The Olympics have a strange kind of power.
Those five rings, and the things they represent, can compel us to spend hours watching athletes we've never heard of, from countries we often know little about, perform in sports we'd normally never watch.
Sunday afternoon was one of those moments.
I was watching men's weightlifting, the clean and jerk portion of the 56-kilogram division.
It was the last round, and the next weightlifter was a Mexican named Jose Lino Montes Gongora. He tried to lift roughly 160 kilograms, but only a couple of seconds into the lift, he let the weights drop to the floor. He was beaten.
And yet there was a big grin on his face, and as he left the area to get a hug from his trainer, he seemed to be genuinely happy despite finishing sixth.
I thought to myself, how is it possible to train for four years, to dedicate so much of your life to a singular goal, probably neglecting other parts of your life in the process, and then let it roll off your back when you hit your breaking point and walk out without a hunk of metal?
I don't have the answer to that, and I'm not about to sum up the meaning of the Olympics in 400 words either because I can't.
But I know this: we put so much emphasis on medals at the Olympics. We keep a constant eye on the medal count. We watch Canada's contenders and tend to forget about the rest. We whine about the slow start Canada got off to, and how so-and-so didn't get a medal and let us down. I'm one of the worst for that.
But we forget just how much of an accomplishment it is to get here. The undying commitment, the doubts, the things that fall by the wayside.
For many, just getting to this point and competing against the very best in the world is a gold medal in itself.
This is one situation where it's OK to be happy with the team jacket.
That's not to say that it's OK not to give it everything you have at the Games. There's a difference between happy and satisfied. But there are so many incredible experiences at the Olympics and it's OK to soak it all up and enjoy the ride.
Who could forget the reaction of Canadian swimmer Tera Van Beilen on Sunday after she found out she would have to compete in a swim-off after tying a Jamaican swimmer for the last spot in the 100-metre breaststroke final?
It took a few moments to digest the news, but Van Beilen was thrilled for another chance to make the final after barely even getting to the semis.
She lost that swim-off to Alia Atkinson, but that's a unique experience that will drive her to push herself further in the years ahead.
Van Beilen is 19. Montes, the Mexican weightlifter, is 23. In all likelihood, their Olympic careers are just beginning.
Meanwhile, Canada earned its first medal of the Games on Sunday, a bronze medal by Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel in the three-metre springboard synchronized diving event.
Heymans has been nothing if not dependable for Canada over the last 12 years, a steady threat who has earned medals at four consecutive Olympiads, the first Canadian to do that.
It's hard to believe Heymans is now the grizzled veteran. I remember when she made her debut in Sydney in 2000, winning silver as an 18-year-old.
Now she's passing the torch to her partner, Abel, who at age 20 is already competing at her second Olympics.
Staying in the pool, swimming has captured a lot of the focus in the first few days in London, particularly the American duo of Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps.
Lochte has had his ups and downs, blowing away the field in a terrifying display in the 400-metre individual medley final on Saturday, then being overtaken in the final leg of the 4x100-metre freestyle relay on Sunday, dropping his team to silver.
With Phelps, meanwhile, the big question is whether he's still got it, "it" being the form that allowed him to win 14 gold medals in the last two Olympiads, including eight in Beijing.
Phelps finished fourth in that IM final after grabbing the last berth out of the semis.
I'm just happy to see that the Canadian swimming team appears to be on its way up.
I grew up watching the likes of Curtis Myden, Joanne Malar and Marianne Limpert represent Canada, and while it certainly wasn't a golden age for the sport in our country, you at least knew that our swimmers would be competitive.
Our program went into decline in the last decade though, at least at the Olympics. None of our swimmers won a medal in Athens in 2004, and we earned only one in Beijing, that being a bronze medal for Ryan Cochrane that was completely unexpected.
Our swimmers likely won't end up with much more than that this time around, but the promise is there.
Van Beilen and Brittany MacLean, who finished seventh in in the 400-metre freestyle final, are still teenagers. Cochrane is 23. They're just getting started. Hopefully the pool will soon be a strength for Canada once again.
On a closing note, I've heard a few criticisms of the opening ceremony created by British filmmaker Danny Boyle and I'm wondering why.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. It began with a rolling hillside scene that had the British Isles written all over it. After that was an industrial scene with towering smokestacks, a nod to the country's former status as a world superpower.
The scene with the hospital beds, paying homage to the beloved National Health Service, was well-done, and of course millions of people were thrilled to see Mr. Bean and James Bond involved in the festivities.
Boyle made extensive use of the staggering library of hit music produced by the Brits over the decades, and the performance of the hymn Abide With Me by Scottish singer Emeli Sande was incredible, on par with k.d. lang's powerful rendition of Hallelujah at the Vancouver opening ceremony.
I have no qualms about saying the ceremony was better than ours.
Don't forget, we put Wayne Gretzky in the back of a pickup truck with a broken headlight. In the rain.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at [email protected] or on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306. Is CTV aware of how tired we are of their recycled "I Believe" song?
