London 2012

Creative Common - Flickr by Ell Brown

Since the Olympics started, I have been glued to the TV (like most of world) which is funny, because I didn’t really like watching sport four years ago. I love the feeling of watching my country (Australia) win a Gold or Silver medal. I became very excited when I saw the Australian women’s swimming relay and they played Advance Australia Fair. Swimming is now one of my favourite sports to watch because you can see what the athletes are doing from bird’s eye view and underwater. 

Creative Common - Flickr by Brendan Shanahan

Creative Commo

Creative Common

Creative Common

I found it interesting how Taekwondo (sparring) became an Olympic sport during the Sydney Games but not during the Seoul Games (although it was performed). Also, I reckon the Olympic Committee should make Artistic Taekwondo (Poomsae) an Olympic sport along with sparring because it will give other Taekwondo athletes a chance without such an anaerobic strain on the heart to compete (sparring is very tiring, well at least for me) and by having Artistic Taekwondo more people would be able to compete. Sparring is only one aspect of Taekwondo and is basically knowing what your opponent is about to do next. Poomsae is more of the art form of Taekwondo where you focus on technique and rhythm of rehearsed individual combat developed hundreds of years ago. Poomsae is also very nice to watch because the movements flow in the pattern (known as kata in Karate or forms in Kung Fu).  I really like the concept of the Olympic Games, the whole world are playing sport against each other and forgetting about war and fighting. I also like how the Olympics has its origins from Ancient Greece. 

Creative Common - Flickr by SPARC Beijing Olympics 2008

Creative Common - Flickr by International Olympic Committee

Carmen Marton is one of Taekwondists competing in the Olympics. She happens to go to the same Taekwondo branch I train in: Melbourne Taekwondo Centre. Make sure to watch her.

Interesting fact: French is the co-official language of the Olympics (along with English) because the person who started the Modern Olympics was French.