The Olympics is like a circus that rolls into town. It’s not just the Games that are happening, there’s the whole spectacle of the Games that happens. One of the more amusing (and sometimes annoying) side shows of the Olympics is pin trading. Every country, sponsor, sport, etc. has its own pin for the Olympic Games. The designs range from national flags and sport emblems to cartoons and works of art! There are official pins and “renegade” pins, but each has its own character and some are more coveted than others. Everyone in the USA delegation is issued about 15 Team USA pins and 15 USA sport/staff specific pins.
The professional pin traders present a much more enjoyable experience than the SWAGgers. The “professionals” are people who come from all over the world just to trade Olympic pins. If you check out ebay, you’ll see that Olympic pin trading can be big business. It seems that for the most part though, these folks do it just for the fun of it. I’m not really into the whole pin-trading scene, but just to see what some of the ones from other countries look like, I checked out one guy’s collection. He saw one of my Team USA pins and asked which pin of his I’d like to trade it for. When I told him I’d just give it to him, he actually seemed disappointed that I didn’t want one of his in return!
The official definition of the acronym SWAG is “sundries, wearables, and gifts” used by marketing departments to describe free stuff they hand out as promotions. To everyone else, it means “stuff we all get.” The SWAGgers are the people who feel that they are entitled to your Olympic pin. SWAGgers can be your waiter or the security guy running your stuff through the metal detector. It’s always awkward when you only have a couple of pins on you and your saving it for some little kid who recognizes the American flag on your sleeve and smiles at you or the waiter who patiently takes 20 minutes to explain the menu to a group of people who can’t speak a lick of Italian.
Just thought yall would like to hear a little bit about the side shows of the Olympics!
2 comments:
We get USA Today newspapers periodically, but the rest of the coverage is from EuroNews. The blood doping scandal was actually an Austrian team and we are all aware of the Speed Skater dramas. As for Turin not sounding "Italian" enough, Torino is actually the Italian name of the city, Turin is for the English speakers, so NBC can't take credit for that one unless they were around a few hundred years ago! Thanks for keeping up with me on my blog!
I almost forgot. . . no beads yet, but I'll keep you posted!!!
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