Olympic Stuff On My Mind

Just some random stuff on my mind heading into the last weekend of the thirtieth Olympiad.....

How come we don't have team handball in the good ol' USA?  Quite the exciting sport if you ask me.  Kind of reminds me of indoor soccer.  Lots of action.  The announcer says they are all professional players.  I'd watch.

What's the deal with Felix Sanchez.  Cat wins the 400m hurdles in 47.63 seconds.  At age 34.  The exact same time he won the gold in at Athens in 2004.  Huh?  And he runs for the Dominican Republic.  So?  He was born in New York City.  He was raised in San Diego.  The places are in the USA, not the Dominican.  I'm putting his gold in the USA column.  Yup!

Now I gotta' get to gymnastics.  Really.  First of all, the judging seems to be pretty subjective.  A tenth for this, a tenth for that.  Whatever.  Very athletic people--I'll grant you that.  But I finish 4th, I get to file a review?  The announcer says you are taking a chance, the judges may find other things to dock you points for.  Tell you what.  I take that chance every time I finish fourth.  Find something else wrong and now I'm in 5th or 6th?  So what---I challenge every fourth place from here on out.  And all these sports like diving and gymnastics and trampoline--trampoline???---I'm not counting these medals with all the judging of scores.  I'm counting the things that are timed or weighed or scored that I can see, like things with a ball.  Enough of the tenths multiplied by 3 throw out the high and low then work back from a tie.  Toss 'em and bring back softball.

I read there are about 10,800 athletes at the Games.  I also read that they are partying pretty hard after their events are completed.  Excellent.

Oscar Pistorius is the South African 400 runner who is a double amputee.  He made it to the semi finals.   I watch the story that showed how the blades didn't give him any advantage.  He says he doesn't want to be considered handicapped. Okay with me.  Why then is he in next weeks para Olympics?  I don't get it.

Liu Xiang won the gold medal in the 110m hurdles in 2004.  He made the Olympics in 2008 and 2012, yet was never able to clear another hurdle.  Odd.  And is LoLo Jones the most famous Olympian to never have won any medals?

Bolt is fast.  Don't know if he can play soccer.  USA will win basketball--men and women.  Nice to see the home team doing so bloody well.  USA mens boxers are lacking.  Track and field are the most enjoyable to watch, except for women's beach volleyball.  Nice to see some of these countries in the middle east allow women to compete.  This is the first Olympics that the USA has sent more women than men to the games.  Looking forward to all the finals in track and all the finals in the team sports.  Go USA!!!