Home

• Email
• Post a comment
• Print
• 

John Russell's sports column appears Sundays in Steamboat Today. Contact him at 871-4209 or e-mail jrussell@steamboatpilot.com.

Steamboat Springs — A few months from now, on the snow-covered slopes surrounding Vancouver, the world will watch as Olympic champions are determined in terms of meters and seconds.

The journey to the games can be measured in years of hard work, measured in seemingly never-ending training sessions and measured in a lifetime of sweat and tears.

For the top athletes, all the hard work and all the hours invested in getting there will be packed into a matter of moments once the games begin.

The chance to become a part of Olympic history, the chance to pocket a gold, silver or bronze medal, the chance to realize a lifelong dream will all come down to the time it takes to ski or snowboard from the top of a run to the bottom. It will be reduced to the time it takes to push off the starting bar at the top of a ski jump and land at the bottom.

Of course, a few events will take a little longer to complete, but in the end, the difference between Olympic glory and Olympic disappointment will be decided in less time than it takes to blink an eye or turn your head.

In some cases, a single point or a single judge might crown an Olympic champion. One momentary loss of concentration could be all it takes to change the outcome of some of the most important races of these athletes' lives.

It's not an easy road.

The athletes will have to prove they deserve a shot during the early part of this season. The hours spent perfecting their jumps, their turns and their performances will fade into the background. The only thing that matters is the results.

The athletes understand that one solid run or jump, one solid performance at the right time is the only thing standing between them and their Olympic dreams. If they can lay down the performance of their life at a qualifying event, they are in, but if they blink, it could delete years of hard work in a matter of seconds. The same is true once the athletes get to the Games.

To some, this process might seem cruel. The idea that an athlete's value and success can be measured in such a brief period of time might seem unfair.

But the seconds on a ski run or the meters on a ski jump and the points awarded on the freestyle course have become the measure of a true Olympic champion.

I'm thrilled by the idea that an athlete can, and must, perform on a given day in order to become a champion. The value of an Olympic championship is more impressive when inches or fractions of points separate the athletes. That's what makes the Olympic Games so exciting.

A few months from now, we will be watching the snow-covered slopes that surround Vancouver, B.C., hoping to discover what it takes to become an Olympic champion.

I'm not sure I know what it takes, but the magic of the Olympic Games is that it will all come down to seconds, fractions of points and a few meters.