Vancouver 2010: This is Our City
I’ll let the video do the talking. Special thanks to Gery Fung. That’s his voice (and words), not mine. Massively talented.
Another Vancouver 2010 Blog
I am ecstatic to announce the launch of Another2010Blog.com. As many of you may have known, the Winter Olympics have hit my home town, and this blog will follow the events and the buzz (sorry Yahoo, I mean Google) going around the city during these couple of weeks. If you’re a big sports fanatic like me, you will definitely want to stop by.
The personal branding and ‘business’ (used loosely) side of me tell me that I should cover the Olympics here, since I haven’t exactly been overflowing with posts and it’d make for more visitors, hits, and other goodies that us bloggers love. However, I ultimately decided against that and here’s why:
- I see blogs as story books. Another Sam Chan is my personal story, and I believe having the Olympics in my home town is worth it’s own story – with it’s own binding and cover. 50 years from now, I want to be able to read back as about the time the Olympics hit Vancouver as its own book, and not as simply a chapter.
- The Olympics are not about me. Although I am extremely lucky to be here during this time, the 2010 Olympics are about celebrating sports and the city of Vancouver, and reporting news doesn’t keep in line with the idea of a personal blog.
- It’s an opportunity for me to use Tumblr. I have been itching to try out Tumblr for a while now and am very excited for it’s re-blog feature. It allows for greater content to be posted on a blog from different perspectives, and allows for better community building. It is my hope that during this short time, I can use the blog as a collaboration to find many more amazing experiences and stories that will live past these next 17 days.
To make it easier for you, I have added a tab at the top that links directly to the new olympics blog. I hope that I can share some of the excitement of my home city in the upcoming days.
The Spirit of the Olympics
I’m not gonna front, I haven’t thought much about blogging the last week or so and it’s not because I’m lazy (oh yes it is). But the truth is, for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been completely glued to Olympics on the tv and online. My sleeping hours have generally fallen between 7am and 12pm. Even as I write, half my screen is covered with Argentina flopping against the US in men’s basketball. It’s been even rougher on me than back when I had a job. Now, while I am a big sports guy, I don’t intend for this blog to turn into some sort of random sports chatter, although you’re more than welcome to do so in the comments section. That’s because I can do that for free at niketalk and a billion other forums. However, I am memorized by how attractive this Olympics has been to everybody and I’ve come to the conclusion that it actually isn’t about sports.
From Michael Phelps to Usain Bolt to the supposedly 14 year old Chinese gymnasts, the Beijing games have provided plenty of flare, excitement, and newsworthy items. For the record, I have no idea why the US coaches would be whining that the Chinese gymnasts are too young. I mean, losing already sucks but crying foul because you 
lost to somebody younger than you? Where I come from, older people are supposed to have the advantage at all things except finger painting. But I digress….
Anyways, the key is what hasn’t been mentioned. Take a look at the medal standings: USA and China have dominated and grabbed most of the headlines for one reason or another. But what’s going on with the red, white, and blue today? Last I checked, they’re still in a war that many don’t really know what for. Something about the fight against terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. As for China? It just survived one of the most deadly earthquakes that left over 68,000 dead and has rebounded its morale swiftly. In a day and age where what’s considered news is 90 percent about people dying and 10 percent about the dead, the games have been a complete 180. Forgotten are Britney Spears latest haircut or who’s pregnant and or divorced. Hidden in the black and white pages is Bernie Mac’s sudden death. Instead, the news has been filled of success stories about athletes and their journeys to make it to the top. They talk about Michael Phelps troubled childhood and the rebound of a re-dedicated US basketball team.
So this is what these Beijing Games are about. For a brief period of time, people can momentarily forget about the difficulties of life, put away their swords and come together to witness healthy competition from athletes who have proven that with hard work and dedication, dreams can become a reality. The athletes are even saying all the right things: that they are what they are, athletes in a competition, and not politicians. Even as athletes from different countries compete against one another, they share a mutual respect for the fact they have all taken long journeys to get there. The attraction is so great that it is enough to get the US and Chinese president together to watch a meaningless basketball game where the results were determined before basketball was even invented. As the games start to conclude, there is a tinge of sadness in me because I know that once the games over, life’s troubles will resume. We will no longer get to feel the joy Bolt had when he won the 100m sprint or share the feeling Phelps had when he finally got his 8th gold medal. Not even vicariously. Our lives will go back to the way it was: the rain, the chores, and the stress. Take advantage of the last few days because we’ll go back to protesting against China and Burma soon. The Beijing games have been an absolute success. Let’s hope Vancouver 2010 can be even better. I wouldn’t bank on it, but after all, the current games were made in China.
