Olympics, week one.

[jlh]

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.

Comments

[adjudicated.livejournal.com]

3. What did Mark Spitz say that was upsetting? I didn't hear any of his commentary.

5. I'm imagining all the gymnasts in flowing, wavy long hair and moustaches now. Doug Henning FTWGold!

[jlh.livejournal.com]

People have commented about it without really saying, but I assume they were referring to what he said about being in Beijing, where he said he wasn't going because he hadn't been invited, and he didn't think it was appropriate to just show up on his own initiative. Some folks thought that was an arrogant thing for him to say, I guess? But I think he was right, as it just would have added to the Phelps circus.

[morganmuffle]

The khaki was very strange, a lot of the outfits were very strange actually though we also loved the US outfits, especially the terribly 20s caps.

Can't wait to see what our baby diver does when he's a bit older (but if you want slashy it turns out the most likely reason for his partner Blake being a bit... harsh on him afterwards was because Blake's normal partner lost out to the kid and they are VERY close and possibly saved Blake's life at one point)

We don't get much water polo or volleyball, actually we very rarely get sports we don't have a hope in unless it's actually athletics or similar which is it's own frustration.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

We don't get much water polo or volleyball, actually we very rarely get sports we don't have a hope in unless it's actually athletics or similar which is it's own frustration.

It's interesting you say that because that's one of the things people criticize the US coverage for, in a way that implies that the Canadian and UK coverage doesn't do that. But they've shown tons of badminton and table tennis and I don't think there were any US teams that even qualified to be at the games. To their credit, though, they haven't shown a ton of basketball, even though the US is so dominant.

Blake looks like someone, and I can't think of who, I kept looking at him and he looked like some actor.

[morganmuffle]

I think if you have sattelite then you can watch at least some of most sports through the BBC but I've only got freeview so we tend to have 3 choices and they're almost always ones we have hopes in or, as I say, athletics or gymnastics which everyone associates with the Olympics.