Shakespeare and the Olympics

I love the Olympics, maybe it's the competition, maybe it's the cool outfits, maybe it's the opening and closing ceremonies, and maybe it's the energy. Yep, it's definitely the energy. In 2002 I was lucky enough to take a 13 hr (each way) road trip with my wife and mom-in-law to Salt Lake City. All for a one day tour through the Olympic village, and to tool around Park City. Although we drove there on Friday, and drove home Sunday, 26 hours in all, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I would do it again in a heart beat.

When you are there, you are constantly bombarded by people from all over the world that are extremely happy to be there, it just exudes from their pores. You bump into athletes all over the place, celebrities, and just plan happy people. There is no cold to feel in the air because the people are so warm. The energy is AMAZING. Even today, eight years later, I can still feel it when I think about it. Truly inspiring. I wish I had the ability to make it up to Vancouver in the next week, that would be awesome!

So, while reminiscing, I started to think, "What event would Shakespeare compete in?" Really not knowing whether Shakespeare was any kind of an athlete or not (I would highly doubt it, although they sure wore tights alot) I figure he would have to take on something a little simpler and quicker to grasp onto, like ski jumping. I figure, if Eddie the Eagle could do it, so could Willy the Woodpecker (ok, so it's no Eagle, or even a seagull, but it's better than a Whooping crane.) I can see him being decent at fencing though, there was plenty of swordplay in his works to get some good practice in. But to see him flying through the air, (said in a Howard Cosell voice) "And there goes Bard the Buzzard to set another new Olympic record."

Even more curious from my thouts, I did a quick search for "Shakespeare and Olympics" and came across some interesting things:

• Shakespeare Comics Olympics - someone wrote a book
• Shannon Shakespeare - Canadian Olympic swimmer
• World Shakespeare Festival - through the Cultural Olympics
• Shakespeare 2012 - Happening at the same time as the London Olympics
• Hip Hop Shakespeare - prepping for 2012 - cool video

Wow, I didn't even know about the World Shakespeare festival until I wrote this blog, cool. I'm going, you in?

In reality, Shakespeare would have competed on a level of Intellectual Olympics, things such as:

• Spelling bees
• Rhyming Competitions
• Monolog and Soliloquy readings
• Speed reading with complex juxtapositions

What other events would there be for the "Intellectual Olympics"? Write the funniest play in 30 minutes? On your marks, get set, go! I can just see a number of authors writing away, ink flying all around, and Shakespeare sitting there, just blowing away the competition and looking for that Gold.

For other fun and crazy Shakespeare stuff your kids will love check out: PlayingWithPlays.com