Olympic Olympic, and not so Olympic

This is from the Archives, written on the eve of the closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

Olympic, Olympic, and not so Olympic: A Lay It Down Special Edition

I have watched as much of the Olympics as I possibly could, staying up late into the night to watch things live in Beijing time, going work late in order to watch the morning telecasts, and recording others so I could watch them later.

The Olympics convene every four years and the best of human focus, training, and performance are on display – representatives from 204 countries vie to earn a place in history as the best in whatever field they compete in. I love the Olympics!

Some of my favorite moments:

Opening and Closing Ceremonies – like a visual ice cream sundae: so many things going on at once, the individually pleasing but collectively Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Watching Kobe Bryant elevate his game to an even higher level to carry Team USA’s Redeem Team to gold victory of an excellent Spanish team. Kobe Bryant, Slam Dunk Giant.

Usain Bolt exploding the barriers of human speed – defying what we thought of human limitations in speed: a 9.69 100m sprint (World Record), 19.30 200m sprint (World Record), and 37.10 4x100m Relay (World Record).

The entire Jamaican contingent in the sprints: Big UPs to Jamaica! Representing like never before.

Michael (M-fing Aquaman, the Man from Atlantis, the son of Poseidon) Phelps. Need I say more!! Brian Lezak- clutch. Dara Torres, Natalie Coughlin.

US Softball upset by Japan.

Ivory Coast vs. Serbia soccer match. Best Soccer game I’ve ever seen. Ivory Coast won was 4-2. If every soccer match was played like this, it would definitely pick up more fans in the US. Both teams were relentlessly attacking; instead of the defensive-minded approach of the other teams.

Of course, Nigeria picking up the Silver Medal in soccer.

Nastia Liukin and the US Gymnastics team, The US Volleyball Men’s Team’s win against Brazil for Gold- a game that would make an instant volleyball fan out of anyone.

There were so many compelling stories, triumphs, and performances – many of which we didn’t seen or know about because everything couldn’t be covered.

So despite all of this, I have some complaints – so bear with me. First of all let me preface the following by saying that my opinions don’t reflect what I think of the sport in question as a true sport. My contention is the decision to include it an Olympic Sport. These Sports should Lay It Down as Olympic Sports.

Let’s start:

BMX, Skateboarding – yes, it requires skill, but we have the X Games now, that’s the forum.

Badminton – I’m not saying playing it is not difficult, but watching it was!

Rhythmic Gymnastics – individual and team, I’m sorry, dancing with hoola-hoops is not Olympic. Besides, we already have regular gymnastics.

Trampoline – Are you serious? Again, some of this belongs in the regular gymnastics. Backflipping on a trampoline is for the backyard, parks, picnics, and carnivals, not the Olympics.

Synchronized Diving – you mean to tell me that people practice diving together? There are individual diving competitions at the Olympics, stick to that.

Synchronized Swimming – see Rhythmic Gymnastics above. I didn’t see/watch this at this Olympics, but this deserves mentioning.

Race-walking – ??!!! WHAT ???!!! I don’t get this at all. Racewalking, speedwalking, or whatever they want to call it is not Olympic. I want to walk up to one of the competitors and push them into a jog! I don’t know where to categorize this: are you too slow to jog? The hip-swishing for 30 Kilometers just offends my sensibilities – you can’t lift your knees to high, you have to roll you foot from heel to toe. There were some people who were actually disqualified for going too fast! How does one figure out they are good at racewalking anyway? Do you get tired of jogging one day and say, hey, I can walk pretty fast. Matter of fact, I can walk fast enough to beat most of the people in the world.

Beach Volleyball- This last one is a little different. I really enjoyed watching this, both Men and Women’s competitions. But there is already a team volleyball competition (which was great by the way). But it should not be at the Olympics. If Beach Volleyball is included then there should be an Olympic 3 on 3 Basketball Tourney. As much as I like it, not Olympic.

There were some not so Olympic Moments:

You don’t drop your medal on the mat no matter how much you felt cheated!

You don’t roundhouse kick a referee in the face no matter how much you felt cheated!

I love Sports. I love the Olympic Games.

I call upon the Youths of the World to assemble 4 years from now, the year 2012, in London to celebrate the Games of the 30^th Olympiad .