Are you also one of those who can go to the movies and come back a different person, emotion-wise I mean? Sometimes I can be so intrigued by an actor or actress that I can't stop thinking of their performance or character for a couple of days. I felt that way after having seen Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient or Keanu Reeves' juvenile spontaneity in The Tonight Show two months ago.
Some of the athletes at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games are no different for me than a few tv-personalities. It's probably their charismatic appearance, their will, their muscles, their endurance of hard training, which make them catch my eye.
Olympic athletes have suffered to get to Sydney. In one of Capote's movies there is a lovely quote which goes like this, "when God gives you a gift, he also gives you a whip, to beat yourself with it." It takes a freak to be the best.
Olympic Fever is striking and it has struck me. I'm glued to the television almost 24 hours a day and I enjoy swimming, gymnastics and judo as much as I love watching the equestrian sport.
Maybe the Olympics are another opportunity for me to find -- on tv -- the adrenaline of a charismatic figure which can opiate me for at least a few days. I think I detected a new person. A true figure which stands out in what he does. Have you already seen Australian's 17-year-old swimming talent Ian Thorpe. Isn't he a star?
-- Astrid Appels (Editor)
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