
The Olympic rings in Whistler, Canada. (Photo: RunKarlaRun.com)
As a kid, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Olympics. My family would gather around the TV night after night and watch the spectacle unfold. I was dazzled by figure skating and skiing in winter and obsessed with swimming and running in summer.
And since this was the dark ages before the Internet, I’d keep my own medal tally like the nerd that I was—and still am—drawing gold medals with yellow and blue markers (for the metal and ribbon, naturally), silver with grey and red, bronze with brown and orange. Forget Leap Year. The Olympics were the event I waited for every four years.
Once again, they have arrived.
As I watched the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi (holy jellyfish/dove of peace dance!) I was transported back to 2010 when I was lucky enough to attend the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver as a reporter. It was not only a career highlight, but also a personal dream come true.

She-Ra rides Swift Wind “For the honor of Grayskull!”
I think Graham Watanabe, who competed for the U.S. in Snowboard Cross, summed it up best:
“Try to imagine Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth. I somehow tame it and ride it into the sky in the clouds and sunshine and rainbows. That’s what it feels like.”
By the power of Grayskull! Apparently, being an Olympian is like being She-Ra.
It’s kind of what it felt like to attend the Olympics too. What struck me most was this: I was not only watching athletes doing what they do best, but doing what they do better than anyone else in the world. At that moment in time, there would be no faster speed skater, no lovelier figure skater, no more daring snowboarder. I witnessed the pinnacle. And we all get to witness it every four years. That is magical. Almost as magical as She-Ra riding Swift Wind, her winged unicorn.

My Cinderella storybook cassette. (Photo: RunKarlaRun.com)
Olympic Childhood Dreams
How many of us as kids dreamed of being Olympians? I’m guessing a lot of us.
I always dreamed of going to the Olympics someday, albeit as an athlete. Swimming was my sport back then and I was sure I was going to be the next Janet Evans.

Side 2 of the tape contained my Olympic warbling. (Photo: RunKarlaRun.com)
Not too long ago, I unearthed a cassette tape I had made on my purple boom box (it was the ‘80s after all) when I was about 8-years-old. Appropriately, it was the backside of a Cinderella storybook cassette. Regular readers know I’m officially obsessed with Cinderella. What you may not know is that I was equally obsessed with She-Ra. Like Cinderella, she is a princess. But she is the Princess of Power! A warrior. And what are athletes if not modern day warriors?
The recording reveals an intrepid young journalist (played by me) “interviewing” an Olympic swimmer (also played by me).
It went a little something like this. Bless my 8-year-old heart, this is an actual transcript of the recording). Read the rest of this entry →