Love the Olympics!

I love watching the Summer Olympics! There's something about all of these super athletes coming together to compete against one another that is so exciting. Maybe it's because I'm not an athlete and I'm amazed by their bodies and their abilities. Maybe it's because this is one of the few times where American athletes/teams truly compete on a world scale and can claim such dominance when they win. I hate how the NFL or the NBA has "world champions" each year; they're not world champions if the teams are only in the US, or at most include Canada! Anyway, I digress...

I must say that I don't necessarily agree with the Olympics being held in China. But I don't feel so strongly about it that I will not watch them. I also don't think the games are going to help us prevent/resolve the many crises around the world. But, can you imagine if we didn't come together at all? I have read and heard about all of the progress in China, but nothing compares to the visuals I am getting while watching the games. They are a force to be reckoned!

I have distinct memories of watching the 2000 Sydney games in my apartment in Carrboro. I don't recall the 2004 Athens games so much, but that's because I was in MBA summer school and had to work through the SouthTrust-Wachovia merger at that same time. In 1996, I got to watch the Atlanta games from Argentina. That was a different experience, because the US media focuses very much on American athletes, whereas the coverage in other countries is more balanced (is it because they don't have as many athletes, and/or they're not as good?). These 2 weeks are giving me something to look forward to at the end of each day, which is terrific given how stressful work has been lately. Now if only I could manage to stay awake as late as the coverage tends to run...!