As Canadians revel in the Olympic spirit and relay the torch across the country in preparation for the Winter Games, I get a tiny taste of the Olympics at the Fribourg Stadium.

The Fribourg track is no ordinary track. Near the base of the grandstand beside the straightway, five very large interlocking rings- the Olympic Rings- have been moulded and bolted to the rail of the stairs.

The distinguished symbol of sporting excellence is out of place on this small city track, and the iconic image should technically not be there. Only stadiums that have housed the Olympics in the past are supposed to display the rings- a very elite club that Fribourg does not belong to.

But in an act of rare defiance a Fribourg resident attached the inspirational rings to the grandstand. And I think it’s having an effect.

One day, in an attempt to promote friendships and athleticism, the university assembled us international students under the Rings at the stadium for a “Mini-Olympics”. The activities were tennis, soccer, and the exhilarating game of Pétanque.

Now Pétanque, which the ignorant English speakers of the group (myself included) refused to try to pronounce and instead dubbed “Petonks”, is a game like no other. It involves tossing a hollow metal ball called a boule as close as possible to a small wooden one called the cochonet.

I decided to sign up and soon realized that when the Swiss want to get a little crazy, they play Petonks.

Because to my delight a great competition of Petonks arose and I found myself enthusiastically discussing the pros and cons of various boule-tossing techniques with my pals. I was eliminated early in the rounds but stayed to excitedly watch a Swiss guy go undefeated all the way to the final- in which, true to her country’s roots, Sarah of Great Britain dethroned him on his own turf.

I experienced a similar form of enthrallment a few weeks later under another set of Olympic Rings, this time those of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. On a tour of the city we entered the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, and marveled at the size and just coolness of it all. In that stadium Canada’s Mark McKoy won gold in the 110m hurdles and Glenroy Gilbert ran in the men’s 4x100m semifinals.

Back running in Fribourg, I’ll glance up at the rings and wonder, like so many others, what it must be like to compete in a real Olympic stadium. Till then all I can say is that when it was Great Britain verses Switzerland in that Petonks final, nothing else mattered.