Olympic Observations

Every 4 years, the Summer Olympics come around. If you're more of a winter person, every 4 between the Summer ones, the Winter Olympics arrive, although the Summer variety is longer running and significantly more popular. Every time they do, in either case, I swear I'm not going to watch "that much" and every time, I get utterly and completely hooked.

It's not just the competitions/Games themselves. Not even close. These 16 days are a glimpse not only into the lives of the people of the host city/nation but also a glimpse of the best athletes 204 countries have to offer, and, in many cases, the stories behind them, stories that run the gamut of emotion and sport, from US Swimmer Eric Shanteau putting off surgery for testicular cancer (that was discovered right before the US Trials) in order to have his Olympic moment to Polish swimmer (and '04 Olympic champion) Otylia Jedrzejczak first auctioning off her medals to support juvenile cancer, only to soon after lose her brother in a car accident, a car accident that she was blamed for, to the much more publicized and sports-related gold medal quest of Michael Phelps, and finally, the little boy, Lin Hao, who had the huge honor of walking next to Yao Ming into the opening ceremony, just a couple months after being buried in the rubble of the Sichuan Province earthquake, escaping and then rescuing two classmates. Each is a compelling and interesting story that we would not have heard about if it weren't for the Olympics.

Another much more sportscentric advantage of the Olympics is the simple opportunity to watch events that barely make a blip on the radar of the sports world or the average person the other 95% of the time. Sports such as gymnastics, track, and swimming and diving take over primetime, and events such as weightlifting, equestrian eventing, and shooting get their moment in the sun, although in many cases the latter set of events do not quite garner the priority to be live, but still get probably their only TV appearance until the next Games roll around.

All in all, the Olympics are 16 days packed with sporting events, with something for everyone, even, as noted above, someone who really isn't all that into sports most of the time.

There's 10 days left. Tune in, you might be surprised at what you end up watching and, I'm willing to bet, enjoying.