Olympians

Heading for the Alpine heights/Photo by Lois Gillette

So young, so energetic, so bubbling with excitement, every one of them. Watching this year’s Olympians march past in the opening ceremonies at Milano Cortina surely filled hearts around the world with joy, pride and hope for the future. A new generation living out their dreams, winners just for making it there…

I love playing “let’s pretend” when the Winter Olympics come around: which sport would you take part in if you had the time, strength, finances, courage, opportunity, determination, zeal, crazed commitment? Racing down a mountain slope, summersaulting through the air, spinning on ice?

I’d go for downhill skiing, with all that fresh air, gorgeous Alpine scenery and sparkling snow. What a beautiful planet we have to play on, and what fun it would be! Though if you’re afraid of heights like I am, hate high speeds and, while you’d have the slope to yourself on the way down, know you’d be merging with crowds at the bottom, people everywhere... Let’s think again.

We’re each different, all eight billion of us humans. Who’s to say what dreams we might come up with, and maybe even fulfill? Take Ashleigh Myles from Nova Scotia, the first woman to bicycle the whole Pan-American Highway, 22,000 kilometers from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Patagonia. By herself. An Olympian of the bicycling world, surely.

I was galvanized when word of her accomplishment made the news. What a great idea, seeing the Americas that way! The Rockies, the Sierra Madres, the Talamancas, the Andes, not to mention plains, deserts and rain forests. Anyone can ride a bike, and cover good distances with a ten-speed. I know it for a fact, having peddled around New England one unforgettable summer as a teen, 800 miles in four weeks. Great mode of travel, outdoors the whole time, hearing every bird you pass, at one with trees, wildflowers and every contour of the earth.

That’s what appealed to me when I heard about Ashleigh—that freedom. Drop everything, step out of the box and take off into the unknown. Let’s go!

When I chattered on about it with friends, I was a bit surprised they weren’t interested, even those who’ve taken bike tours in Europe, where you stay in comfy inns and find your bags waiting for you, along with supper, at each new destination. “Unsupported,” the way Ashleigh traveled, meant no van was following her, carrying spare gear, snacks and Gatorade, sleeping bag and tent, liniment for sore muscles. Men holding speed records for bicycling the Pan-Am had that kind of help, apparently.

Which made me think of those daily logistics, finding something to eat every day and a place to sleep, bothersome travel issues even if you know Spanish. Plus so many trucks would be using the highway that you’d never get away from them. I’d want to stop and check out every bird I heard, too—how could you race past motmots and trogons?—and detour off on side roads that promised good habitat. The trip would take forever.

So my fantasy of following in Ashleigh’s tire tracks faded. But not completely. I remember one halcyon summer I spent hitchhiking from Dublin to Crete in my student days, through the Bavarian Alps and dramatic Dolomites to Trieste and on down the Adriatic Coast to the Peloponnese. Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia, and on to the Greek islands… The best education, being on the open road without lists or deadlines, living moment to moment as the world magically unfolds. You learn so much about yourself, and how kind people can be.

I had that same out-of-time feeling trekking around Annapurna in the Himalayas a decade later, among some of the tallest, most glorious peaks on the planet. Learned that I could travel solo, call myself courageous, cry when I had to—14,000 ft altitude really got to me—and still keep my sense of humour. Like Ashleigh Myles, and many an Olympian athlete.

You won’t win a gold medal walking, that’s for sure. But it doesn’t really matter how fast you travel, how far you go or how many mountains you climb. Just be sure to bring along your curiosity, your love of life and your sense of wonder.

Illustration by John S. Dyles