Nobody in my family was ever a sports fan. I used to feel relief that my father and brother never monopolized the television with playoffs or world cups or even the Olympics (it was nature shows, actually). In high school, some girls did a survey on whether the students of my all-girl school "liked hockey" or something like that. The results were split 50-50 and I was on the "no" side. But the truth was that I had no idea what hockey was about, or any other spectator sport for that matter. I have just always known exercise is *not for me*.
In Chile, I finally had the chance to watch some soccer games with people who were passionate about the sport, the teams, and the history. My first boyfriend -who wrote a book of short stories loosely based on his favourite team- took me to a match at the Estadio Nacional and I saw with my own eyes how beautiful it can be. They used to call that team, the Universidad de Chile, "the blue ballet". Blue was the colour of their uniforms. During the 1994 World Cup I was in university, where television sets and beer would find their way into empty classrooms and normal classes would be empty at game time. Ah, the glory of watching together, and of Italian thighs in shorts.
But it really isn't about how good looking some of the players can be, I swear. It's about how exciting a professional, fast team, working together against another, can be. And if there's loyalty on top of it, like with a home team, or a national one, then there's emotion. Other people's emotions, en masse, are a turn on, for sure.
Now I watch hockey games in my own home, even by myself because I enjoy it. I still don't know much about how it works, but I love the fast-paced coordination, the cohesion of a good team on a good day, and the thrill of getting one on the "enemy". If I ever have a family of my own, I hope someone besides me is into watching these sports, so that it isn't just me watching Hockey Night in Canada anymore.
5 comments:
anoche la mama hizo una comida en la casa con la Maria Isabel Marin y Arturo, y salio el tema de tu new found sports spectatorship..
claro..
ninguno de nosotros pesco jamas eso..
yo prefiero hasta el dia de hoy hacer lo deportes yo.. y generalmente aquellos donde soy yo solo.. en lugar de mirar..
em fin
dile al papa que se apure con el pasaje y pasaportes!
Tambien pense en eso pero no lo escribi: que tu eres el unico deportista (y no desde siempre tampoco) pero nunca te he visto entusiasmado por un deporte en equipo, sino como dices, donde eres tu solo, como la bicicleta.
Anoche jugue hockey callejero, casi me muero pero es entretenido. Pensar que en little league mi coach me retaba por no ponerle pino, ahora soy la mas entusiasta si bien no la mas agil.
Welcome Isabel, you're on of us now LOL
Do you ever notice how it's always an all-man team? Never any girls? Doesn't it bother you at all (I'm really into hockey too)Just wondering if I'm the onl one who it bugs, as a sport's fan.
I hadn't thought of the gender issue. It certainly doesn't bother me to watch men run around or skate around or whatever. But it might be nice, too, to have women's hockey feature more prominently in the mainstream. And yeah, some mixed teams sound fun too.
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