Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Lost in the Olympics black hole

Anybody else sucked into the Olympics?  It started with the Opening Ceremonies which I have to give props to Danny Boyle who had to follow the AMAZING opening in Beijing, where director Zhang Yimou said he could have only gotten a tighter performance out of the thousands of volunteers if they were in North Korea.  When I watched these Opening Ceremonies, I was thinking of that famous James Brown line, "I don't know karate but I do know crazy."  I'm glad Boyle didn't try to mimic the tight synchronization of the Beijing opening at all and just brought history, politics (National Healthcare System--which is currently readying for major cuts), puppets (that giant baby--so weird!), dancing, humor, and music into one big crazy party bus.

The tv has just been on all weekend.  I didn't even notice my internet was down for days (the girl reminded me of it yesterday morning when I tried getting online).  And I've watched sports that I don't watch unless it's the Olympics.  Anybody else get riveted by that table tennis match between the young 16 year old USA player and the leading world champion from China?  The commentators said if the the USA player had won, it would have been the equivalent of the USA ice hockey team defeating the Russians in 1980.  Well, I guess at least in the world of table tennis.  It was a close match and unfortunately, the young girl lost.

All weekend long and each night I'm glued to the tv for fear of missing some amazing moment.  Apparently I managed to miss the 16 year old Ye Shiwen's major world-record-breaking swim in the 400 IM where she bested Ryan Lochte's last 50m.  Coupled with a big 5 second jump of her own personal best, she is suspected of doping--she was cleared by current testing, but as they say (since they keep samples for a number of years), time will tell.  But I did manage to watch Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings maintain the unbeaten streak of winning sets through three Olympics despite the Czech team coming very close. 

It's amazing the level at which these Olympic athletes compete at.  I'm usually dumbfounded during a gymnastics routine or synchronized dive when I hear a commentator audibly wince or lament, "that's going to cost him/her."  And it's usually because of a leg not being straight or toe not being pointed enough.  And when Michael Phelps came in 4th in the 400 IM and said that the game plan didn't work, I'm surprised there's a strategy beyond, "haul a$$, son."  But I guess these are finer details that put these Olympians far, far ahead of those of us who are pleased we make it to the gym at all.

But on that note, my favorite commercial running through the games is Nike's Find Your Greatness:



Definitely a refreshing message to us mere mortals--that we may not compete on the Olympic level but to inspire us to strive for our own, well, greatness, even if it's just a local Mud Run.

5 comments:

Blah said...
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Pound said...

i had a deep fried chicken wings event to watch the opening ceremony with some church friends. it was hella boring. (the ceremony, not the wings). during the parade, every single 9 ft tall asian man looked mysteriously like my adorable pulmonologist from icu, dr yuen. (do you remember him?) the recap of brit history would've prob been more entertaining if they had explained why the heck they eat organs and blood boiled inside a bladder.

table tennis- gotta be an asian. fun fact- don (our pastor) comes from a line of world class ping pong players. HAHAHA his dad or grandpa was like world champion but gave it up cuz it became an idol to him after he became a christian). SO WEIRD.

and i JUST found out from evan that lance armstrong got found out he was on steroids or whatever during all those tour de france. so i guess they keep the samples to test when technology gets better. don't swimmers shave all their hair off legs and arms o it makes them more hydrodynamic? and zhang yimou directed the china opening? that's it. we need steven speilberg to do ours if it comes to the US again.

also, i just discovered a new vegetarian korean dumpling thing that is not mandoo or gyoza. it's like a flat rectangle, and has noodles inside. love it but no idea what it's called or if i'm cooking it right cuz the bag is in entirely korean. it's just onion, noodles, cabbage and something else but i'm prety sure it's vegetarian. so mad that you're not here anymore once i discovered korean food.

oh and isn't the runner double amputee competing? with his cheater legs? sheesh he said it best when he said he wished he had real legs and was slow than be fast on his fake ones. i'm seeing all these random commercials during the olympics featuring veterans or something who are amputees.

also, blog more!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heidi said...

We have been sucked in this time around. I'm excited to say that this is the first time we have known someone involved. One of Brads Little League coaches is the head men's volleyball coach! Awesome to see him on TV and the match we watched was great!

Blah said...
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Blah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.