Hockey at The Olympics!

Truth to be told, I was quite apathetic about the whole Olympics 2012. Passed a comment to a friend who was going to London if he should help me get some memorabilia from the Games, that thought the logo looks weird, the mascot looks ugly. Didn't catch the opening, and literally didn't follow any games at all. Yes, even when Feng Tianwei won the bronze medal in table tennis (on the whole foreign sports talent import thing...I have my take on that; let's not go there) and the whole Singapore was abuzz and stuck to the TV watching the live coverage.

What eventually drew me were the hockey matches on Youtube. Whole 70 minutes of action available at the touch of the finger! Simply gratifying (and cause for some nights with less than enough sleep).

First, there is the pitch - psychedelic blue (someone referred the shade as "smurf blue") with equally psychedelic pink sides (yes, inspired by the London 2012 logo colours. Really). Jarring on the eyes at first sight but kind of grows on you after a while. Especially when the ball, now yellow, is more easily spotted on the pitch on the small laptop screen.

And there was the exciting hockey actions from the different continents, from which Netherlands eventually emerged the winner.

But still, I much prefer watching the Argentinians, who exhibited such flair with the stick and ball, and string passes to make the game look so graceful and easy.

I heard one commentator noted that you can't miss Aymar on the pitch due to her "giselle like movements". 'Nuff said. Too bad her team couldn't hold up against the fastidious Dutch to hold a gold medal on her birthday.

My fan moment for Sanchez Muccio was when she tip the ball over the defender's stick, skip over the same stick, bring her stick down to connect with the ball in mid-air and bringing the ball home into the goalpost.  And that was on top of seeing see her bring the ball down the left on the fly whenever she got the break...every defender's nightmare but real exciting to watch.

And then there were the horrific accidents - GB's captain Kate Walsh's fracture jaw and NZ player Katie Glynn's accidental hit on the head. Horror stories for defenders going in with the reverse stick or the wrong side and real painful just watching them on the internet. But what were truly amazing -

Walsh came back 2 games later, after her jaw surgery and played the rest of the Olympic matches (and that means all the way through the pool matches, semi-finals, and the 3-4th place playoff. Full 70 mins match, no less) with the stirrup look-a-like mask holding her chin up...

while Glynn bounced back to the same game almost straight after she bandaged her head up within the 20 minutes she was off the pitch. 

Some may call it crazy, but one can only imagine the regret if both of them decide to sit out for the rest of the Olympics. What a beautiful game. 

I guess some may  wonder, what is the whole fuss to be made every four years about, when nations come together and pitch against each other to be better, faster, stronger. But when you see these athletes, you think about what they would have gone through in the last four years to come to this point,  putting themselves further under physical, mental and emotional stress under these two weeks, you can't help but marvel at the human spirit manifested at such meets, and bring different meaning and inspiration for different people.

Me thinks, the London Olympics' slogan - "Inspire A Generation", is most apt. Maybe I should get the Wenlock after all...