2008 Woodie Awards
Collegian View - Alternative sports race by our consciousness
Issue date: 2/28/06 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Has anyone heard of the Maverick's Surf Contest? Has anyone ever heard of the Tour de France? How 'bout the Olympic Games? At Saint Mary's we sure love our men's basketball team. We plan our weekend around attending the big games and the big parties afterward. We love either the Oakland A's or the San Francisco Giants. We argue about statistics and skip class to watch playoff games. But when someone mentions a sport that is either not taking place on our campus or not receiving the front page of the Contra Costa Times every day, we appear to know next to nothing about it. Are we really that uninformed - that ignorant?
The Tour de France is that little bike race abroad where Lance Armstrong won 7 straight victories and was crowned one of the greatest athletes to ever live. Yes, cycling does require a level of physical fitness that rivals, even exceeds the requirements of basketball and baseball. This year, many of the World Class riders who participated in the Tour de France competed in the Tour of California which raced right past our college. Most of you would remember this event as the day when St. Mary's road was closed for one whole hour, disturbing your schedules.
The Maverick's Surf Contest is one of the biggest surf contests in the world. It boasts the greatest big-wave surfers from around the world who receive just 24-hours notice before they have to be in Half Moon Bay to compete on waves that reach heights exceeding 50-feet. The famous wave crashes into what locals affectionately term "the boneyard," which consists of rocks jutting 20-feet out of the water and a sharp reef. Injuries occur nearly every year both during the contest and during the normal surfing season. This year the contest drew over 60,000 spectators to a beach that comfortably holds maybe a thousand people.
The Winter Olympics, this year in Torino, Italy, take place every four years. Athletes train their entire lives to compete in events that take just minutes. It requires an extraordinary amount of discipline to get there and an extraordinary amount of composure to compete. While many of us don't follow skiing, figure skating, or speed-skating throughout the year, the Olympics is an opportunity to broaden our sports knowledge and appreciate something besides the norm in the athletic world. Yes, figure skaters are athletes. The absence of a ball does not mean the sport is without merit, St. Mary's.
We pay attention to our local teams, both at the collegiate and professional levels because they are the sports we grew up with, the sports we can talk about with our friends over a beer, and the sports that are always on ESPN. But let's try not to forget the thousands of other elite athletes in the world who work just as hard to follow their dreams.
The Tour de France is that little bike race abroad where Lance Armstrong won 7 straight victories and was crowned one of the greatest athletes to ever live. Yes, cycling does require a level of physical fitness that rivals, even exceeds the requirements of basketball and baseball. This year, many of the World Class riders who participated in the Tour de France competed in the Tour of California which raced right past our college. Most of you would remember this event as the day when St. Mary's road was closed for one whole hour, disturbing your schedules.
The Maverick's Surf Contest is one of the biggest surf contests in the world. It boasts the greatest big-wave surfers from around the world who receive just 24-hours notice before they have to be in Half Moon Bay to compete on waves that reach heights exceeding 50-feet. The famous wave crashes into what locals affectionately term "the boneyard," which consists of rocks jutting 20-feet out of the water and a sharp reef. Injuries occur nearly every year both during the contest and during the normal surfing season. This year the contest drew over 60,000 spectators to a beach that comfortably holds maybe a thousand people.
The Winter Olympics, this year in Torino, Italy, take place every four years. Athletes train their entire lives to compete in events that take just minutes. It requires an extraordinary amount of discipline to get there and an extraordinary amount of composure to compete. While many of us don't follow skiing, figure skating, or speed-skating throughout the year, the Olympics is an opportunity to broaden our sports knowledge and appreciate something besides the norm in the athletic world. Yes, figure skaters are athletes. The absence of a ball does not mean the sport is without merit, St. Mary's.
We pay attention to our local teams, both at the collegiate and professional levels because they are the sports we grew up with, the sports we can talk about with our friends over a beer, and the sports that are always on ESPN. But let's try not to forget the thousands of other elite athletes in the world who work just as hard to follow their dreams.