Beijing '08!

Bum bum ba bah bum, bum bum ba bah bum, Bum bum ba bum bum bum bum . bum bum babum ba ba bum baba buh buh bum. Come on you know the song. I love the Olympics. A lot. So much. When they are on, all my family dose is watch them. They appear on every tv in the house, which I love. There is no escaping it. My Mom dose not love this so much. But everyone else, the first thing they say when walking in the door is "Are they on yet?" there is not even any allowance that for the fact that something else might possibly be on the other 100+ channels. Nope, just the Olympics. Also I love watching sports that I completely forget exist for four years between Olympics. Like synchronized diving. I mean this is seriously cool. Or mens gymnastics. Or rowing, open water swimming, and water polo. People actually compete in these things yearly? I guess so. Or badminton, which I love. We have a set in our backyard, we play all the time. But that makes it even more difficult for me to envision it as an Olympic sport. I mean I play it! The least athletic person in the entire world.
I also enjoy how the commentators tell you everything you need to know about the sport, prominent players and obscure rules so that you suddenly become an expert on archery and are more properly prepared to notice when the athletes fail miserably. They just in case you missed why the judges are giving them a 1.1, they tell you exactly what they did wrong. Because they know we don’t know what a horse jumping over a fence should look like.
I love how Ralph Lauren designed the team uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies this year. He put them in a nine piece ensemble. Classy. How much more American a designer could you get? I always want the USA outfits. The warmups, the jackets, everything. Even though I would not walk down the street wearing it, I love it.
But mostly I love the people who come from countries to poor to actually send them there, who enter swimming, but come from a country where there is not even one Olympic sized swimming pool in the entire country. Or the guy who finishes the race an hour after the last guy, but still finishes, because that is what he came to do. (I say that he was the one who really won.) Or the woman in her thirties who is up against a bunch of fifteen year olds in the gymnastics vault finals. Or the athletes from Russia and Georgia hugging on the medal stand even if there countries are at war. That’s what the Olympics are really about, and I love it. And I love the song. And the rings, and the flaming caldron. And I still love my 2002 beret.
XOXO, S