With the Olympic Opening Ceremonies just around the corner, I started thinking about where I was during the last few Olympics.

I like the way that they have changed the Olympic schedule with the two year offset for the Winter games.

I missed watching almost the entire 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I was with my sister on a two week cruise to Antarctica during almost the entire games. We didn’t even get to see very many highlights, but I wouldn’t have missed the views that we had on the trip to just view the Olympics. We had a great time, and I got to see my own views of snow and ice without watching TV.

My view during the 2010 Winter Olympics

For the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, I was able to watch the Opening Ceremony from my Hotel room in Singapore. It was neat to actually see it live while my friends and family were all asleep back home :-). I can also say that I was in China during the Olympics, as on the flight home the next day we had a layover in Hong Kong.

In China during the 2008 Olympics :-).

Another memory of the 2008 games was flying to Singapore two weeks earlier with half of the members of the US Olympic Swim team. They were on their way to training and acclimation camp in Singapore. Meanwhile, I was in a classroom for the two weeks :-).

Moving back further to the 2006 Winter games in Turin, I can again say that I was in the host country during the Olympics. What I saw of the 2006 games was from my Hotel in Milan while I was there teaching a two week course. On the weekend, I saw many Olympic athletes and spectators who were visiting Milan for the weekend.

Russian Athlete in Milan during the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Here we have an athlete from Russia standing in the plaza in front of the Duomo.

I will skip back to 2000 now, as I vividly remember watching live Track and Field events while eating breakfast at my Hotel in Welwyn Garden City just north of London. Later in my trip I watched the games from Germany before arriving home in time to watch the closing ceremonies.

This year I will be watching the events from the comfort of my own home. Now I just need to resist the temptation of staying up all night to watch live events :-).

Let the Games Begin!

Steven