I have thoughts about the Olympics...that maybe aren't "normal" thoughts.
First, I'm noticing a lot of tattoos this year. I don't ever remember being overwhelmed by the number of tattoos...and many seem to be full body, or at least full arm or leg tattoos.
It didn't hit me that none of the men have hair on their chest until I saw one man on a volleyball team who did have hair on his chest. Looked strange.
It's amazing how many of the athletes have physical problems. Whether severe burns that put him in the hospital for months, or kidney disease that made her body swell up to twice its size, Simone's mental health that kept her out of the sports for a long while. It seems like most of the athletes are bandaged somewhere. Being a professional athlete ain't easy!
I'm getting to see events that I've never thought of before...like climbing up a wall (two types...one how fast you can climb a wall and another, "sport climbing" where you climb up weird structures). I haven't seen break dancing, but I've heard this is a new sport competing this year.
Skateboarding is fun, but so different from the first years that it was included. It will be interesting to see skateboarding in the Para-olympics, where instead of using skateboards, the athletes will be in wheelchairs. I loved that the oldest skateboarder this year is 51.
Also, I enjoyed watching the equestrian jumping. The guy who has won the gold for twenty years was riding the horse he has ridden for the past 14 years and got tossed!
I loved seeing the guy who won the gold in pole vaulting...they showed home movies of him pole vaulting from the time he was 5 years old. His father built bigger and bigger poles as he got older. It truly was truth when he said he had dreamed of winning the gold his whole life!
All of the teeth of one of the runners are gold...it's nice he won the gold; they match.
I'm noticing that in some sports, particularly diving, the coaches are videotaping the dives and then showing them to the diver so they can see what they did wrong...we didn't do that in the days when our kids were diving!
I watched the artistic swimming today and realized that it's nothing like the kinds of things we used to see in the movies. The various athletic jumps included aren't nearly as "pretty" as the old fashioned artistic swimming groups.
I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying this year's Olympics. I've probably seen more sports in the last week than I have in the last 10 years.
The artistic swimming is definitely different than when they called it synchronized swimming. It's more like gymnastics now than beautifully coordinated dance in the water. I've enjoyed watching the hammer throw, not just because both the men's and women's resulted in gold medals for Canadians but because it just boggles my mind how they can spin like that and know when to release the hammer.
ReplyDeleteLast night i watched the men's steeplechase. What a crazy, funny sport that is, I kept picturing horses doing it.
I missed the skateboarding which is always amazing to watch. Wow, for someone 51 doing that!
I've watched a lot but it seems impossible to see everything and we are in the middle of a move to a new house so that makes it even more difficult. Hope all is well with you, Bev.
Thanks...you are the fist comment that actually showed up without my having to report it. Yay! Things are fine with us. Still glued to the TV.
DeleteEverything seems to have changed over time. I hardly enjoy the Olympics much. Break dancing? Skateboarding? Come on.
ReplyDeleteHave you WATCHED skateboarding? It's an amazing sport! I haven't seen breakdancing, but I'm sure it's very physical. It's nice to have something other than running various distances all day long.
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