OffTopic: When Olympic Silver Shines Brightest.

This is soooo off topic.

My kids called me over yesterday evening to watch with them on TV a quick roundup of the Winter Olympics Couples Figure skating.

To be honest, I didn't even know the Olympics were starting till I saw the modified Google logo the other day. It's not that I'm disconnected from the world, but I have so much going on in my own selfish little universe, that the Olympics could have been on another planet.

Growing up, I loved the winter Olympic games; skiing, bobsledding, and ice-hockey were great fun to watch. Those I could do; I'm a pretty decent skier, I could sled down a hill, helplessly bailing out at the end into a snow bank...but I was never much of an ice-skater.

Hockey for me is strictly a Saturday Night sneaker-only sport...and exclusively for the over 30 crowd so we don't kill ourselves.

I could roller-skate, but NEVER ice-skate.

Yet there was always something about the poetry-in-motion of couple's figure skating that had me captivated. I was surprised that my kids called me over to watch it, as they had never expressed any interests in it before...they had seen the promo for it, and said I had to watch it with them.

First the Russian couple; they were favorites to win the Gold. Impressive. Kids liked it, all the whirling and majesty on the ice.

Then came the Chinese couple...Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao. They were guaranteed the Silver Medal by their previous standings, yet to snatch the Gold from the Russians would require something spectacular. If they failed in their attempt, they would lose all hope for a medal.

So they start their skating routine, and my kids said - "keep watching, keep watching" and then it came...they attempt the spectacular -- an unprecedented throw quad salchow (whatever a salchow is). He threw her in the air as she attempted to turn 4 times and land gracefully.



We all cringed in pain as the graceful landing turned into a catastrophic wipe out, with legs splayed split on the ice and the obvious agony on the skater's face. My daughter the gymnast gasped, "Ow! That must have really hurt!" and we thought it was all over for the Chinese team.

Her partner quickly picked her up and tried to help her continue skating, but her pain was unbearable. Partly dragged, part limping, partly skating off to the side with the support of her partner, they took a quick breather and shockingly returned to the ice within minutes to continue.

From where do people get such physical strength, to exert themselves beyond the normal limits of human endurance?

Is this the same quality in a soldier running in a "masa kumta", the 70 kilometer run to obtain a coveted IDF infantry beret? Exhaustion overwhelms the body with every muscle straining and yet, there are those who grab the front handle of the stretcher (with a soldier on it) and urge everyone to keep running, keep going, keep going towards the finish, even though they have been running for hours and hours.

Or the marathon runner who has hit "the wall" yet keeps going to complete the race?

We watched in awe as the Chinese team continued their performance, including difficult twists and turns -- with the injured skater alternating between her good and hurt leg. Attempting to smile and ignore the previous fall, she graciously skated with a passion and flair of an Olympic skater.

It would be melodramatic to say we held our breath while waiting for the judges to announce the score...but we were honestly thrilled for them when the annoucement was made.

Their Silver Medal shone brightest for us.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael