I was sitting at lunch yesterday recounting to Brad and friends about how watching the Olympic swimmers and gymnasts succeed brings tears to my eyes, knowing they are living their dreams. They are living in the one moment that they have trained for almost their entire lives. My heart swells with national pride.
And, naturally, this has led me to decide that I should train for an Olympic sport.
Seeing as how I'm getting a pretty late start on this idea, I feel as though I should pick a sport that I could compete in well into my later years. That eliminates gymnastics, since obviously I would already be considered elderly in comparison to the other young ladies. (But I know you secretly would be interested in seeing me do a double-round-off backflip triple lutz. Just kidding on the lutz part.) And I'm going to go ahead and cross off BMX racing since I swore off riding bicycles back in the 8th grade for knee injury reasons. I have not ridden one since.
My first thought was shooting, but Brad laughed at me. (I do not know why that is so funny. I think I could be an Annie Oakley-type for sure.) But then I remembered the ultimate Oympic sport--badminton! And I even have the other half of my dream team picked out: the red-headed pharmacist herself, Alisia.
It would be the stuff that Olympic legends are made of. Here's the ESPN: Beyond the Glory. (This is actually mostly a true story.) They were college roommates who took Beginning Badminton as a kinesiology their sophomore year . They practiced alot in their dorm rooms and at times even ventured out to the Rec Center, in the face of intimidation at being the only non-international students on the badminton courts. After being relegated to the 'C' league in their kinesiology class and switching their grades to Pass/Fail, they both took several years off from "the sport." Emily pursued her dreams of becoming a software engineer and wife to Brad, while Alisia was conquering the world of pharmacy. After ending up back in the same town, the passion for badminton was again ignited by the 2008 Summer Games and their patriotic obligation to represent the United States at the next summer games.
I'm not really sure how one begins to train for a gold in badminton. I guess I will start by investing in one of those Franklin $20 sets at Wal-mart. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.
By the way, we both passed the class.
And, naturally, this has led me to decide that I should train for an Olympic sport.
Seeing as how I'm getting a pretty late start on this idea, I feel as though I should pick a sport that I could compete in well into my later years. That eliminates gymnastics, since obviously I would already be considered elderly in comparison to the other young ladies. (But I know you secretly would be interested in seeing me do a double-round-off backflip triple lutz. Just kidding on the lutz part.) And I'm going to go ahead and cross off BMX racing since I swore off riding bicycles back in the 8th grade for knee injury reasons. I have not ridden one since.
My first thought was shooting, but Brad laughed at me. (I do not know why that is so funny. I think I could be an Annie Oakley-type for sure.) But then I remembered the ultimate Oympic sport--badminton! And I even have the other half of my dream team picked out: the red-headed pharmacist herself, Alisia.
It would be the stuff that Olympic legends are made of. Here's the ESPN: Beyond the Glory. (This is actually mostly a true story.) They were college roommates who took Beginning Badminton as a kinesiology their sophomore year . They practiced alot in their dorm rooms and at times even ventured out to the Rec Center, in the face of intimidation at being the only non-international students on the badminton courts. After being relegated to the 'C' league in their kinesiology class and switching their grades to Pass/Fail, they both took several years off from "the sport." Emily pursued her dreams of becoming a software engineer and wife to Brad, while Alisia was conquering the world of pharmacy. After ending up back in the same town, the passion for badminton was again ignited by the 2008 Summer Games and their patriotic obligation to represent the United States at the next summer games.
I'm not really sure how one begins to train for a gold in badminton. I guess I will start by investing in one of those Franklin $20 sets at Wal-mart. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.
By the way, we both passed the class.
i just barely passes badminton. I would say maybe you were in my class, but I think I was the only non-international : )
ReplyDeleteWe used to play badmiton at my grandparents house. We spent more time chasing that stupid birdie thing than actually hitting it. This post has me laughing! Good luck in YOUR Olympic dreams Em (oh and Alisia too)!!
ReplyDeleteGo for the gold Emily and Alisia =)
ReplyDeletei think you were wrong to look over shooting so quickly, brad, there's nothing greater (and scarier) than a woman that can handle a shotgun, so don't laugh... but since you already have a badminton partner, maybe that is the smart choice.
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