched the 100-meter men's final with bated breath last evening. When Bolt was eliminated in Dageu due to beating the gun, I was completely dumbfounded. And I was stressed if same thing could happen during this race as well. Bolt started a little slow as always, but in the last 30 meters he really proved how special a sportsman he is. With his 9.63 seconds, he broke a new Olympic record and won the gold medal. I believe that he can run around 9 seconds, but he does not show it to the spectators as we are not ready for this yet. :) This is my theory. I expect the same performance from him during the 200-meter race. I’m a big fan of such great talents; I cannot describe how I enjoy watching them.

Talking about big talents; Roger Federer crossed my mind. He came within an inch of winning the Grand Slam+Olympic gold which we call the Career Gland Slam. But Murray, whom he beat last month, did not allow him this time. He really played very smartly and consistently from the beginning of the match to the end. When Murray started to work with Ivan Lendl, I wrote that he did a very good move for himself and I was not wrong. He really improved himself and his game a great deal. That he defeated a player like Djokovic during the semi-final already proved this fact. I cannot say that I was not sorry for Federer, but Andy really deserved it and he also seized the gold medal.

As for the women’s final, I can say that Williams Sisters returned. In deed, there is no player to stand against a very fit Serena at the moment. This was exactly the case; Serena won the gold medal by beating Sharapova with a score of 6-0, 6-1. She and her sister Venus won the double’s final and made history with their 4 Olympic medals in tennis arena.

These are the ones I can currently remember from the games I have seen. I have just read from the newspapers that our sportswoman Nevin Yanıt reached the semi finals in 100-meter hurdles and our two female sportswomen in 1500 meters. I hope they reach the finals and I have the chance to watch them in an evening season. These are my Olympic notes for now. Take care, and have a nice day with sports. :)