Olympic fringe

I usually don’t watch TV ..not even the Olympic games ..unless something compelling draws me to them ..like a human survival story ..someone who had to overcome more than the usual amount of adversity to get there ..during the last winter Olympics it was alpine skier Janica Kostelic ..who had to practice in Croatia during wartime ..which meant driving from mountain to mountain and sleeping in her car to avoid getting hit by bombs. Ski lifts weren’t operating ..so she got her exercise climbing back up the slope after each downhill run. She won 2 medals that year ..a gold and a silver ..she’s already won gold this year. Definitely certifiable. Now I’m intrigued by women’s freestyle skier Alisa Camplin (pictured) ..she’s had more injuries than a football player ..more concussions than a quarterback. If she were a football player ..her career would have been over a long time ago. Last October she blew out her knee for the 2nd time in like as many years ..only this time it wasn't likely to hold up for the winter games. To accelerate the recovery process, doctors rebuilt her knee in a way you won’t find in medical journals. “I’m a bit of a walking research project” she says. She’s competing tomorrow in the aerial events .. a mixture of downhill skiing and acrobatics ..catching big air and doing quadruple twisting turning double somersaults ..things like that. Oh, and they say she's not a very good skier. She didn't learn until she was 19. She must be an incredible acrobat then. I’m definitely not going to miss this.