Skip to main content

The Olympic Spirit


It's the middle of the 2016 Olympics in Rio and I've been enjoying some high definition coverage on TV and the Internet. One of the aspects I usually enjoy about the Olympics is the music and as I watch Michael Phelps and the odd Australian and other nationality receive their medals my ears have taken pleasure in the dignified medals ceremony background music (minus the drums - more information).


I am also taken back to the Seoul Olympics in 1988 when I definitely wasn't watching the events in high definition. In fact, I wasn't able to watch them at all.

We were staying at a caravan park/campground at Blackwater in inland Central Queensland. Why we had decided to take a holiday there I have no idea. I don't recall doing anything much other than watching the long coal trains pass by, briefly toying with recording their numbers before turning away from becoming a full blown trainspotter.

On the radio was ABC's coverage of the Olympics. Preceding each broadcast was a wonderful piece of music that stuck with me. It was the most memorable aspect of the entire trip.

Years later I discovered what it was. My favourite composer, my audio obsession, John Williams of Star Wars, ET, Indiana Jones, Jaws,... fame had written the Olympic Spirit for NBC's coverage of the games.


He also wrote fanfares for the 1984 and 1996 Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics, but the Olympic Spirit is by far my favourite composition for the games.

On the drive back home from Blackwater I borrowed my brother's portable cassette player and listened to Vangelis' score to Chariots of Fire, a movie also about the Olympics. Again, the music is more memorable than the activity.

I had a chance to experience the combination of music and the Olympics myself when Sydney hosted the games in 2000. The sound of Vanessa Amarosi belting out Absolutely Everybody got the Olympic and Paralympic crowds cheering along at the stadiums. I have a copy of the opening ceremony music too (though not the medals music which I recall enjoying more). It really is an event to engage all your senses.

It really gets you into the Olympic spirit!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My first overseas trip: Singapore and Malaysia

I've always loved to travel. My first memory is of sitting in a an aircraft, aged 18 months or so. Yet I never believed that I could travel overseas. To me, it seemed like something you did when you retired, or if you were rich. That all changed when I met B. She had not only travelled overseas, she was from overseas . B was born in Malaysia and arrived in Australia, with her family, in 1988. She still had relatives and friends in Malaysia and Singapore and she, along with the remainder of her family, planned to return for a visit during the Australian summer of 1995. At the time I was staying in B's mother's house while we were studying at university. After B's father passed away the year before I was the nominal "man" of the house and its high maintenance garden; her brother Michael was studying up in Queensland. B and I were quite inseparable and her mother kindly offered to pay for me to join them on their vacation. So it was that I obtained my very firs...
Post a Comment
Read more

Down the Oito Line

Riding the length of the Oito Line from Itoigawa to Shinjuku (well, Matsumoto, really, but you might as well go the whole way) has long been a dream of mine. It suddenly gained urgency when I read that the last length of it between Itoigawa to Minami-Otari would be closed once the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kanazawa and Toyama opens by next year. Now, as mentioned last time, B and Alex are among those that would much rather catch the very fast Shinkansen, but in the end she decided to follow me, despite the very early morning. We rode the Hokuetsu Express from Toyama to Itoigawa, completing a little more of that West Coast for me. Though the coastal stretch was short there were some nice views at times. I should like to see more of Itoigawa one day, explore its geology. But now we had to quickly cross over the platform bridge to catch our train to Minami-Otari. To my great delight it was a KiHa 120 railcar, my favourite. I felt a degree of sadness standing up at the front...
Post a Comment
Read more