English language in podium finish

THIS is a good week for the English language, especially those little-used stretches of it.

Words that are seldom used in our everyday lexicon (and I don’t mean lexicon) are dusted off and dropped into casual conversation, like it’s the most natural thing in the world to do.

It can mean only one thing: an Olympics is with us again.

Suddenly we’re discussing the importance of avoiding a repechage in competition, or debating the degree of difficulty of landing a triple salchow-double toe-double loop combo on the ice.

With the exception of the rowing community, how many of us can remember the last time we said repechage, let alone spelt it?

But there we were, dropping it like we owned it. And all because of another word that many of us had never heard of. Jakara. That’s thanks to Barwon Heads teenager Jakara Anthony’s fourth-place finish in the women’s moguls competition. Suddenly moguls are no longer something we associate with the likes of Gina Rinehart or Donald Trump. The vision this week reminded us that in these Games, moguls are basically the IOC’s version of an ACL waiting to happen. It’s definitely not a sport for the faint-hearted — or weak-kneed. And it brought home yet again — not that I needed the reminder — that age is no obstacle to greatness. When I was Jakara’s age, I loved skiing. But in this month alone — probably this week — she will have skied more times than I have in my life. The final two years at my high school included optional ski camps at Mount Buller. That meant endless slow journeys up and down the Bourke St run, an overreliance on snowplough turns, a fear of T-bar lifts and a fascination (still untested) as to just how hard a black diamond run could be.

I joined the RMIT Ski Club when I started university, which led to a week at Falls Creek, sharing a ride up there in a fellow student’s ’60s-era Mercedes (the one with the fins).

And apart from a halfhearted attempt to go crosscountry skiing on a frozen golf course in British Columbia in January, that was it.

So no podium finishes for me, but some great memories. Just like Jakara.