a couple of observations from seven days of olympic coverage so far:

 

  • archery — these bows have technology that rivals most nuclear missle silos. where are the purists that are complaining about the competative advantage of the new swimming suits?!?

 

 

  • badminton — i some how managed to watch the u.s. lose all four of their competitions, and wasn’t able to muster much interest after that.

 

 

  • beach vollyball — i swear. i am rooting for the men’s teams as much as the women’s teams. really. i promise.

 

 

  • cycling — the woman’s road race was held in the worst rain storm i have ever seen. at one point towards the end, you couldn’t tell if they competitors were on a bicycle or a kayak.

 

 

  • equestrian — dressage (the sport of walking a horse around a ring) is the most ridiculous “human” competition i have ever seen. they should give the medals to the horses, not the people holding up the top-hats.

 

 

  • fencing — absolutely addictive. so far, this my curling for the beijing olympic games. bonus: the bulky outfits that the competitors wear helps “prove” that my interest in beach volleyball and field hockey have nothing to do with their sexy outfits.

 

 

  • field hockey — awesome. i never knew this sport existed, outside of seeing girls at my high school in their pleated skirts. the worst player for worst team could put me in a hospital with their pinkie. that’s my kind of sport.

 

 

 

 

  • shooting — my first “cheer out load” moment came when an american snagged the bronze in trap shooting. unfortunately, it happened to be while i was “multitasking” at work.

 

 

  • soccer — the men flamed out in the group stage, the women have advanced to the medal rounds. it’s nice to know that some things never change for the u.s. national teams.

 

 

  • table tennis — despite all of nbc’s attempts to glamorize this sport, it’s still ping-pong. it will *always* be ping-pong. except it doesn’t have beer. (not a good thing.)

 

 

 

the serious winner from the olympics so far is the divine marriage of my tivo to the lady sparkler’s HD tv. it’s amazing how much difference the high-def “experience” actually makes, and (more importantly) how quickly you can watch a 24 hours worth of Olympic coverage when you “tivo” out the fluff pieces, the commercials, and the awful commentary…