Ken's always been such a wonderful ambassador for the sport*

*from "Strictly Ballroom." Sorry, not really related. It just got into my head because I was thinking about "sport"

I know everyone else in the world has probably already written about this, but don't you love watching the Olympics? We were afraid we wouldn't be able to see what was going on, since we only get 2 visible channels on our TV. But luckily channel 5 is one of the good ones. I don't even care what event is on, I love it all. Here are some of the things I love:

1. The guy who is the announcer for the gymnastics (Todd? Andrew?) and he always says things like "Whoooa! Dis-AS-trous!!" and "Oh no, that was a HUGE error!" when the gymnasts do some invisible mistake. [Except to me it sounds like "That element is *cough cough cough* what a disappointing *cough cough* extremely difficult dismount *cough cough* tragedy." (thanks Sam)]

2. I love it when they cry. Happy crying, that is. When they're so surprised and happy that they won. I also like it when someone is really, really happy to get the bronze, instead of disappointed with it.

3. "Gleb Galperin." Gleb??! What a great name. There are so many great names.

4. So I mentioned something about the medley relay (in track) and Sam was wondering what it was (400, 200, 200, 800 m.--I don't think they do it in the Olympics though), and he THOUGHT it was like the swimming medley, which has a different stroke for each leg of the race. So he was trying to figure out what it was: "What do they do, like, running backwards, hopping on one foot, skipping?" Then we were imagining Usain Bolt having to skip around the track. Awesome.

5. That commercial where the guy in China is watching the pretty girl and he trips over a food cart and all this stuff comes crashing down on him and then he goes to the doctor and the doctor is that same pretty girl. Just kidding. I don't like it. But I saw it so many times, I feel it's a part of me. So I guess I do kind of like it, actually.

6. I love trying to tell if a dive was good or bad. You start to sort of feel like you can tell because you're listening to the commentators saying things about it, so you look for if there's a big splash or not, or if the legs were together, or whatever. It makes you feel kind of cool.

7. Michael Phelps. Come on. How could you not love that guy?

8. I wish they showed more events during the evenings. I really want to see things like ping-pong and rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming. ESPECIALLY synchronized swimming. I've heard it made fun of so often, and yet I've never seen it! Last night they were going to show it after midnight, so we stayed up to watch it, but then we fell asleep before it came on. Woke up to see the pole vault at like 2 a.m. Sad. :(

9. Oops, #8 was not something I love. I'll make up for it on this one. Because I looooove the Olympic music. I wish they played more of it, instead of just the beginning fanfare, but it still gives me chills every time.

10. Getting mad at the judges. Yes! The hint of a scandal. Are they cheating? Merely incompetent? Biased? It makes me mad, but deep down I'm happy because I like getting all righteously indignant about it.

11. The French guy, Jacques What's-his-name, president of the IOC. Usually this only happens to me with German accents, but something about his French accent makes everything he says sound like it's a joke, part of a Monty Python skit or something. "Yes, eet is very-very important to us that we have all of ze rules followed to, ah, ze letter. Zees is of ze utmost importance. Well, of course, zat goes weethout saying."

12. What it is called---the "stro motion" camera? The one that freezes the person (usually in diving) at each different stage of their motion, so you can see exactly how they got from one point to another. I love that! It's so cool.

13. All the track events. Finally I've gotten to the point where I don't start feeling sick and nervous every time I see a track meet. Now I just love feeling like I have some knowlege about what's going on.

14. Those cheesy "human interest" stories they do. "For some, the Olympic dream came easy. But not so for this young diver. Bob?" "That's right, David. Jimmy grew up in this inner city neighborhood [shot of graffitied wall with crack vials by it, sad music in background] where there were no swimming pools for 14 miles. He used to ride his bike past the street gangs [shot of gangly kid on bike] to get to his lessons. In fact, his mom told him he had to quit because they were out of money, but Jimmy would not let his dream die. He dug this makeshift swimming pool in his back yard with his bare hands [shot of puddle in backyard] just so he could practice his scissor kick. Later he was discovered by a talent scout [happy music] and the rest is history. Inspiring." "Wow Bob, that really is inspiring." "Yep, some amazing kids in this group, David."
Okay, I know they're so nerdy, but sometimes they bring tears to my eyes anyway. :)

15. They call it "sport" instead of "sports." As in, "Reaching the highest echelons of sport." Lovely.

I wish we had the Olympics every year. What's your favorite part?