EDITOR’S NOTE: Tim Flagstad will be attending the 2012 London Olympics. Visit GreatPlainsExaminer.com to read his blog from the Summer Games.
Go ahead. Blink.
How long did it take?
Not as long as it took Michael Rodgers to cross the finish line after Ryan Bailey in the 100-meter finals at the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.
Rodgers broke the finish line in 9.94 seconds. Bailey in 9.93 seconds. The difference? Bailey triumphantly fell to the track, his third-place finish good enough to earn a coveted spot to the 2012 London Olympics. Rodgers took fourth place — the worst-possible position at the track and field trials, where only the top three finishers in each event make the Olympic team — and left distraught.
That’s the beauty of an Olympic year. It’s pure sport at its finest. Four years of training and dreams all can come down to a hundredth of a second. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer or a Hail Mary touchdown to win can’t match that drama.
Remember the 2008 Beijing Olympics? Michael Phelps touched the wall a hundredth of a second before Serbian rival Milorad Cavic in the 100-meter butterfly. A sliver of a fingernail relegated Cavic to silver, allowing Phelps to reach his dream of a record eight gold medals at one Olympics.
It’s impossible not to admire athletes who toil and train in relative anonymity for the chance of Olympic glory and have the courage to compete in events that come down to micro-fractions of a second.
Once every four years, these athletes have a chance to thrust their way into America’s spotlight, and, as Rodgers found out in Eugene, the margin for error is miniscule.
Sure, he’ll have another chance at international glory at the world championships next year in Moscow. Both track and field and swimming have world championships every odd-numbered year, but how many people remember who won gold in the 400-meter dash at the 2009 world track and field championships in Berlin or who took first in the 200-meter individual medley at the 2007 world swimming championships in Melbourne?
Yet, scenes such as Phelps splashing around like a 6-year-old at a birthday pool party after seeing his name first on the results board in Beijing or Michael Johnson blazing around the track in gold spikes at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics remain indelibly engraved in America’s sporting memory.
When the London Olympics start at the end of July, enjoy the competition and the drama.
Make sure to pay close attention, though. It doesn’t take much to miss it.
-Tim Flagstad is a freelance sports writer and columnist for the Great Plains Examiner.