Citius, Altius, Fortius

… which is Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger”.  That’s what we have been watching hoomans do every night for the past two weeks as they ran, jumped, swam and rowed, rode bicycles and horses, lifted things, threw things in the air and punches at each other!  They kicked balls, hit them and threw them! 

Hoomans give different names to many of the same things – sprint, hurdles, marathon, etc, etc but in the end they try to outrun and out do each other.  Yeah, we race each other too …Of course, some are faster than others.  I particularly like to run ahead of everyone else like that big guy called Hussein Bolt. I know I easily outrun most hoomans, but wonder if I can break Usain Bolt’s world records!

Then they have hoomans jumping over hurdles. We do too – for treats!  Whereas hoomans do it for something called medals – even though they can’t eat them.Hurdles are effortless for me – I can even look at the camera as I leap over them.  And that little guy looks on in wonder No, don’t do it! You’ll hurt yourself! But sometimes the hoomans don’t do the jumping. They get horses to do the really big jumps that hoomans can’t do themselves!But we do the same without any one sitting on our backs telling us what to do!P.S. Mummy thought Nick Skelton’s win was one of the highlights of the Olympics for her.  At 58 years old, Britain’s oldest competitor at the Rio Olympics finally won his gold medal in equestrian at his seventh Olympics. Good going!

Oh, and that thing called gymnastics. Where girls leap up onto the balance beam. And then walk about and doing flips and all sorts of daredevil moves!  Well, I can walk and balance very easily on a “balance beam” but without the jumps and somersaults. But sometimes the gymnasts also do the same moves like I do. And that high bar which they swing on …

I can do that too!Wheeee!

May’s comment:  Upon the creation of the International Olympic Committee in 1894, this was the motto proposed by Pierre de Coubertin – Citius, Altius, Fortius.

It’s been amazing to watch the feats of these young dedicated athletes as they attempt to go faster, reach higher and be stronger than ever before – and then along came Nick Skelton – who never gave up despite his numerous injuries and at age 58 in his seventh Olympics he finally won his gold medal! That’s commitment and belief in himself.  Sometimes dreams take awhile to come true …

All Olympic Rio 2016 photos are from the internet.