Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I'm Olympic-addicted!

This commercial has been running during the Olympic Women's Softball competition on Universal HD. I love it because it celebrates women -- chicks who compete with passion. It's a beautiful thing.

Two weeks ago I told someone that I wasn't really looking forward to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. I'm sure I said it in a superior and sarcastic tone. Like I've been there, done that...can't impress me. I'm much more interested in winter sports and I just wanted it all to be over so that we could get back to the U.S. presidential race. All I wanted to know was when Barack Obama would announce his running mate, and who would he pick? Well, it's two weeks later, and I couldn't care less who Obama picks in the Veepstakes, at my house it's all Olympics, all the time.

I have the Olympic FEE-Ver, and the only cure...is more Olympics!

Last Friday night, saintly John Edwards admitted he had cheated on his beautiful and cancer-stricken wife right there on the prime-time television -- and no one watched. The ratings were terrible. Why? We were all watching the fake fireworks over Beijing. Two hours of nameless people from every country in the world wandering slowly into the stadium -- I couldn't look away. It was riveting television!!! Did you get an eyeful of the Romanians' flower dresses? I almost called people on the east coast and woke them up to discuss. Who cares that a seven year-old girl's self-esteem may have been crushed when there's 2008 choreographed drummers pounding out a beat?

If you have only been watching the Olympic sports that are broadcast on NBC, you're doing yourself a disservice. I've watched
Water Polo on MSNBC, Equestrian events on Oxygen, and Women's Softball on Universal HD. My new favorite sport -- Synchronized Diving! Best. Sport. Ever. How do they do that? And I love when you can hear each team countdown in their own language. The Mexican divers said, "uno...dos...arriba!"

The first Olympic games that I remember was the Summer of 1972. The games were in Munich and Mark Spitz was the
Michael Phelps of those games. I was nine and I watched the Olympic competition on the television in my Grandma's living room in northern Michigan. While I know I was glued to the competition, I don't have a clear memory of the tragedy that unfolded during those games in Munich. I'm afraid that the Russians are counting on the world being as Olympic-addicted as I am as their tanks roll into Georgia.

Just before the Olympics started this year, I clearly remember telling someone that the only sport I liked less than
Track...was Field. Yes, I was going to watch some of the first week's gymnastic competition, but I doubted I'd still be watching the Olympics during the second, and more boring, week of competition. Yesterday, KLAC did a preview of next week's Olympic long jump competition. I sat in my car with the engine running for 15 minutes after I got home listening to it. With the price of gas these days, that should tell you how passionate I am about the Olympics.

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