I Suck At The Olympics

it has been one week since the 2008 beijing olympics started. and i must say... i suck at the olympics in part because i actually missed the opening ceremonies. i heard the opening ceremonies were simply amazing. i'm hoping someone i know has the ceremony recorded so that i can see what all the hoopla was about.

anyway, every night since the olympics started, i have been glued to the television... watching things i would not normally watch on any given day. some of those things include synchronized diving, beach volleyball, swimming and gymnastics. i was even able to catch water polo during a lunch time excursion.

all right, so maybe i am starting to feel the excitement of the olympics again. the past 2 olympics in sydney and athens did not really interest me as much. i don't really know why because i used to be a big fan of the olympics. after all, the mere concept of a bunch of athletes representing their country... gathering together to be a spectacle for the entire world to see their given talents with sportsmanship... is very alluring. (had i lived in ancient greece when the olympics started, i probably would not have thought the concept was alluring... seeing a bunch of naked men running around or wrestling each other. if i wanted to see that, i could probably just hang out at the local ymca men's locker room.)

regardless, the reason i actually became interested in track and field in the first place and decided to partake in the sport in high school was due to the 1984 olympics in los angeles. watching carl lewis win four gold medals in the track and field competition was simply amazing. granted, i knew i could not be as good as carl lewis... but nonetheless it got me interested in running track. (okay, sure... i ended up doing hurdles in high school... but watching edwin moses in the 1984 olympics was equally a sight to watch.)

anyway, for some reason this year's olympic games (the 29th olympiad) in beijing has sucked me in. whether it's watching the unbelievable quest of michael phelps in swimming to win 8 gold medals, the possible return to glory of american basketball, or simply because the games are being held in world's largest country in china... i'm all into it. i'm even into the subplots like the chinese women's gymnastic team being underaged, the spanish basketball team making squinty-eyed poses (which, i think in all fairness... the chinese team should pose as though they were doing something spanish... like flamenco dancing or having a siesta or something), or the trash talking french swimmer who predicted that france would smash the americans in one of the relays... only to lose the lead himself to the americans in that race. it's all interesting.

the reason i even decided to post about the olympics today (aside from the fact that i have nothing interesting planned for today besides watching the olympics), is that my bff (kerry) brought up the topic this morning about the women's all-around gymnastic competition. the competition was simply awesome to watch...

(pictured below is the latest women's all-around gymnastic champion... and the third american woman to hold that title... my bff... kerry.)


all right, so maybe kerry didn't really score a 15.525 on the floor exercise to put her in first place... nonetheless, go usa!