For the Love of Sport

1/15 Daring. Professional Recreationist snapped this mountain biker at Victoria's aptly-named festival Union Jumpship.

2/15 "Waiting for the right wave." Devin Taylor Photography captures two scheming Tofino surfers.

3/15 Is dodgeball an Olympic sport yet? This sinewy baller could be Michael Phelps, for all we know. Photo by wukevinc.

4/15 TOTORORO.RORO reminds us of BC's own Harry Jerome, who set seven world records during his career.

5/15 And then there's kite surfing. gotchan68 snapped this incredible shot of a surfer who looks ready to hop into the mountains.

6/15 Obviously, British Columbian cyclists are among the fastest in the world. Photo by Tom Wiebe.

7/15 There's no better place to kayak than Savary Island. (Poor London paddlers will be stuck in Eton Dorney.) Photo by Bhlubarber.

8/15 Another sportive fave in British Columbia: pole yoga. Three guesses as to what this move is called. Photo by Professional Recreationalist in Victoria.

9/15 Don't forget your twilight beer league, in which even the tight-pantsed may partake. Shot by knitgirl.

10/15 Tom Wiebe stumbled across this badass capoeira class practicing at Vancouver's Coal Harbour Community Centre.

11/15 All one needs for a British Columbian hike is a solid pack and some ski poles. Breezy. Photo by troy colautti.

12/15 Take a dip, or dive, in Wedgemont Lake, BC like this brave swimmer. Photo by Killingit247.com.

13/15 Caught on to the pole-boarding craze yet? Great shot by Clayton Perry Photoworks.

14/15 Who is Dag? According to okanaganboy who snapped this shot, he's a die-hard runner in his 70s. Here's Dag finishing the "High Rim Trail in knee deep snow from Vernon into Winfield."

15/15 AlpineEdge sweated to the top of Thurston Peak, only to watch this paraglider cruise by.

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[Editor's note: Click through the photo essay above to see British Columbians showing off their athletic prowess, and remember what it truly means to love the game. Photos sourced from Your BC: The Tyee's Photo Pool.]

No doubt there will come a time in, say, 20 years or so when some hip youngsters will slide their fingers into those red Olympic mittens or warm their heads in the by-then brittle wool of the 2010 Canadian Olympic toque.

Too soon now, of course. Too gauche. Too 2010.

But in a few years, the twin pistons of fashion's forward-driving engine will combine to overwhelm better judgment.

Few, of course, will remember the loss of civil rights, the gentrification, the cost.

Few will remember the billions spent on security.

Few will remember how the austerity governments that followed simply had to stop funding internationally renowned environmental and social programs because there was no money left. Yet those same austerity governments still found money for elite athletes to "own the podium" in sports like... umm... slalom canoeing.

No doubt similar things have happened in London, are happening in Sochi and elsewhere.

The question, then, the one that keeps poking me in the side as I sit down to watch the Games is this: how is it that we can love to watch something that we know is sodden with corruption, exploitation and inhumanity?

I mean, when my dad and I watched Usain Bolt's jaw-dropping dash into the 100-metre record books in the last Olympics, was I complicit in it all?

When my eyes got a little misty (it's true) when Carol Huynh wrestled for gold, was I just being duped by the modern opiate of the masses?  

Are we secretly being indoctrinated into a Spartan warrior cult if we watch this time around?

Maybe.

I'd rather not think so, though.

The clash of the myths

Maybe we should take solace in what seems to be David Zirin's approach -- you can love sport and still be critical of the spectacle. There is no contradiction here. Rather, if it is a contradiction, it's one inherent in all human activity.

It's like being spiritual ("sport-ual?" OK, sorry) but not religious.

It's like loving your country enough to be critical of the state that runs it.

But even that's a little too trite. Because it's more rich than that.

In the arena of sport, the invisible myths of our society, good and bad, right and wrong, take physical form and clash before our very eyes.

An obvious example. Germany. 1936. Hitler's Games. Final proof of Aryan superiority. That is until African-American Jesse Owens spoiled his party by winning four gold medals (100m, 200m, long jump, 4x100m relay).

On one side, Social Darwinism, racism, racial purity. On the other (in theory), miscegenation, diversity. And in the supposedly meritocratic court of sport, they dueled.

A less obvious example. Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, tells this story in his book The People's History of Sports: Turns out, the man who came in second to Owens (0.4 seconds behind) in the 200 metres was another African-American track star. That man's name was Mack Robinson. When Mack Robinson came home to Pasadena, California, he couldn't find a job but for sweeping the streets. A college-educated, silver-medal-winning track star reduced to street sweeper.

Showing a stubborn streak that ran in his family, as Zirin says, "Mack would make it a point to sweep in his leather USA Olympic jacket, which caused local whites to call the police and charge him with being provocative."

Shocking, right? Wait, there's more...

Mack Robinson had a younger brother. His name was Jackie. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in the baseball's modern major leagues, breaking through baseball's invisible, unofficial, though very real, colour line.

This is what I mean. The myths! They are an invisible film we all share that's waiting for a theatre and a bright light to shine through.

More examples. There are those who say nothing was more useful in the progress of women's liberation than the bicycle (a sport!). Too, you could argue that a tennis match (Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs) was equally as important.

And let's come back to Carol Huynh for a moment. Huynh comes from New Hazelton, an area of northern B.C. that Katie Hyslop, Tyee education reporter, described this way in a report last year:

"As jobs here have withered over the past decade, the carving away of government programs has left residents all the more vulnerable to not just economic but psychic pain. Hope itself is in measurable decline."

Huynh's parents were refugees from Vietnam who settled in New Hazelton after being sponsored by the local United Church.

If we're not allowed to cheer for Huynh, then what are we allowed to cheer for? More so, what was it that some people say about refugees not contributing to our country?

Word from our sponsors

Yes, sport is used to sell us things -- hydration drinks, militarism, hetero-normative Christian masculinity. Whatever. But that doesn't mean we have to buy. The point is, we get to make our own meaning.

In this Olympics, why don't we debate whether the own-the-podium program is really something we can afford at the moment, or even whether it's something that we, as a society, want. Because, make no mistake about it, this is the Harper Government's attempt at rebranding one of Canada's fundamental myths -- that of the beautiful loser (with health care) into the unapologetic winner (with no environmental protection).

Do we want this brand of Canadian exceptionalism? Can you hear those "Can-a-da! Num-ber-One!" chants? They're faint but getting stronger. Listen closely.

See? Invisible myths! They're everywhere if you look (and listen). And they matter.

Or not.

Because, at the end of the day, it's OK to just let it wash over you. Even if you don't realize it, you'll find meaning that resonates or even just a simple escape in this, the most massive and highly produced reality television show in the history of the world.

The point being, our compulsion to play is irresistible and irrepressible, along with our compulsion to watch. Just click through the reader-submitted pictures at the top of this story if you want proof. Yes, people will try to use sport in way that exploits and dehumanizes. Resist their clumsy attempts but don't deny the real human need sport feeds.

So, for the love of sport, people, enjoy it. Be critical of it. Engage with it. Don't feel guilty for it. To every thing, there is a season, and the season of sport is upon us.