In a previous post, I professed that I would probably be a casual viewer, at best, of the Beijing Olympics.
Now I fear that I professed incorrectly. Turns out I can't get enough of this stuff. I knew I'd be psyched to watch Michael Phelps chase history - how the heck does he keep setting world records every time he swims? - but it's worse. Much worse.
This is embarassing, but I actually watched a few minutes of (ugh, it hurts to type this) badminton and I might have, uh, not exactly turned off the TV when (ahhhhhhhhhh) women's team handball came on. (In case you're wondering, like water polo but without the water, and not very exciting, unless you like watching women get clotheslined and knocked to the floor every 45 seconds.) And it wasn't even a U.S. match - I think it was Brazil against Hungary, maybe.
I even watched a few minutes of Project Runway because the design challenge this week was to create an outfit the U.S. women could wear during the opening ceremonies. Work it!
Meanwhile, I have to try avoiding ESPN and the news web sites, lest I find out the results of the swimming races before they're aired out here in L.A. Actually, I think I had seen that the U.S. men would win the 4x100 freestyle relay on Sunday night, but it didn't make the race any less exciting - one of the most incredible sports moments I've ever seen, thanks to a mind-blowing comeback on the last leg by Jason Lezak.
I guess all countries that host the Olympics like to "put their best face forward" or some cliche like that. But I think China might have interpreted that idea a little too literally, when they decided a seven-year-old girl who sang during the opening ceremony wasn't cute enough, so they had a (cuter) nine-year-old lip sync. That seven-year-old? She won't be scarred for life by the experience, I'm sure. On the other hand: pretty impressive that the Chinese government has some dude who's an expert on pre-teen girl cuteness, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment