Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing, China, August 8-August 24, 2008
I'm glad I didn't have to go to school or work in these two weeks. With DirecTV, I got every channel the Olympics were on, in addition to an all Basketball and Soccer channel. The free package also had schedules of when the events were taking place and constantly updated medal counts. The Olympics were on at least one channel and I probably averaged 3 or 4 hours of sleep and watch about 20 hours of Olympics coverage per day. I'm one of those people who is more willing to watch the lesser known events. I mean, the Olympics are probably the only place where there are events like Badminton, Handball, Synchronized Swimming, Field Hockey, and Water Polo on American TV. It's also a great Geography lesson. If you look at the introduction of the athletes in the Opening Ceremony, how many of you knew that Lesotho is the country that South Africa sourrounds.
While I applaud NBC of their coverage, my one complaint was that it had too much of an American influence and I know I'm not the only one who thinks this. I would like to know the big stories of athletes from the other countries and even see events that the United States are not expected to win. Some American stories were unavoidable to cover and I'll get to that later, but lets get to some of the highlights.
The Opening Ceremony was one of the greatest shows I ever saw. Yes, there were some controversies sourrounding the event, but looking at those performances that celebrate Chinese history and the Olympics was unbelievable. It was evident that the thousands of performers had lots of practice and I'm glad it was performed to perfection.
Since I don't want to go too long on this, I'll mention the more important moments of the Olympics. Some of the ones that I want to mention briefly are the "Redeem Team" winning gold in Men's Basketball. The United States winning the Men's Volleyball gold medal days after the coaches in-law's were involved in a mugging and stabbing resulting in the death of his father-in-law. Also, 41 year-old Dara Torres finding the fountain of youth to win the silver and narrowly missed out on gold in the 50m freestyle.
With all the talk of the Gymnastics competition about whether the Chinese female gynmasts wre old enough, the Americans did pretty well considering. The United States won the silver medal in the all-around team competition (vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise). Nastia Liukin won gold in the individual all-around competition, silver in the balance beam and uneven bars, and bronze in the floor exercise. Shaun Johnson won gold in the balance beam, and silver in the all-around, and floor. Amid all the controversies in the Gymnastics competition, the American athletes handled all of it with class and accepted whatever awards they received.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica made history by breaking the World Record in the 100m and 200m at the same event. What makes it even more intresting is that when someone usually breaks a World Record in the 100m, it is by no more than a few hundreths of a second. Bolt broke the record by almost a tenth of a second and if he hadn't celebrated before the finish, he would've been even faster. If it wasn't for a certain man winning a lot of gold medals, Bolt would've been the story of the Olympics.
I can't talk about the Olympics and not talk about Michael Phelps. You talk about the absolute pinnacle of drama in sports, this was it. Seven out of eight gold record winning races ended in World Record times, the eighth race was blamed because of faulty goggles that made Phelps virtually blind. It was those goggles that caused him not to know where the wall was, kept taking strokes and won by 1/100th of a second.
What I like about the Olympics is that you don't need to be a sports fan to enjoy the events. My mother is not a sports fan, not even close. During the Olympics, she got into the competition and cheered for the American athletes to achieve gold. It truly is the new way to show to the world you are the best country in the world. Even up to 100 years ago, warfare was the way to gain respect and instill nationalistic pride. While there is still war, now, healthy sports competition has thankfully replaced that nationalistic pride people have in their country. Look at the 1980 Winter Olympic USSR vs. USA Men's Hockey match as an example. It is that added element that makes the Olympics a delight every two years.
In closing, here is the official music for the medal ceremony that I thought was great and suitable for the occasion. It's called "Mo Li Hua" which translates to "Jasmine" in English. Also, below it, here are videos of many Olympic Sports from www.nbcolympics.com Enjoy!
Exclusive Summer Olympics news & widgets at NBC Olympics.com!
Here's to Chicago getting the Summer Olympics in 2016. I'll do all I can to be there to witness the Olympics live.
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