So, my dad has been a sports journalist for basically an eternity now, but since he prefers to work in the small market newspapers, he doesn't get to travel to the Olympics....though many people have been asking me about that lately. He does, however, have many friends who do travel over there, and he's pretty well informed about what's going on. He wrote on his blog a week or two ago about how China was trying to control what the world-wide media says and does during the Olympics. I'll let you go to his blog yourself....and enjoy what you read. He's a much better writer than I am.
On another note, since the opening ceremonies on Friday night and all their extravagance, I have been completely plastered to my television set. I only get NBC, and that comes in and out depending on the location of the rabbit ears on our set, but they cover the headline sports, which for the Olympics that's really all I care about. And being a former gymnast, swimmer, and diver, these past few days have been intense. Men's and women's qualifying in gymnastics, the men's finals last night with the US taking a surprising bronze (much better than that sixth place I and many others predicted), the synchronized diving domination by the Chinese, and the gills of the US swim team have all kept my eyes glued to the small 19" screen. Perhaps the greatest two moments of the Olympics so far have been the US men getting third in gymnastics last night (behind China and Japan, surprise, surprise) and Jason Lezak coming from behind and touching out France for the gold in the 400 Free Relay on Sunday night. Being the child of my father, I love to yell at the television and tell the athletes how I feel about the performance. However, as Tiffany goes to bed at about 8:30 or 9:00, I had to hold it in, as both of these spectacular events took place after 10:00. So instead I just pumped my fists in the air and pretended to yell.
Next up on my agenda: watch the US women's gymnastics team do what it does best...crumble under Olympic pressure. We got a taste of it the other day when Alicia Sacramone decided to tumble completely off the floor, Nastia Liukin took a seat as she dismounted from bars, and Chelsie Memmel looked like she just didn't want to hang onto the bar anymore. I'm starting to have flashbacks of the 92 games when Kim Zmeskel and company were slated to dominate and all they did was drop the ball. But we'll see.
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