August 18, 2008

  • Thoughts on the Olympics...

    A little over a week has gone by since we saw the most extravagant and expensive Opening Ceremony in Olympic history.  Since then we have seen a world and olympic records being broken left and right in the swimming pool.  We have seen a bunch of Chinese kids (along with some questionable judging) win in gymnastics.  We saw the precision machine that is Chinese diving.  We saw the Korean women's archery team fail to win a gold medal; after winning gold since 1984.

    What can be said up to this point.   Not much.  This is a well run Olympic games,  at least for a totalitarian nation nation.  China made numerous promises to get the Games.  Now that they have them, they are reneging on a lot of those promises.  However, there's nothing that anybody can do about it.

    Most of the sports I'm interested in are over.  The only ones that are left that I am interested in are taekwondo and baseball.

    One final thought I have is that, I think the Olympics have become a little bit more popular now.  After 1988 Olympics, the USSR imploded.  There was no longer anybody to cheer against.  The big bad Russkies and east Germens were no more.  I know this reeks of Cold War nostalgia, but hey I am a child of the Cold War.  The next three Olympics there was no real reason to cheer against the Russkies because they were a pat of the good guys now.  But, now.  Now, we have somebody to cheer against.  We have the big bad ChiComs.  They are the ones who lie and cheat their way to the podium now.  The Olympics are interesting again.  We can bring the nationalistic pride back into the Olympics.  The same pride that makes you cheer when a Chinese gymnast falls, or a hurdler limp away from the starting line.  The kind of pride that makes you stand and chant: USA! USA!, when you see Kobe dunk on Yao.  The Olympics have always been more interesting with an us versus them twist.

    That's it for now.  Go Team USA!

Comments (2)

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment