Which major sporting event is on your bucket list?
Olympic.ca is currently featuring a series exploring sports fans.
If you’re anything like us here at Olympic.ca, then you also have too many sporting events on your bucket list, and not enough time to cross them all off.
From witnessing a World Series win in Toronto to attending the Tour de France, our staff has a lot left to accomplish. Take a look at our top choices and see if any of yours are on the list:
Winter X Games
Mark Nadolny – Olympic.ca Contributor
I’m a huge fan of pro sports fan, but I couldn’t decide which Finals I want to see the most (my Sens in the Stanley Cup Final, my Jays in the World Series or my Raps in the NBA Finals). So I dug a little deeper for this one. Much of my childhood was spent on a mountain in the freezing cold with skis or a snowboard strapped to my feet. As I got older, my love for racing skis was quickly replaced by a love of snowboards and twin-tips. It makes sense then that the Winter X Games, held annually in Aspen, is the perfect way to satisfy my extreme sports addiction. The combination of racing (ski/boarder cross) and freestyle events (superpipe, slopestyle and big air) on both skis and snowboards sounds like an overload of awesomeness that I couldn’t pass up.
Wimbledon
Callum Ng – Senior Writer/Producer
While thinking about this it occurred to me how many sport events I’ve been fortunate enough to see. Mainly because I’m a fan of all games. So, I get to default to one of my favs instead of being edgy and choosing ja-alai or cheese rolling. So, WIMBLEDON. I want to sit so close I can hear the plastic coming off Milos Raonic or Genie Bouchard’s racquets. I will work on my pensive British tennis-watching expression in exchange for a stylish hat, flight, hotel, tickets plus strawberries and cream.
Champs
Asif Hossain – Community Editor, English
Next best thing to standing trackside to Usain Bolt may be to see those who will dominate sprints for the next generation. This is where ‘Champs’ comes in. The Jamaican athletics meet for high school kids is the showcase for track prodigies that will burn rubber at Olympic venues in the near future. It’s where you’ll see a 14–year old running 200 metres in an astonishing 21.72 seconds (video below). And it’ll be done in front of a raucous, packed house full of grown men and women proudly wearing their high school colours in support of future global superstars of athletics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qATTbsaCW4w
FIFA World Cup
Steve Boudreau – Community Editor, French
Witnessing from ice level every second of Team Canada’s perfect run to gold in Sochi spoiled me forever as far as live sporting events go. But if I were forced to choose (and I am), I would go with the FIFA World Cup for a chance to see my beloved England squad shatter my heart into a million pieces one more time. Once I would get over the pain, I’m positive I would eventually start enjoying the worlds biggest party celebrating the most popular sport there is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKd1Y2KcON4
World Series
Georgia Sapounas – Content Manager
I have two favourite sports, figure skating and baseball. Interesting mix, I know. I already witnessed Tessa and Scott win gold in Vancouver so it’s on to baseball for me. Not only would I like to attend a game at every MLB stadium in North America (I only have 26 to go), I’d like to attend the final game of the World Series at the Skydome, where the outcome, of course, is my beloved Blue Jays reliving ’92 and ’93 with a win. A girl can dream.
Alpine at Kitzbühel or Ski Jumping at Holmenkollen
Paula Nichols – Lead Researcher
Having been to the Olympics and World Figure Skating Championships, the first two events on my bucket list have already been crossed off. Next on my list is watching one of two sports in their meccas: alpine skiing at the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel or ski jumping at the Holmenkollen in Oslo. Attending the classic Saslong downhill at Val Gardena only made me want more to be amongst the tens of thousands of spectators at the base of the legendarily crazy Streif downhill. I have never seen ski jumping in person, but when I do I want it to be in a place that has hosted competitions since the 1890s. I was really hoping that Oslo was going to get the 2022 Olympic Winter Games, but sadly, Norwegian officials didn’t listen to me before dropping out of the race.
Tour de France
Ben Stevenson – Manager, Production
Though few things can compare to the serious rush of pride I feel every time I see the Maple Leaf shine on the international stage, there are a couple must-have sporting moments that remain on my bucket list. The Tour de France, now here’s an event that not only celebrates raw endurance, but also sprint speed, individual effort, teamwork and strategy. But more, it’s a heck of an international party on a breathtaking landscape. Also on my bucket list is to catch a Dutch national speed skating championship — just for the adrenaline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGLFoLX0jx8
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