'Some go to the Olympics with the goal of winning a gold medal, proof that after years of preparation, they are the best in the world at what they do,' writes ESPN's Jim Caple.  'I had a loftier goal: I wanted to get a drink at every national hospitality house.'

We are glad Jim did! How else would he have met Alain Amade?

'French House in Whistler is usually closed to the public, but France won two gold medals the day I visit, so they're all in a good mood and let me in. In fact, they keep asking whether I want more wine. I feel like an American GI liberating Paris.

I bend elbows with the host of French House, Alain Amade. This Olympic gig is a mere sideline for Amade. His real passion is the World Games, which is a quadrennial global athletic event for sports that are not in the Olympics. This is surprising news in that I had never heard of the World Games and, more importantly, hadn't realized there were sports that weren't in the Olympics. But apparently there are, including water skiing (Amade's daughter is the European champ) and roller skating. 'It's like the Olympics were 30 years ago,' Amade tells me. 'We had 15,000 people watching roller skating. We had 300 athletes on the French team. We had 5,000 competitors in 30 different sports.'

The next World Games are scheduled for 2013 in Cali, Colombia, and Amade makes it sound so appealing that I'm ready to badger my editor to go. Although I may feel differently after the wine wears off. I mean, synchronized swimming is bad enough, but roller skating?'

After you stuck it out with speed skating on ice, and after the Château Laffite should have worn off by now, why not really persuade your editor to send you to Cali in 2013? Future Olympic Champions are bound to compete there too - not on blades but on wheels. Like Chad Hedrick and Apolo Ohno did earlier in their careers! As Roller skaters!

The World Games 2013 will also feature a few hospitality houses. And they will all be properly identified. Like in the Olympics 30 years ago!

Read Jim Caple's article on Vancouver 2010, click here!