Sunday, November 21, 2010
It's the season of giving mugging!
But it's definitely not stopping me from following the Asian Games closely. I'm not a sportsperson and neither am I good at any, there's always this indescribable draw I have towards major sporting events.
In 2010 alone, I've followed the World Cup, the Youth Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games, and now the Asian Games. Of which, I've never really missed out on the Swimming and Table Tennis events. I would pay attention to Badminton and Diving too. Athletics, however, have never really interested me.
I am different from what people always stereotype boys. I don't watch football, although World Cup does excite me once every 4 years. I don't watch Formula One, although I would get my eyes transfixed on the TV screen when the Singapore Night Race is held every September.
My appetite for sports entertainment, comes from events when countries have to pit their sportsmen against another. Not soccer clubs against another. To me, I find it more meaningful to watch countries competing for national glory and pride. It is sometimes heartening to see how much effort was put in during that few seconds of competition (in Swimming, for example), and to see how much a split second matters to a sportsman and his country. Sometimes it just takes that split second, to either reap recognition or to fall into total disappointment, after a long-drawn 4-year wait. So much hangs in there, that I find major sporting events not to be missed.
I can't remember when I started following major Games, but it could have been in 2000, when the nation sat up straight from the news that Jing Junhong squeezed into the final 16 of the Table Tennis Singles in the Olympics. Look, a 'final 16' was big news because it had been so long since we've come close to anything in the biggest sporting event in the World. Then a day later, headlines screamed "Final 8". You guessed it--the next day, the papers broke the news of her entering the "Final 4". The nation was truly gripped. Hopes were raised high, then dropped. Even as a Secondary 1 kid then, I could remember how much impact that match had.
And so I've hardly missed any major Games since, from the multi-national Olympics, to the regional version of SEA Games. Swimming and Table Tennis became must-watch events. And I'd watch whatever other events the free-to-air channels broadcast. I may have no fate with the playing of sports, but it really doesn't mean I should distance myself from it altogether, right?
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Sidenote:
1. About 10 years ago, Singapore set a "Goal 2010" target, hoping to qualify for the World Cup in 2010. It had since failed and we might probably have not even progressed a bit since the time the target was set. It was a shame.
2. A few years ago, Singapore had also set a target to become one of the "Top 10 Sporting Nations in ASIA", in 2010 too. So, this Asian Games DOES matter to Singapore, as it definitely serves as the benchmark to see if we've reached the target. But with the impossibility to even equal the 8 Golds achieved in Doha 2006, it is highly unlikely that we would finish within the top 10 in the medal tally. Perhaps Singapore should really be more realistic and settle for slow but progressive improvements, rather than having hard-to-reach targets and ending up in disappointment.
人生是黑白的.
9:58 PM <3
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