the olympic spirit
Some random thoughts on the Olympics:
- Bob Costas. Better than expected. Perhaps I just got a bad impression 4 years ago when he referred to the Australian athletes as "just terrifically humble" people ... Yeah ... hmmm ... But Larry Rawson's commentary on the women's marathon was awe-inspiringly awful. How does the man keep getting employed? Is he somehow popular with the non-running audience that tunes in to watch Boston, New York and the Olympic marathons? What is a "human hydroplane?"
- Women's gymnastics. Tremendous agility, strength and co-ordination. But what is it with a sport that eats its young so much that these girls and women are mostly retired by 19. Still, at least they can go to college without the distractions of playing sport, right? Swimming used to be much the same way, but now you get swimmers remaining competitive into their 20s and 30s, when the athletes are more emotionally mature as well as physically mature all around.
- How many times do we need to hear about Tom Pappas' Greek heritage. Now that he's dropped out, will they refer to this as a Greek tragedy. Why haven't we heard more about Bryan Clay, who's Japanese American and looks likely to get a bronze medal? Guess those Tokyo Games came 40 years too early for him to get on the Today show!
- Finally, how inane was Matt Lauer's question to Jeremy Wariner about whether it was difficult to pass his team-mate in the home straight, about putting aside the team and running as an individual! That's what athletics is all about ... running as an individual ...
UPDATE (4.10pm CDT): A silver medal for Clay.
Posted by robe0419 at August 24, 2004 1:00 PM
