Olympics

Don’t ask me why, but I’ve spent far too much time this past week watching the Olympics. In between the Luge and the Snowboard Cross, I noticed a few things:

• I am all for pride in your heritage and homeland, but you know what? If you’ve lived in the United States for over a decade and you train in the United States, you shouldn’t be competing for Bulgrussistan. I mean, c’mon: America is a nation of immigrants, if we’ve accepted you as a citizen here, compete for your new country.
• I don’t care how popular it is, ice dancing is stupid. If this is an Olympic sport, why isn’t ballroom dancing? What’s next, Olympic Ice Dancing With the Stars?
• Twenty-year olds sometimes do stupid things which they’ll probably regret later. I know I did many stupid things in my 20s. The bad news is that it doesn’t stop in your 30s.
• Michelle Kwan should train harder than ever, come back in four years, win a gold, and on the medal stand, flip off the camera and say, “Run, Runner! No one has to die at 30, you can live!”
• Apparently, you can’t ski hung over very well after all. This is a shame, because in spite of the controversy that seems to follow him, I think Bode Miller is a pretty accurate representation of the average American: he plays hard and he works hard, but sometimes his quality suffers for it. For all of the sports writers calling for his head on a platter because he doesn’t represent the “Olympic” ideal: he’s not doping with the ‘roids he’s not cheating on his wife, and last I heard, he hadn’t sexually assaulted or raped anyone.
• Bryant Gumbel is a first class asshole.
• Joey Cheek is first class.
• Zhang Dan earned her medal more than any other Olympian I’ve seen in the games so far.

And finally, would Bob Costas and NBC announcers just shut up already? I mean, really. The inane play-by-play and statements of the obvious in the wrap up really don’t ad anything to the coverage. I know NBC paid 600 Million for the broadcast rights, but sometimes, less is more.