Citius, Altius, Fortius

My Hotel Room,Leeds ,UK, 2012.

The earliest memory of the Olympic games I have is from the 23rd Olympiad at Los Angeles in 1984. The hazy recollections from the games of 1984 was been that of landing at the neighbors’' home uninvited to watch a 15 minute highlights of the Olympiad on Doordarshan, the state run TV in India. This was medieval days when cable TV and multichannel television broadcast was unheard of in my city. Television anyways was too insignificant for most people then although many aspired to buy one soon. I was too young to remember anything specific about the games other than a rush of 'proud' adrenaline every time an Indian athlete competed. As every evening passed by that fortnight, it was clear that India wasn't going to be in the medal table. And on one evening, it was supreme disappointment to hear from everyone around us that PT Usha has missed the bronze medal by a whisker. Quantifying a whisker those days did not make any sense to a primary school boy. Time, then for me was counted in intervals of 45 minutes per subject in the class. And remarkably, and the same 45 minutes on the playground somehow seemed cruelly short. Seniors in school had theories on what went wrong and how PT Usha could have avoided a situation like that. 

It is again another Olympics and once more the games are undoubtedly the greatest sporting event on the planet with London playing the gracious host to the Olympics this year. As I write this, I am at Leeds,Yorkshire having arrived a few hours earlier to Manchester on business. Yeah, my job involves travelling to some of the most beautiful cities in the world and of course helps my customers implement and integrate various software systems that can help achieve their business objectives and financial goals. The entire country is  going gaga over the Olympics and no organisation wants to miss the share of the large opportunity that an event of this scale can potentially impact their balance sheets. Londoners are already complaining about the surging crowds and also the choking up of the city's infrastructure. The Times carried one such letter from a 'holed up' at home reader who had booked a room across the city ahead of a planned family outing so that the cycling road races did not spoil their plans. The times also reported another joke about how relieved Parisians were when they lost the bid to London. 

The Joy the Olymipans brought while growing up are stars who have left such impact in the sporting world. Every athlete a hero by their own standards. These fantastic men and women who have gone beyond the ordinary and bettered previously set benchmarks of human endurance, discipline and excellence. My favourite Olymipians of all times are Carl Lewis,Sergei Bubka, Greg Louganis,Daley Thomson,Mark Spitz,Ian Thorpe,Michael Phelps,Steven Redgrave,Sebastian Coe,Micheal Johnson, Ed Moses, Jackie Joyner Kersee, Flo Joyner,Yelena Isinbaya, Javier Sotomayor, Alexander Popov, Leader Paes,Wilma Rudolph, Paavo Nurmi,Matt Biondi,Alexei Nemov,Natalie Coughlin,Sawao Kato,Nadia Comaneci,Jessie Owens,Larisa Semyonovna Latynina,Vladimir Artemov,Vitaly Scherbo. Truly unforgettable names for the joy,passion and perfection they displayed all during their performing days.