Monthly Archive for August, 2008

Corruption wins the gold in Beijing

Published on August 25, 2008 by Corinna Carlson | 0 Comments

Other than the fact that the Beijing Olympics of 2008 were one of the most corrupt games I’ve ever watched [I'm only 31] because I love so many athletes from so many countries and am simply a die hard sports fan I still couldn’t pull away.

I am more than pleased with the entire Canadian team. I was going to write a rant during the Olympics asking people to shut the fuck up about our lack of medals in the first week, I was about done listening to people around me and the media not to mention the CBC commentators speak negatively about our athletes, the commentators weren’t so much saying negative things as they were just talking in agro voices, it was annoying.

WHO in Canada doesn’t know that we are a winter sports country? I wish we were an all sports country but it will never happen, sure because all eyes are now on us the Canadian athletes will probably get more money for a few years maybe enough for us to grab upwards of twenty medals in London 2012 but after London things will go right back to exactly how they are which is pathetic. If the country isn’t going to support the athletes properly then stop bitching when they only achieve like the most personal bests and Canadian records in maybe ever. Seriously people HOW could that not have been good enough? Breaking a PB is one of the best feelings EVER I can’t even imagine how insane it would be to spend your life training for something, perform your very best, break what WAS your very best and have it NOT be good enough for your country. Disappointment and being tired of seeing only personal bests and Canadian records fall are two different things.

I’m already annoyed by all of the talk of topping the Beijing Olympics, the big one being the opening ceremonies. Ok – what? So you want us to put on a computer generated fireworks extravaganza, destroy a young girl’s confidence probably for life with a bullshit lip-syncing so called pretty girl, you want us to fake the age of some of our athletes robbing the rightful owners of their gold medals AND you want us to have even worse corruption than was just demonstrated over the last two plus weeks?

Unless nothing else is on, hardly anyone watches the Olympics anymore. What, with the drugs and the mockery being made of the judged sports. I know that both have always been there, always been a problem and not just at the Olympics but what I don’t understand is why we don’t do anything about it.

When it comes to how Vancouver is treating its people we are right on up there with the Chinese. I don’t think we’ve torn down any homes that people actually own and were living in yet but it’s probably coming. All I could think watching the pre shows on how the middle class and lower class and homeless were being treated in Beijing was what I’m sure most Vancouverites were thinking – OH FUCK. When your city is known world wide for its homeless problem, the east side, skid row, whatever you want to call it you really would think the government would want to do more than try and HIDE the problem but dreaming is probably still free for a reason.

It got to the point with the judged sports that we had to start watching them in moderation to keep tempers calm. I am a lover of many athletes from many many countries it is hard for even me to keep track of them all, so I am not just talking about Canada when I say the judging in my opinion was the worst we’ve seen this century, I can’t see it being the worst ever but it’s up there. And I am sorry but it may take the full eight years they have to find out what they are on but all of the Jamaican male sprinters are drugged out, they use better Visine than Ben Johnson did but yay, if it was only Bolt that was fast that would be one thing but the ENTIRE team. If you watched the Olympics, think back to Phelps, notice the natural progression of his stamina his endurance level, the boy looked tired you could tell he was working his ass off and then some. Bolt and his boys were show boating cruisers. Everything and everyone is faster and stronger in this day and age but not that much.

Out of curiosity I thought out loud “I wonder how many of China’s gold medals were in judged sports”. Turns out to be approximately half of their 51, in Athens as a nation they won 63 medals in TOTAL. But to be fair let’s compare with another power house, let’s compare with the United States. Of their 36 gold medals in Beijing approximately 3 of them were a result of judged sports. In total The States won 110 medals, in Athens they won 102. Seems like a natural progression of improvement to me. Something just isn’t right with how many judged golds China won and the fact that they went from a total of 63 medals to a total of 100 at their own games.

I personally have a bigger problem with corruption in the judging than I do with the drugs, but please do not get me wrong I have MAJOR issues with both. At least with drugs when you are caught you not only embarrass yourself you shame your entire country. You are stripped of your medal. You have to live with what you did forever. You are marked forever. In my opinion if you are caught once with drugs you should NEVER be able to compete again, screw a suspension. And I agree with my father who thinks if one of them is caught doing drugs the whole team should be sent home. That would put a stop to it all pretty fast.

It really bothers me that sports like softball are being removed from the Olympics yet NOTHING is being done to change judged sports or stop the corruption.

For example, WHY does gymnastics even need judges anymore? Why not take the maximum score have exact deductions for falls, misses, step outs, incompletion of compulsory moves and add em up at the end and then the person who has the least amount of mistakes and did all the moves gets the gold. I guess that would be too complicated.

It wasn’t all bad and there were some very touching moments, moments that were my favourite just like I have from every Olympics I remember watching. I don’t know why but my favourite moment of all was when Ian Thorpe turned around and gave Mrs. Phelps a hug after Michael won yet another gold. I thought that was pretty good.

The Olympics Start NOW

Published on August 8, 2008 by Corinna Carlson | 0 Comments

Gus is sitting on my lap pawing at my legs and I’m watching the Beijing Opening Ceremonies, I haven’t cried yet but it is inevitable that I will. Medal races in the swimming start Sunday, that’ll get me if nothing has before then.

My love of sports and athletes is huge but I still have mixed feelings in regards to the Olympics and their politics but I try and make it a point not to talk about politics on my blog. I see what’s happening in Beijing, I see what is happening in Vancouver to the people, to the city. I know I’m not alone in feeling a certain amount of dread when the cameras are turned onto our city and highlight the government’s despicable testing taking place right now on how best to deal with the homeless. It did not comfort me at all to see the people of Beijing going through similar and heartbreaking experiences just to put on a spectacle for the world.

