Monday, August 25, 2008

Weekend Assignment #230: The Olympics, who is watching?

I figure since the Olympics ended yesterday, now is a perfect time to write up my weekend assignment. Why should I write about something that is actually happening right now?

Karen asks:

Weekend Assignment #230: Have you been watching the Olympics? If so, what have you particularly enjoyed? If not, then what, if anything, would entice you to watch?


Actually, I have watched more than I thought I would. I think it's because I was on vacation and I could stay up late to watch it. Besides, what else is on at midnight? Not much, I found.

Some of it I wanted to see. I'll admit, I got sucked in to the Michael Phelps hype. I wanted to see if he'd break Mark Spitz record. I remember pretending to be him with my brother and step-brother when we would go to the pool. I was only three when he won the medals, but he was still popular. Didn't he do aftershave ads? That's where I probably saw him first.

I watched some of the women's gymnastics. Yeah, I'm surprised at that, too. I only watched the team competition. I happened to turn it on near the end and there was a chance the USA team could get the gold. They didn't, but it was still interesting.

We all watched to women's beach volleyball as well. It looked like it was going to be close for a while, but the USA team kicked butt.

I do have a couple of questions. Why are badminton and team rhythmic dance (I think that is what it is) Olympic sports? I think we need to swap those out. (I guess that was only one question encompassing two sports. Oh well).

So, in conclusion, I would say I watched my share of the Olympics this year. What say you?

By the way, I never new there were two "n's" in badminton. I've never written the word down before, I found out through the spell checker. Where would I be without such a handy gizmo.

7 comments:

Karen Funk Blocher said...

Yeah, I grew up calling it "badmitten!" Like an evil glove! But I understand it's a big deal in China, like ping pong.

I remember Spitz on the news at the time. I may even have watched one or two of the races. That's how old I am.

Anonymous said...

Nope, didn't watch the Olympics.

Mike said...

Karen: Glad I'm not the only one. Maybe we aren't cultured or something. :) evil glove, I like that!

DC: That's okay. It's not mandatory. :)

Florinda said...

Isn't rhythmic gymnastics that thing with the ribbons? It's the ice dancing of the Summer Olympics. Why, why, why?

One big difference between swimmers in the Spitz and Phelps eras - hair. Spitz got seven gold medals with more resistance.

Mike said...

Florinda: They should have ballroom dancing; it's almost the same.

Spitz was hairy. That's part of it I'm sure

Kiva said...

I wonder if they'll have a full size post of Phelps like they did for Spitz -- with the gold medals around his neck and thats itsy bitsy American patriotic Speedo... My next door neighbor"s sister had it on the ceiling of her bedroom. Scarred me for life.

Mike said...

Kiva: maybe he'll have one in his 'Aquaman' swimsuit that they wore. Those things were neat!