The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, part I

I have to admit to being quite the fan of the Olympic Games. From the Opening Ceremonies to the Closing Ceremonies, from prelims to finals, I try and watch as much as I can.

For the most part, I have enjoyed the events this year. The Opening Ceremonies were a little tedious, but to sit through them is the separate the Olympic watching men from the boys. Bad speeches in strained, poorly timed English are a necessary evil every two years, even when they are being held in the United States, but I have never shied away from a cringe worthy performance.

The swimming has been a big focus early on in the games. Ian Thorpe, Pieter van den Hoogenband, and Michael Phelps had their race of the century yesterday in the 100m freestyle. It was a good race I suppose, but it is tough to call it the race of the century. If the 19th century gave us Phileas Fogg legging it around the world in 80 days and the 20th century gave us the race to the moon, doesn't it seem just a little underwhelming to consider an Olympic final of the same calibre? Maybe that proves that I'm just a curmudgeon, harking back to the days of yore. On the other hand, I really disliked the tradition at the end of the 20th century of proclaiming this or that as the biggest this or the best that of the last hundred or thousand years. It is a little disingenuous to name Michael Jackson the male artist of the millenium. What about Leonardo di Vinci, he was a male artist? Leonardo di Caprio, anyone?

The men's team gymnastics final was last night and that really was good. I can stomach gymnastics for a couple of days every four years, so I save it all up for the Olympics. For the most part, each of the competitors did better than what I could have done. The only way that I could do some of those flips on the floor exercise would be if someone dropped my lifeless body from the rafters and I bounced up to let inertia do its thing. I thought the US had a real chance but then the Japanese team did their work on the high bar and it was all over. I'll have to give a shout out to Mr Kerry Tamura-san. Otanjobi omedato gozai-a-mas!

The nice thing about being in a country that can't really manage to field a decent team in any sport other than the ones most American's don't care about is that you get to see those sports that most American's don't care about. Namely Badminton. It is a fascinating sport. High speed, funny racket, funnier ball. It has it all. I like Badminton, but I don't expect I will be all that interested in curling when the UK send the reigning women's curling team gold medal holders into a Turin stadium.

One sport that I find absolutely death to watch is sailing. Other than the funny names (Yngling) all I can see is a guy hanging off the side of a boat and hearing the commentator comment on the rigging of his jib.

More on the Olympics as they develop.