TV: Olympics Wrap-Up

The Olympics are hardly over and I already miss them.

I regret missing so much of the coverage this last week, due to the fact that, unlike most of the first week, I wasn't on vacation. I didn't see any of the Decathlon, for example. And yes, I actually wanted to. And I entirely missed the Archery competitions, dammit!

But I caught enough wonderful moments to keep me satisfied. For example, the U.S. Men's Basketball team having to settle for the Bronze, like the overhyped, underpracticed, non-team oriented chumps they were. There was the crazy disturbance in the Men's Marathon today, when some lunatic defrocked priest actually ran out of the crowd and attacked Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, who was in the lead at the time, and who still went on to win the Bronze. There was popular U.S. Men's Wrestler Rulon Gardner, who, after winning the Bronze, removed his boots and left them in the wrestling ring to signify his retirement. I honestly could not care less about wrestling, be it Greco-Roman style or WWE, and even I got choked up at this beautifully simple statement. That's what the Olympics can do to you.

But enough about the Bronze. What about the Gold? Look no further than the U.S. Women, who seemed to win the Gold in every team sport. The softball team eradicated their competition on the way to their third straight Gold, winning all nine of their games by a combined score of 51-1. That's lopsided, folks. The Women's Basketball won their third straight Gold using the exact fundamentals and unselfish team spirit the Men's team was so sorely lacking. The Women's Soccer team captured their third medal, and second Gold, of the last three Games, and, with the retirement of Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and Joy Fawcett, ended the incredibly dominating dynasty begun with their World Cup win way back in 1991. And then there's Women's Beach Volleyball:



Admit it, you scrolled down to this picture without reading any of the junk I wrote up there first.

See you in Beijing in 2008! But first, Torino, Italy, in Winter 2006, and you know what that means: curling, baby, curling!!