One of my favorite things about the Olympics is how they make us all EXPERTS in something that we, really, could never attempt to undertake.
My gymnastics experience consists of a few months of classes in 3rd grade, my school bus driving past Cathy Rigby's house, and 37,000 hours of watching the Nadia made-for-tv movie that came out during the 1984 Olympics. (Remember when Nelly Olsen and Nadia went to the burger joint and were eating fries and A shake and Bela came and was all "You are fat, Nelly Olsen and Nadia! You must do crazy gymnast sit ups for 300 hours"? That was awesome.)
And yet I found myself being super critical of the men's Olympics. I kept feeling really disdainful towards this group of replacements--which if you weren't aware, the announcers reminded me every thirty seconds that this group wasn't the best that we had, but that they would have to do--and getting extra angry when the screwed up every time. I was all "You call that a flippy handstand poundy jump thing? You might as well have a ribbon and a pony tail!" and "I'll pommel YOUR horse, if you fall down or touch your leg or whatever it is that you are supposed to not do again!"
And then I remembered that perfect 10 from the Nadia movie, and realized that a pathetic 12.65 is actually better than a perfect 10--right? So I need to cut these guys some slack, right?
And then Costas used the word "scintillating" in a questionable way and cut to the medal ceremony for Natalie Coughlin 100M backstroke gold, and I saw her crying and all of my disgust with gymnastics was replaced by pride for the backstroke (I'm a breaststroke girl) , since I was on the swim team for three years in elementary school and had a pool growing up--so I totally know what she is going through.
Monday, August 11, 2008
I am not going to watch badminton.
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8 comments:
who isn't a breaststroke girl these days??
I remember that summer that I did gymnastics and then I wanted to quit so my dad gave me the "Are you always going to be a quitter?" talk which I remember to this day (even though I quit gymnastics anyway) and that's why I TOTALLY know how the American guys felt.
Go team!
Hi! It's me, Cindy! Um...me and my friend Kami would watch that Nadia movie practically every day after we got home from school in 5th grade. I still feel so bad for Nadia because she couldn't just eat a burger like the rest of us.
I have those same feelings when I watch the gymnastics as you do. I watch them through my fingers though. Sometimes I think the announcers are pretty annoying.
The announcers are terrible. I'll say to my wife, what a great performance and then the announcer will rip it to shreds. Worse though was the camera work. That poor girl just ruined her life by falling in the olympics and so you decide that your way to a pulitzer is by zooming in on her so close we can count her pimples. C'mon people get a grip.
I too did gymnastics for 5 mins. when I was a kid, and I think I probably have your 37,000 hours of Nadia movie-watching beat - my favorite part was that little 'let's be friends' floor routine/weird dance moment when little Nadia and little Nelly Olsen meet and fall in love - oops, I mean become bff's, lol ;)
And I wasn't really watching the Olympics until the other night when I wanted to watch the news but had to wait through the swimming and gymnastics. I found myself instantly sucked into the whole "How old are the girls on the Chinese team?" controversy. So now, I think I might be slightly hooked.
I know, that extra tiny Chinese girl is totally missing a primary canine! That makes her like 12, sheesh!
I've mostly been watching with pride as America collectively shatters world records and amasses golds vicariously through Michael Phelps, but they kept interrupting it with gymnastics and I too am guilty of shaking my head at the "can't you do better?! you're in the Olympics for cryin' out loud" moments.
Tiffany--what are you, married to a dentist or something?
I nearly busted a gut laughing. I seriously had to have an Olympics reality check when I caught myself watching Badminton on MSNBC!
BTW - I re-found you in a posting on cjanerun's blog - her sister is a friend of a friend and I stumbled upon the blog about their crash quite by accident. My daughter just made me cry - I was telling her a little about what happened and how people were trying to help their family and I asked my girls what we could do. She went to her birthday money she just got in the mail from Grandma and handed it to me.
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