Olympics, week one.

I keep trying and failing to write this entry without getting preemptively defensive, which has more to do with my current harried state of mind than anything else. So I will instead talk about the first week of the Olympics in a completely unselfconscious and entirely superficial manner.

1. What was the deal, during the Opening Ceremonies, with so many countries marching in wearing khakis and polo shirts? It was less the Parade of Nations and more the Parade of Middle Managers. The Americans looked great, though.
   
2. Synchronized diving is really cool and also deeply slashy. The two American boys making each other laugh to break the tension? The Germans basically looking like band boy members, especially the one with the goatee who winked and blew a kiss into the camera? The Russians with their shaved heads and Olympics tattoos? Never mind that wee British kid who hello, will be 18 for London 2012 so he's gonna OWN that shit. (PS, go Mexico!)
   
3. I'm actually finding the Michael Phelps thing to be sort of fun. He's so enthusiastic, and he's so good. It's easier than rooting for someone who's really jaded, which he so easily could be. The interview with Spitz the other night—I know some of you didn't like statements he'd made, but last night he was really classy.
   
4. Which reminds—hahaha, the US men's gymnasts. Hysterical. "That's how we roll" indeed. The French gymnast that won the individual bronze is up there for my favorite Olympian of the games—I love it when people are so excited when they win!
   
5. The music the women are using for the floor exercise sounds like incidental music from a magic act in Vegas in the 70s—like Doug Henning or something.
   
6. I'm really enjoying watching badminton and table tennis and archery, and what floors me about those sports (and possibly some others) is that the commentators are in New York, watching the matches on satellite. I'm sure that saved NBC a lot of money sending personnel for the lower-watched sports; it's more, wow, miracle of technology!
   
7. I adore the little banners the Korean fans have. I find it odd that the Russians are wearing shirts that say "Russia" in roman script.
   
8. Seriously, enough volleyball already. That's the problem with all this round robin-round of 16-quarterfinals-semifinals things, they take forever. I'm even getting sick of water polo and I really like water polo.
   
9. Go Radcliffe crew!
   
10. The women's marathon (yay Romania!) reminded me of Joan Benoit in '84 (yay Maine!) when she pulled away from the pack and just stayed there to win the race. The dash for the silver and bronze was fun to watch, too.

Last night's stuff in a separate post.

an eventful night!

Last night sistermagpie and I had dinner at a pub and watched the Olympics over each other's shoulders. We vaguely watched the women's marathon (until that crazy ending!) and then vaguely watched the men's 1500m freestyle, and looked up at the 100m semis to see that Tyson Gay was out of it.

We got there earlyish, about 7:30, but as the evening went on (Magpie and I tend to have four-hour dinners; it's just our way) the pub filled up, and when Dara Torres came out for her 50m most of the tvs were tuned to the Olympics, and the crowd was cheering for her hard core. It's always fun to hear guys in a bar cheering hard core for a female athlete, but wow, Dara really won the hearts of the guys around us.

By the 100m IM relay, they'd turned off the music and turned on the sound from the games, and everyone was screaming and shouting for the US team, especially Dara at the end. And I'll say here: I think the big rivalry of the US and Australia is really good for the sport. It's no fun for one country to really dominate, and in every event I always think, where's the Australian swimmer? Look out for them! So congrats to the Australian ladies.

I can honestly say, the cheering for the men was about the same as the ladies, at least in our bar. It's really fun to watch something like that with a whole bunch of other people! At the end a guy in the back shouted, "United STATES!" which I have to say, is not often shouted.

I left then, so I didn't see the 100m sprint final until this morning, but I'm adding Walter Dix to my list of awesome Olympians, not only for his own effort and general attitude (and hair) but also his comment on the winner: "The guy can run."