A Touch of OLYMPIC ACTION
All I do is… dang… I forgot
No matter how much it destroys a city and forces homeless people to relocate, I can't stop watching the Olympics. I am struck with Olympic fever every four years. It comes on and I've got to watch the world's best athletes do things I can barely imagine.
I love the Olympics because I'm able to learn about a variety of different sports. Who's going to win the canoe event? Who's the best at sailing? Who will win at breakdancing (which I can't believe is an Olympic event)? Who will get a silver in basketball because the US has Lebron James? There are so many questions that will all get answers before the end of the competition.
The sports that have gotten me most interested are Women's Water Polo and Women's Gymnastics. I started checking out Water Polo just before the Olympics started, but then I found out Flava Flav, co-frontman of Public Enemy, would support the entire team. Water Polo is an interesting sport requiring the athletes to tread water the whole game. I'm ashamed to admit I thought the players were standing up the whole time when I first heard about it. No... They tread water, swim, and toss a ball around all at once. I don't think any sport is physically harder than water polo and like pro swimmers, they probably have to eat 12000 calories a day.
Before I learned about Water Polo I thought Volleyball was the hardest sport due to how much you have to keep track of at once. The ball goes up and you need to clock your jump, your hand, the ball landing, and your own landing all at once. It seemed like solving an extremely difficult math problem with your whole body. Water Polo is like Volleyball while treading water for 30 minutes with your legs.
Women's Gymnastics has always been a universal favorite during the Olympics. Simone Biles has come back for her third competition at the age of 27. That makes her the most ancient competitor in Women's Gymnastics. She's only 4'8" which is the most perfect height for a female gymnast ever. She already has the most medals and we were all worried she couldn't do this anymore. It has been nice to eat those words.
This is what a life long winner looks like.
Here are some of my more interesting memories of the 2024 Paris Olympics:
Snoop Dogg carried the torch to start the 2024 games and gets so excited at whatever event I see him attend.
The unbelievable feat of Flava Flav supporting the Women's Water Polo team with money. Probably the money he made from his reality show, Flava of Love. It seems like he did this on a lark because he knew nothing about Water Polo until he played with the women’s team. This was very tiring to watch for both Flava Flav and myself.
All the old hip-hop classics they play during the breaks. I certainly didn't expect to hear Still Dre during a Handball match.
Gymnastics!
Male Gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik is a vision-impaired dominator on the pommel horse due to how it feels. This man is a cross-eyed (medically called strabismus) legend.
Learning that half-court 3x3 Basketball was an Olympic Sport.
Women's Water Polo!
Learning how dangerous Women's Handball is.
Imagining playing field hockey and that ball hitting me in the face and quitting forever.
Katie Ledecky defending her 1500m title and winning yet another gold medal.
Olympic Men's Basketball... A sport I don't even bother watching because the USA wins almost all the time.
Ping Pong, so I get to pretend I'm Forrest Gump for a while.
There are still a lot of sports coming up I'm also excited to check out. Most notably Men's and Women's Football a.k.a. Soccer). The US men's team has never been a powerhouse of the sport, but the US Women are some of the best in the world. It has been 24 years since the U.S. Men have made it to the knockout round so they have something to prove. The U.S. women won a bronze in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, so they also have something to prove. They have different things to prove, but the need to prove things is what makes football so fun to watch.
I'm checking out all the Olympics action I can. This bevy of sports is really fun. I hope I can find ways to see them live in the future. Hell... I want to make it to Los Angeles in 2028. We'll see if I get the hundred thousand dollars I'll need to make that happen.