Sometimes it isn’t just the politics it’s the drugs. I may not be competing now but my therapists insists I am an athlete and should address myself accordingly it is just hard for me having such a nagging injury [another post..]. Sometimes I’m glad that I had a shitty attitude when we moved to Terrace because I never had to deal with the pressures of drugs. I had very limited running competition in Terrace, whereas in Smithers I was always second best and instead of using it as a challenge and running against older, faster more experienced runners and learning from it and growing I became an arrogant asshole and almost stopped running AND skiing all together. The Terrace ski hill is nothing when compared to the Smithers mountain and I got bored. I look back and wonder how my parents even put up with me through my seriously wasting my potential phase [I'm not really sure it was just a phase though]. Before I met Adam I dated some guys who considered themselves hard core, they were jerks to me but at the same time they loved being with a woman who could keep up to them but the difference is that I never took anything beyond protein powder and ibuprofen. I do not think ANY of the guys I dated took steroids but I could be wrong who knows. One dude had completed an iron man and one used to train with Canadian Olympic Gold Medalist Simon Whitfield’s coach. Both of these guys took creatine which is a controversial supplement and it bothered me, if guys taking creatine bothered me I bet you can guess how strongly I feel about professional athletes and performance enhancing drugs. The disappointment, anger and embarrassment I feel when athletes are caught is intense to say the very least. I put so much time and energy into the athletes I admire and love that I feel genuinely let down when I find out they’ve been using.

Even though I find myself yelling obscenities at the tv over most of the stupid commercials and idiotic statements made with voiceovers by Morgan Freeman I try real hard to separate myself from all the bullshit and enjoy the fact that it is the only time that I can see almost all of my favourite athletes in one place for two fucking weeks man! I live for moments like this:

Vancouver BG Triathlon World Championships

American Triathlete Sarah Groff & Canadian Olympic hopeful Carolyn Murray

I probably won’t post much else on or about the Olympics but if you are interested in following my excitement you can find me on Twitter, a social media platform I have very mixed feelings on but don’t seem to be able to break away from using or feeling upset over when someone un-follows me much like how I feel when people delete me off their Facebook but that is also something for another post.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Published on August 6, 2008 by Corinna Carlson | 0 Comments

Today the love of my life [sorry Gus] turns 29. Although I am pretty sure that Adam and Gus were both born in August, and I know that Adam would never have a problem sharing his birthday with his furry little buddy but Gus is only fourteen this year, poor thing I’ve been saying she’s fifteen.

I can’t really think of anyone who reads here that doesn’t think that Adam is pretty awesome; I know how lucky I am, I’m thankful for every moment we have together and find it seriously hard to believe Adam was only twenty-four when we met. Wow.

My plan here is to tell you a pretty awesome story about Adam, it does also include me but it is a story that will make anyone who thinks Adam is awesome think that he is even awesome-er-er.

Ok, so for our second date I asked Adam to pick me up at my shrink’s office at 5:50 pm. I have always been a throw it all on the table kinda gal and didn’t see this as a strange thing to do because I don’t see any point in hiding my depression.

At 5:50 pm on October 2nd 2003 I walked out of my shrink’s office to find that there was no Adam.

I waited.

And waited.

About ten buses had gone by at this point and I accepted that he was not coming. It was almost quarter to seven; I crossed the street to catch a bus home and called my girlfriend. I let forth a typical sob story. How could I have been so brazen as to think he would seriously pick me up at my SHRINK’S office? How could I have thought that after one date that ANY man wouldn’t be freaked out? On and on about how stupid I was. Good thing that therapy session had worn off on me and I was learning not to devalue myself and all.

But I had this funny feeling in my gut and as odd as it may sound the tears and the disappointment felt forced. I had never in my life had a feeling like this, normally I think the worst and the worst happens. I was insisting on the worst outcome in my head but my guts were sending out a resounding “this isn’t what you think, just hold on a minute here” feeling.

I arrived home to the beep that land lines in the early 21st century still had to let you know that there was a message.

The message was from Adam, he didn’t have my cellular number on him and he was at the pay phone outside of my therapists office and he didn’t have a cell so he was basically waiting there for me and trying to catch me when I got home. I remember his message was ridiculously awesome, so sweet. He had as I’d hoped; gotten the time wrong, he did not think that I was insane. [yet] I wonder how many quarters he went through that night, I have never asked him but he got me on my home phone and explained and apologized and said he thought he’d fucked everything up and I said oh no no dude I thought I fucked it all up like WHO the fuck has someone pick them up at their shrink’s office on the second date?

Apparently I do.

should have used Sport mode not Pet mode.

This incident in our very new relationship is my second favourite story next to the one about how we met. When this happened and he wasn’t standing me up, that I had missed him by like five minutes, it showed me that not only was this someone who was willing to see past my shit but he wanted me to know that he was someone who could see past it and I felt bad because he felt so bad and I couldn’t let it slide that I KNEW, I KNEW it man, I did, I just wish I had have been able to give him the benefit of the doubt instead of giving a girlfriend an “I told you so” moment.

It also works in Adam’s favor on a regular basis now because just like I can say that he knew what he was getting into picking a girl up at her shrinks office, I knew what I was getting into with someone an hour late for a date. Somebody isn’t super good with time. But most women bitch and nag about that shit, I literally can’t, I knew, second date, the boy just ain’t good with time but at least he knows my cellular number now.

He knows a lot of stuff about me and he is still incredible to me, every single day. I know it goes without saying that I hit that jack pot but I’m saying it anyway.

I hope you have a wonderful 29th birthday baby.

Love, your Old Lady.