Olympic thoughts

Besides work and council and family lately I have been avidly watching the Olympic coverage and have a few thoughts:

1. As a former luge athlete I was greatly saddened by the death of the Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili. You know you can get hurt, and you are always bruised or injured in some way, but that is just beyond what you sign up for. Tragic.

Sport is good. These performances encourage us to be active. Events like the Olympics offer dreams to our young people (and vicariously to their parents). But lets hope that it can be done as safely as possible and that no family needs to feel that loss from a sport, that though extreme in many ways, in basically a fun recreational activity taken to the Olympic level.

2. The cultural events associated with the Olympics have reinvigorated my view that we need to encourage young people, well, all people, in these pursuits as well.

I have only caught a bit of what has been shown on the TV of the related events, but hopefully the Canadian artists that get to perform or show during the games see a related bump in their international profile. There is Canadian culture, and its not what grows in the bottom of empty beer cans after a long weekend.

3. Bringing this back to a local level, I hope that the attention generated by the Olympics will cause us to look at such things like a possible Field House, the new Museum and a possible Theatre in a long term way. We have residents that have talent, or can develop talent, in many different areas, and we have opportunities to facilitate that development.

The Olympics will leave a infrastructure legacy that will benefit current and future the residents of BC. In our own way, we should be discussing what kind infrastructure we want to see to make this the kind of place people will want to live work and raise their families.

Take care.