Circle of Friends

Blue Roses & Amateur Athletes

I fell in love with blue roses after I saw one while vacationing in Ocean City, MD. This was years ago, when I was 16 or 17. I was browsing some of the shops for souvenirs and tee shirts when I saw it. No, it wasn?t a living blue rose. It was a decal printed on a tee shirt. It said: ?a touch of class.? I had to get it.

It was so beautiful. I looked in other places for blue roses and discovered there weren?t any living ones! No one had ever been able to grow a real blue rose. They had to be sprayed which, to me, just wasn?t right. A living blue rose would certainly have ?a touch of glass? ? elegant and rare.

A few days ago, I read this and I felt kind of excited. It?s amazing what scientists can do with flowers and foods. A real blue rose! This is something I?d love to see!

Years ago, I also fell in love with the Olympic games. I always admired the athletes and how hard they trained and how amazing they looked when they were performing. I grew up with the idea ingrained that the Olympics were for amateurs. I must have seen the movie Jim Thorpe countless times. I remember thinking it was so unfair to strip him of his medals when, in the communist countries, the government supported their athletes. Ours didn?t have that luxury. They had to pay their coaches out of their own pockets.

Since our athletes weren?t supported by the government, it meant they couldn?t spend hours every day practicing. In the other countries, that was the ?job? of the athletes and that?s all they did. In our country, though, the athletes had to depend on whether they could afford it or get off work. It would also depend on the parents? ability to pay. I always gave our athletes a great deal of credit when they?d win a medal.

Some athletes and their amazing achievements stand out especially for me:

Mark Spitz, swimming, the Munich Olympics in 1972
The entire basketball team, robbed of a gold by officials, Munich, 1972
Dorothy Hamill, skating, winter Olympics in Innsbruck, 1976
Sugar Ray Leonard, boxing, the Montreal Olympics in 1976
Bruce Jenner, track & field, Montreal, 1976
Ice hockey team (?Do you believe in miracles??), winter Olympics, Lake Placid, 1980
Eric Heiden, speed skating, Lake Placid, 1980
Scott Hamilton, skating, winter Olympics, Sarajevo, 1984
Mary Lou Retton, gymnastics, Los Angeles Olympics in 1984
Bonnie Blair, speed skating, Montreal Olympics, 1988

All of them and so many more were totally outstanding.

Then, in 1992, the International Olympic Committee said that professional athletes could compete too. I wasn?t sure how I felt about that ? disappointed, very! I realized that I wouldn?t see any more amateur kids on the basketball or hockey teams and I felt sad. I enjoyed being on the edge of my seat cheering and wondering if we could beat the big bad communist block teams.

The first American ?dream team? in basketball just slaughtered their competition. So what? It wasn?t exciting, it was expected. Four years later, 1996, the team ran over all their competition again. Zzzzzzzz. Well?this year is a little different. The ?dream team? this year got run over by the Puerto Rican team. I mean, they will still probably go on to win the gold but this little setback was something different. I?m not rooting against the basketball team, I guess I am more rooting for the amateur athletes because of the deeper sacrifice and commitment they have.

Posted by Cassie at August 15, 2004 05:45 PM