Rooting for the underdogs

Published 1:05 pm Saturday, January 30, 2010

In less than two weeks, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games begin in Vancouver.

I’ve been a fan of the Olympics — summer or winter — since I was 4.

It was then, in 1980, that I was riding in the back of my parents’ station wagon — the kind that came with an 8-Track tape player — listening to the “Miracle on Ice’ hockey game on the radio.

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With every American goal, my dad and I cheered.

I don’t remember where we were going that night — probably to dinner somewhere — but I remember listening to that game and how excited I was because my dad was excited.

Over the years, I’ve developed into a full-fledged fan, and I’m counting down the days to these Olympics and the start of one of the greatest sporting competitions ever.

It won’t be long before words such as skeleton, short track, curling and alpine skiing become popular again.

Or before countries set their differences aside and come together to the same city for 17 days.

Or before the next American star — who is probably training nearly non-stop right at this moment — is “born.”

Word is that outside of skiing’s Lindsey Vonn and snowboarding’s Shaun White, the Americans don’t have any standouts for these Olympics games.

That’s probably the way some of these athletes want it.

It’s less pressure that way.

Many times, the standouts don’t do as well, and the underdogs, like the young men from Minnesota and Massachusetts who braved the ice for the U.S. Hockey team and beat the Russians in 1980, prevail.

I’m looking forward to these Olympics, and hope the U.S. athletes make a strong showing, realize the odds are stacked against them and use those odds to motivate them into competing better than when they qualified for the Olympics in the first place.

After all, the world will be watching, as will I.

Twelve days and counting.