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Wednesday, August 18, 2004
The Olympics Have Taken Over My Life
Here are some random thoughts five days into the Olympics:
* I will never, ever get tired of John Williams' Olympic Theme song. I like it so much I downloaded it and listen to it at work. Wouldn't it be great if that score started blaring every time you entered a room?
* The emptiness of these stadiums is absolutely embarrassing. I mean, I know that potential visitors are scared off by terrorism and that some of these sports are rather obscure (synchronized diving?). But given that Athens has over 3 million people and the city has been begging for the Olympics for the past two decades, you would think there'd be a better turnout. Even for a universally popular sport like soccer, there were 8 empty seats for every fan at each game that I've caught. It's awfully hard to get psyched about watching something on TV when nobody makes an effort to attend in person.
* Can we all agree that it was ludicrous to expect Mike Phelps to win eight golds? Thank you, we may now be sane again and appreciate his actual accomplishments after they happen.
* USA Basketball is absolutely painful to watch. Shawn Marion, Richard Jefferson and Carlos Boozer are totally useless out there. There's no need to have eight guys on the roster who's entire repertoire consists of moves like: hesitate, drive into the lane, realize that there are four defenders surrounding you, then flail up a three-foot brick. The Sports Guy said it best- it's time to blow up the Dream team concept and build a team that works cohesively.
* These past few days have made me realize how much I missed Bob Costas. Why oh why is he stuck in the programming wasteland that is NBC Sports? I remember the early '90s glory days when Costas would host NFL Live (with co-host O.J. Simpson) then seamlessly slide into the baseball broadcast booth next to Joe Morgan every fall. We all took Bob Costas for granted. I'm just glad I have HBO so that I can catch him on Inside the NFL this fall.
* Everyone complains about the fact that the primetime broadcasts are tape-delayed while NBC presents them as if they were live. I have no problem with it, since there's no working around the fact that Athens is ten time zones ahead of us. Even if I know the results, I would rather see the complete footage of the event. It's the same reason we watch SportsCenter: you know the result but you want to see what happened with your own eyes.
* This is the second Olympics in a row that gymnastics just hasn't done it for me. I was enthralled during Barcelona and Atlanta, but for whatever reason I just don't have the attention span for it. I can't keep track of which gymnasts are on which apparatus, who got what score and which country is leading. I think I'm getting old.
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