I’ve lived mostly in balmy climates, from Hawaii to California, so winter sports are quite foreign to me. Luge? Biathlon? Curling? But I’ve also made Canada my home, and I’m riveted by the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
The snowboarding and alpine skiing events blow my mind, the way they require utter fearlessness about big air and breakneck speed. I’m also waiting for a Canada-Russia showdown in men’s hockey, the Canadian national obsession and a sport that requires every athletic skill known to mankind.
Sports competition is a fascinating display of mind-body control. Besides warfare and other life-or-death crises, few situations truly push humans to their limits: elite sports are an exception. Contact sports such as hockey and football take competition a step further: athletes are tested not only in scoring points but in fighting opponents doing their utmost to take you down.
Watching the Olympics reminds me of the laughable movement (mostly by Bikram and his followers) to make yoga a competitive sport and even an Olympic event. After all, the objective in sports is competition-day performance. In yoga, asana “performance” is not an end, but a means to mental and spiritual development. Yoga cannot be judged from the outside.
Image: Wozza604
February 18, 2010 at 9:28 am
I LOVE curling! Shuffleboard on ice!
February 18, 2010 at 5:32 pm
[...] of yoga competition is universally mocked by serious practitioners. As I wrote in my prior post, “Olympic fever,” asana is only one aspect of yoga, not the goal. It cannot be judged by a one-time [...]
February 21, 2010 at 2:25 pm
If yoga comes to the Olympics, I will watch it. I wonder how many people who think it is laughable will watch anyway? And really Spy, will you be able to leave the television off?
February 21, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Thanks for posting a comment!
1. I have a curious nature (and I am a spy) so I’d watch it for research, to keep up with the cultural zeitgeist
2. While I’d view the competitors with some skepticism (would a true yogi do this?), showcasing advanced asana to the general public would definitely obliterate the common notion that yoga is “easy” or “only stretching.”
3. You’re right that the audience might be those already into yoga. Fine: Serious yoga practitioners can separate the various limbs of yoga. They can appreciate big, crazy poses while acknowledging that they’re not the crux of yoga. But for the mainstream audience that knows nothing about yoga, it just perpetuates the Western assumption that asana = yoga.
You got me!