A Piqued Interest: One World. One Dream. One Cheer.

Though I’ve only seen two Olympic events live and in person, I’d venture to say “jia you” has become the 2008 Olympic chant. “Jia you” literally means “give it gas”. No, not you have gas but give it gas as in “pick up the pace”, “give it your all”, “press on to win”. I was fortunate enough to take in a women’s quarterfinal soccer match between Brazil and Norway. The crowd, mostly Chinese, didn’t seem to have a favorite in the match. They simply craved an exciting game. When Norway was down 2-0 and had an opportunity for a penalty kick, the crowd erupted in “Norway jia you” (although they were saying Norway in Chinese as well). Once Norway scored, their excitement rose as the possibility of a tie grew closer. Unfortunately for the crowd, Norway did not tie Brazil but each time an opportunity seemed to loom in the distance once again “jia you” rose up from the stands.

When a friend and I happened upon the women’s marathon on the streets in Beijing, once again the crowd yelled the ubiquitous cry although here it was a little different. It was hard to know what countries the athletes were from as they ran past the spectators. Here, there was no country specific cry (except for the red and yellow uniformed Chinese runners), but rather a “jia you” for all of the runners as they trekked closer to the National Stadium. It truly was a unique experience to hear them cheering on ALL athletes from countries literally around the world and to know that one of those women who raced past us would later have a gold medal in her possession.