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contemplative

The Olympics: The Good, The Bad, and the Eye Opening

Okay, so I'm going to take a day of from the top ten list and blog about the  Olympics. I watched a good bit pf the coverage. I DVRed at least a little from most  stations showing the games. An impressive nine stations showed events this time through. I watched eveything from Gymnastics to BMX and here are the things I thought to be the best, the worst, and most enlightening moments of the games.

The Good (Things I Liked)

Michael Phelps: Damn, just damn. Eight gold medals in one of the most physically challenging sports on the program. For each medal he had to compete in two (400m  or longer) to three (200m or shorter) races.  For eight events that's twenty races and he often had less than half an hour between each. He also broke the record for most gold medals won by any athlete ever. To top it all off he was a genuinely nice guy. He gave his bouquets to his sister, always looked in the stands to find his mom, and never forgot to thank his teammates for relay wins.

USA Men's Gymnastics Team: These guys weren't supposed to medal without Paul and Morgan Hamm. Someone forgot to tell them that. They picked up a team bronze after having to use two alternates. Even the one alternate that didn't get to compete was cool. He was in the stands for every competition cheering at the top of his lungs. This was what the Olympic games is supposed to be.

Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin: They not only helped the Women's Team to a silver, they each walked away with a slew of individual medals. Liukin took the throne as reigning queen of Artistic Gymnastics with her win in the all-around. Johnson worked her butt off and finally got the gold medal she'd been hoping for in Balance Beam. China may have been dominant, but these girls proved that the U.S. still deserves its place at the top of the sport.

Chinese Women's Gymanastics Team: Despite the question of eligibility hovering around some of the athletes I have to say these ladies put on a heck of a show.

Chinese Athletes in the Games: I think the Chinese just put us all on notice. Coming in at the top of the gold medal chart and only ten medals behind in the total count, China emerged as a sports powerhouse this Olympics.

The Olympic Venues: For these games China erected venues that were not only state-of-art but stunningly beautiful as well. Who didn't think that both the Bird's Nest and Water Cube were among the world's modern archetecturial marvels? 

Usain Bolt: Despite a tendancy to showboat and a really unoriginal nickname this guy was pretty darn cool. He shattered two seperate world records and claimed the title of World's Fastest Man for his victory in the 100m race.

Human Drama: This games was full of little known athletes pulling off impressive wins. Abhinav Bindra took home India's first gold medal since 1980. Samy Wanjiru won Kenya's first marathon gold. These and other stories like them are the reason we have the Olympics in the first place. My personal favorite of these lesser knowns was Oksana Chusovitina of Germany, the silver medal winner in Women's Vault. She competed for the gold medal winning Unified Team in '92 and for her native Uzbekistan later on. This is her fith Olympics and she is twice the age of most of the other competitors. She continues to compete to finance her son's leukemia treatments and had to move to Germany in order to secure those treatments.


The Bad (Things I Did Not Like)

Cheating China: It seems like the more of a front the Chinese Government tried to put up the more they allowed themselves to be seen for exactly what they are. First the opening ceremonies. These should be a no brainer with nothing that causes the slightest bit of controversy. Not with China apparently. We got fake fireworks and a lip-syncing scandal. Seriously, I keep wondering how they told poor little Yang Peiyi that they were going with someone prettier "for the good of the country". Yeah I bet that explanation totally prevented her from crying herself to sleep. The sound you hear is my eyes rolling at about a hundred miles an hour. Then of course is the age controversy with the Chinese female gymnasts. At first three and now possibly five girls might be under 16, the minimum age to legally compete in an international competition according to the International Federation of Gymnastics. An investigation is underway finally but I doubt anything will happen. China's known this has been coming for most of the games and I'll bet that all the paperwork will check out. As for my own personal opinion, I just don't know. They look too young but long term elite sports training (as these girls have had from age three in some cases) has been known to stunt growth and development. Whatever the case I doubt any evidence will ever be found that says they are too young. China's had enough time to falsify anything that might prove it.

Too Many Stars: In this Olympics especially I think that too much time went to promoting certain athletes. If your name wasn't Michael Phelps or Dara Torres than you might as well not even have competed in swimming. Not that I don't like both of these athletes, but Natalie Coughlin was a world record holder going in and she was barely mentioned despite an impressive run. Alicia Sacramone only got her moment of fame because her screw ups cost the US a team gold in Women's Gymnastics. We never heard the stories of Chellsie Memmel, Bridgett Sloan, or Samantha Peszek, all of whom were USA team members and world class gymnasts in their own right. Hundreds of athletes competed in these games. They deserve the same recognition as the superstars.

Equestrian Doping: Four of the athletes competing in the equestrain jumping competitions got busted for doping. Not themselves but their horses. Now I'm not a member of PETA or anything, but that is WRONG!!!! I could give two tenths of a crap if an athlete chooses to dope him or herself. Enjoy those mustaches girls and those breasts guys, you deserve them. But how, in any circumstance, can a person justify doping a defenseless animal? These douchebags deserve to get covered in the super sensitizing lotion they put on their horses and rolled in broken glass.


The Eye-Opening (Things I Learned)

Synchronized Swimming: I stumbled across this on Oxygen. I sort of made fun of this sport in the past until I learned a few facts. Did you know it takes ten hours a day in a pool to learn how to hold your breath and swim correctly in order to be competitive. Not only that, but a simple move takes two years to master. None of what these people did can be called simple in the broadest sense of the word.

Rhythmic Gymnastics: This event is also surprisingly complicated. These girls do things with their bodies that put contortionists to shame and they do it with a hoop, clubs, rope, or twenty feet of ribbon. Give me twenty feet of ribbon and I'll end up in a tangled mess inside of a minute. The team competition is especially impressive. The girls must form at least six complete formations and do at least eight exchanges (all the gymansts throw their props in the air and then they have to be caught by a different member of the team). 

Table Tennis: For a long time this event was squarely in the "what the hell is this doing in the Olympics" category for me. Then I saw a story about it this year. Apparently table tennis was responsible for China reestablishing diplomatic relations with the U.S. after the communist takeover. Who knew?

Okay, so that's my take on the Olympics. See you all tomorrow with a continuation of my latest top ten.