Today is Tuesday August 5th, and I am overly excited for August 9th to come. I know, NBC is marketing 8-8-08 as the official start of the Olympics, but I am not a big fan of the opening ceremonies. Yes in 1996, in Atlanta when Ali lit the torch, even as an elementary school student I got the chills, I understood the magnitude of the moment. However, as a generalization the opening ceremonies are a waste of my time, parade of athletes and a bunch of needless celebration.
Obviously being a track guy, week two of the Olympics is the week I want to watch as much of the ‘athletics’ as I can. I am not knocking any of the other sports, because there are so many that I would love to watch, it is just the two dominating sports of the Olympics are track and swimming. Other sports, such as diving or gymnastics or other sports which incorporate judges to determine the outcome always leave me wondering, espeically after the figure skating conspiracy. Team sports like Soccer, Softball and Baseball no one really cares much about during the Olympics, it isn’t that sports biggest stage.The typical baseball fan is worried about the major league pennant race with his team and could care less if the United States is playing Guam in the semi-finals of the Olympics.
I think some of the more interesting stories of the Olympics are of course Michael Phelps. I think this time, as compared to Athens, he has not talked about his quest to win seven or eight gold medals. The media and the commercials have talked about his quest much more than he has, at least this time around. Even if he does win eight gold medals at the Olympics, I don’t think it will be as great as when Mark Spitz did it, because in 1972, when the Olympics were a larger than life event, they were a big deal, not only did he win seven gold medals, he broke the world record in every event. Think about that. In one Olympics, he broke seven world records, and won seven gold medals. Many athletes are lucky to win a gold, or break a world record, but seven of each, in the same week, that is one of the greatest moments ever.
Speaking of great moments in Olympic history, 1992 Barcelona summer games unfortunate 400 meter runner Derek Redmond has become a popular Visa commercial, that I cannot help but get chocked up seeing it.
As far as running goes, I want to see if Tyson Gay has a strong enough leg to be competitive in the 100. He looked like he was going to run away with both the 100 and 200 before he strained his hamstring at the Olympic Trials. Usain Bolt may double in the 100 and 200, and let us not forget about Asafa Powell in the 100. All three of those guys have run 9.77 or faster in the 100 meter dash. In the 400 I want to see Jeremy Wariner win, I really do. I would also like to see someone have the nerve to honor, 40 years later, two men that stood up for what they believed in at the Mexico City games of 1968. If someone was brave enough to tribute them as well as standing tall for what they believed in and standing in the red, white and blue, I don’t think that there would be anything more heroic about the games than that.
The ‘Redeem’ Team as they have been dubbed are off to a fairly good start playing exhibition games, let’s see if they can dominate as the once did, or at least not embarass themselves.
I suppose I am also excited for other, lesser known events that only really get prime time when the Olympics air, but events like archery, short track cycling, field hockey and water polo. Maybe I am a little crazy, but I am looking foward to watching each and every one of those events and have actually created a schedule of what events I want to watch each day.
My advice, if you are watching the olympics, stay away from sports or the Olympic website if you are actually going to watch events. Don’t spoil it for youself. Try to watch any swimming final in which Michael Phelps is in, try to watch the sprint finals, even the field and distance finals in track and field, follow the USA basketball team and what they are doing, but don’t take the time to watch until the medal round. Try to watch some of the lesser known sports, and maybe just maybe, watch some gymnastics, because they are very talented, I just don’t like judges scoring events. Wrestling and boxing are present too, so there is a little something for all.
