Olympic Thoughts

The Olympic Games end today and I for one can't wait to see the Spice Girls back together!! Girl Power!! I was totally a member of their fan club and I used to walk down to Woolworths after getting my allowance and buy their newest single on cassette. I guess if you were born after, what? 1995? you probably don't know what a cassette is, huh.

Anyway, this is about the Olympics, not my childhood memories. I really enjoyed these Olympics. I think it's the first games I've been legitimately interested in. I vaguely remember the Bejing games, but I don't think I stayed up and sat through the whole Opening or Closing Ceremonies. I don't even really remember watching the games, and I definitely didn't stream them online during the day like I did this year. I like gymnastics and swimming the best. I did watch some archery and that was pretty cool. Water polo confused me. Some of the track and field events were interesting - hammer throw, javelin, pole vault. I saw a guy break his pole into three pieces!

I thought Gabby Douglas did an amazing job. She deserves all the medals she won and more. I think it was childish and immature that people were talking about her hair. Who cares what her hair looks like? She's an Olympic champion! It's cool though, she can totally come over to your house and judge your muscle mass and flexibility despite your perfect hair, right?

I'm really happy for the USA Men's basketball team too. It's been a great year for Lebron, even if I'm not his greatest fan. It was nice to see these grown "tough guys" jumping around and celebrating, smiling and so happy to have won. I loved after the medal ceremony when they were taking pictures and took one all smiling and then one "gangsta" pose. Hilarious. Very good game - Spain was a very worthy opponent.

I thought Ryan Lochte would have won more, but he still did an amazing job. It's almost sad listening to the commentators talk about the negatives and how people didn't win races. You guys do realize these are the best athletes in the world competing against each other? You should be praising these amazing athletes for all they have accomplished!! Like Michael Phelps. No, he didn't win his signature race, but dang he became the most medaled Olympian since someone in the 60's. That's insane and amazing and anyone who brings that down is wrong.

I didn't mean to go on a rant, but I just noticed, especially the American commentators, how quick they were to jump on any negative talking point. The Aussies less so, as I got to listen to them during the day, but with Americans it's like "You must be 100% perfect or we'll talk about your bad points." I'm also a little upset with NBC and how they've been airing this. Being in advertising I know exactly why they are starting our replay of the games at the beginning of prime time - for higher ratings. I honestly think people would have tuned in or DVR'd regardless of what time NBC aired their replay. I would have preferred it live, which is why I streamed a lot of it. So from a business perspective, I understand why they aired what they aired when they did, and all the ads throughout. What I don't understand is why NBC edited out a portion of the opening ceremony where there was a six minute dance tribute to the victims of the terrorist bombing on 7/7. They showed a Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps interview instead because they were trying to "cater to the American audience". As Jon Stewart said, come on, you're NBC. You have no idea how to cater to the American audience. As a British transplant living in America, I was a little upset to learn of that edit.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. I did enjoy these games, like I said, because they were the first ones I really paid attention to and I think that all that dedication and training and just all around awesomeness is just great, and I like to think it brings the world together, at least the good sportsmen of the world. If anything, it should be motivating to us all - if you put your mind to it, your can achieve your dream, whatever it may be. Go Olympians!!