This won't be my first time being unpatriotic...not only am I married to a Swede, but previous posts confirm I admire much about Swedish land management and politics. Also, dear friends deserve congrats! Despite insipid coverage by American network tv (how about showing us the real thing instead of endless background fluff?), we managed to see a few minutes of these excellent up-and-coming skiers in Vancouver: Maria Pietila Holmner & Hans Olsson. [I have already written about Hans' older brother, Jon, who is a world-famous freeskier, and Hans' podium placement at Lake Louise.]
Since I generally don't put much stock in hierarchy, I am thrilled that both these incredibly hard-working young people participated and performed well in the Olympics even though they did not win medals...yet. As fixtures on the international ski circuit: keep an eye out for them. Right now that's Maria in Slalom and Hans in downhill.
Both trained at the state ski school in Are, Sweden. I can't speak to the specifics of their advanced training, but I can recount these inspiring words from Hans' and Jon's father, who was their coach for many years. Once when I was trying to reclaim what few downhill skiing skills I had once had, my husband grew exasperated with trying to improve my technique. He asked Daddy Olsson for advice. His advice (paraphrased): "Just try to encourage her to have joy for skiing." And isn't joy what we want to encourage and inspire as these young ones do?
2 comments:
Amen about the fluff! As if we care about how well the commentators know the athletes. That's what I had to watch instead of the 50K cross country race (which I wanted to watch)...one minute of race, one minute of announcer telling us how well they know the athlete after all these years of coverage, and three minutes of commercials. Network TV will ruin the Olympics for me every time!
Wish we had state ski school here.
Christine in Alaska
I agree Christine. And weren't those cross-country races amazing, what we did see of them? I find it "interesting" that in a country with as many means as ours, that many Olympic athletes are forced to be SuperHeroes in the money raising needed to participate in the games. It's almost as discouraging as running for public office when it comes to fund-raising.
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