Beijing Olympics 2008
Looks like the Olympics have come to an end for another four years. As always, it was neat being able to watch the athletes in international competition at the height of many of their careers. These two weeks have made for some pleasantly different TV watching in the evening these past couple of weeks and overall the experience was definitely enjoyable.
Of course, I was greatly impressed with the US showing at the games this year. The team did excellent in the medal count, earning the greatest number of medals overall and coming in second only to China in the amount of gold taken home. America was impressive as always in team sports and the outstanding individual performances of Michael Phelps, Nastia Liukin, and Shawn Johnson certainly helped keep the games exciting. Outside the arena of competition, I liked the antics of Béla Károlyi offering up commentary on the women’s gymnastics. The opening ceremony was also amazing; the extreme level of synchronization and precision shown by the Chinese performers was a sight to behold and, as near as I could tell, they pulled it all off perfectly.
For as great as the Olympics were, though, there were some aspects which I think could have been better. I spent most of gymnastics feeling annoyed at the judges for what felt like a tangible pro-China bias, not helped by the strong allegation that the Chinese gymnasts shouldn’t even have been there, but cut only by the pleasure I took in seeing Shawn and Nastia win competitions despite the seemingly preordained result. Diving and swimming were both a bit boring as these sports also seemed to have predetermined conclusions, although this time due to the predictable dominance of the winning athletes. NBC also irritated me with their fawning over Phelps in the pool as they seemed to forget that there were other Americans who were also being amazing, and who were being amazing for reasons other than just to make Phelps look good.
From well before the beginning of the Olympics, it seemed as though we were poised for a massive and ongoing discussion over the political climate of China. As someone who firmly believes that the Olympics and politics ought never mix, I’m pleased that for the most part they never did. The focus remained consistently right where it belonged: With the athletes who went to Beijing to be the best they could possibly be.
And now I wait for London.
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