My Olympic Diary

I haven't had a good posting in a while, and it is all because of the Olympics. I'm hooked. I have been glued to the TV watching every possible moment of Olympic action. To tell you how badly I am hooked, instead of flipping the channel, I am actually listing to Bob Costas drone on about the Olympic spirit and what a historical event this is for these athletes, these viewers and yes, for me, too.

I am not sure why this Olympics has me more hooked than the last ones. I was only mildly interested in 2004 Athens (mostly to see how badly the Greeks were going to f-it up) and 2000 Sydney the US networks did such a bad job with the coverage, it was barely worth watching. I don't think I have been this hooked since 92 Barcelona, or possibly 84 LA. My only guess can be there was a compelling reason to watch with Michael Phelps which began day one. NBC did a good job building this story line and it got me interested before the games, and because he started swimming the first days of the Olympics, I was hooked from the start.

I was hoping to have a meaningful post that I could pull out of all my hours of watching, but I don't. Instead, I have a random collection of thoughts and my personal observations of Games of the XXIX Olympiad:

• Usain Bolt, the Jamaican Sprinter, sounds like an opponent who fought Rocky Balboa. It fits that tradition of Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, and Mason Dixon. In fact, I think Usain Bolt was one of the people Rocky fought during the opening montage of Rocky III, when he had 10 title defences.


• Country with the highest proportional representation at the Olympics: Cook Islands. They had (4) athletes out of a population of 22,000 (1 in 5500)


• Country with the lowest proportional representation at the Olympics: India. Out of a population of 1.15 billion they only had (53) athletes (1 in 21.7 million)


• I was secretly relieved when the female sprinter from Bahrain, Roqaya Al-Gassra, did not qualify. It is not because she is Muslim and ran with the full hajib; it is because if she won, the media would never let go of this one, ever. They would probably make a movie about her - "Chariots of Fire 2", but this time with a Muslim woman instead of a devote Christian and a Jew.


• Why on earth would you ask Michael Phelps' sister if you think your brother is sex symbol. Yeeeewwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!


• For the 2012 London Olympics, I think NBC might consider rating Women's Volleyball "TV-Mature". Yowsers!


• I find my loyalties to the USA being tested in Men's basketball because of Coach K. So long as he is not shown on TV or being mentioned by the commentators, I can keep pulling for the Starts and Stripes rather than Angola.


• The most difficult sport for me to watch is Woman's Gymnastics. These young ladies try so hard and have put so much into this it hurts to watch when they make mistakes.


• Speaking of Woman's Gymnastics, Shawn Johnson seems to get much more favorable coverage than Nastia Liukin, and I don't know why. I think Shawn is as cute as a button, but something about her eyes bothers me. This sounds horrible, but when I look at her eyes, they look dead to me - like there is no soul behind them. There - I've said it. I done with this one now.


• My prediction for the new most popular name for strippers: "Nastia". It just sounds dirty.


• My favorite non-US male athlete: Matthias Steiner, the German Weightlifter, who won the gold medal for his wife who passed away in a car wreck last years. Even big guys cry.


• My favorite non-US female athlete: It was a tough call between the Javelin thrower from Uruguay or the Japanese Indoor volleyball team (all of them), but the winner is Shelly-Ann Frasier, the Jamaican sprinter who won the 100m. Gotta love the pure joy of winning.


• I really hate the new gymnastics scoring system. The judges don't seem comfortable with it and it seems like it is making a subjective scoring system even worse.


• I never knew I gave a rats-@ss about synchronised diving until now.


• Speaking of diving, this is one sport I have difficulty rating without the benefit of super-slow mo. To me, they all look perfect in real speed. How the judges can judge this without instant reply is beyond me.


• Best outfit of the opening ceremonies: Sweden. Traditional Chinese outfit in the Swedish National colors. That designer would have beaten Korto's design on Project Runway.


• I think for the next Olympics there should be a rule that all athletes - female and male - should have shaved armpits. It is getting a little messy out there....


• How do athletes make a living? I am not talking about pro athletes like the US hoops team, but Joe Blow track star? How does he make a living and have time to train? Are they sponsored? What about the small countries - how can the Cook Islands support (4) athletes? Seems expensive.


• I think the worst sport to compete in would be any of the rowing events. They are really long races, with a lot of nausea induced motion, and you have no view. It doesn't sound fun at all.


• I miss Jim McKay