Simone Biles and the power of taking time out
Because I have an extremely reactive dog who has decided that his one and only job is to protect me and the homestead from any possible threats (people walking on the footpath outside my house, the neighbour’s cat, his One True Nemesis, the postman, any errant leaves that might fly past the window, a puff of wind, etc etc), I am constantly looking for ways to soothe his nervous system. None of it works, obviously, but I continue to have high hopes as I count out the homeopathic drops in his water bowl and play Lyric Fm on the television for him night and day. If Marty Whelan can’t placate this dog, nothing can. But after watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony, mostly so I could get nostalgic about my time in Paris (“oh look!” I said to Cooper as we snuggled on the couch, pointing at the banks by the river Seine. “That’s where I shifted the hottest man I’d ever seen!” He didn’t seem too impressed…) and cry my way through Celine Dion’s triumphant performance, I haven’t returned to Lyric since (sorry, Marty). Instead, I have the Olympic coverage on 24/7. It has the same soothing impact on Cooper – i.e none – and it gives me the opportunity to do what I always do every four years; become completely and utterly obsessed with sports I know nothing about. At the Tokyo Olympics, it was Paul O’Donovan and his attitude to winning, a subject about which I wrote my Irish Examiner column. I stand by it!! Did I have to attend an event with him in West Cork soon after? Yes. Was I deeply afraid that he had read same article and assumed I was a stalker who was in love with him? Also yes! But we move...
In 2024, my new obsessions are as follows – the Mongolian team’s uniforms, the entire Italian swim team but specifically Thomas Ceccon, whose beautiful face is 99% of my TikTok algorithm right now and I am not mad at it. I want to be Kim Ye-ji, South Korea’s ‘coolest’ markswoman or wait, maybe I actually want to be Rayssa Leal, the Brazilian skateboarder, who is tempting me into baggy skate trousers even though I KNOW from extensive research in the early 00s that they are hideous on me. (All purchased from Primetime in Cork city. The North Remembers). I definitely want to be best friends with