My Summer Events

The other day Ashley Ladd talked about being in a Jr. Olympic Archery League. She asked what events interested her readers, both summer and winter. Unlike Ashley, I have no athletic talent whatsoever. None at all. I love to watch everything. I'm even enjoying basketball again now that the team they assembled is taking it seriously. I still wish the network would show more of the unknown athletes who don't stand a chance of medalling because they've worked their butts off to get there and they're the best in their countries but I do understand advertising dollars and all that.

There are two summer sports I'd like to try, neither of which I ever have. Yes, stop laughing please. I do, on occasion, attempt to be athletic. Never lasts. The first is platform diving. I never mastered even the simplest of dives from the spring board so I'm sure I'd be a complete disaster but Ashley didn't ask what we'd be good at, just what we'd like to do. Can you imagine it, standing up there on a tower, taller than your three-story house, poised on the tips of your toes with your back to the water? You jump, pushing out, twisting, turning as you go, bending your body into all sorts of contortions, losing all sense of direction and then straightening out at the very last second to enter the water, perfectly perpendicular, without a splash. Well, them, I mean. Me, I'd be sideways hitting the water with my butt, wailing like a banshee. But it would be something if you could do it as the incredible divers I've been watching can.

The other summer sport that I wish I had the talent for is pole vaulting. The whole running, planting the pole in that little square, hoisting your body, twisting it up and over the bar while remembering to release the pole, fascinates me. I used to work with a woman whose daughter was a pole vaulter. Frankly, I'm a little surprised not to see her at the Games. Yeah, she was that good but I think it's a timing thing. She graduated from college two years ago. Had the summer Olympics been in 2006 you'd probably all be glued to your sets watching her with me.

I'll tell you about my coveted winter events sometime next week.