The Sports

You want to know the best way to judge Olympic Achievement? It can be measured by how many journalists working the Games will stop what they are doing to watch. It doesn’t happen very often. These are people who for the most part not only work every Olympics, but they also cover these sports all year. It takes something special to catch their attention. Enter Michael Phelps. His 100 meter butterfly race had journalists pulling chairs around the television in the dining area. They don’t cheer they just watch, and when the finish graphic popped up after they touched the wall, there was a groan of amazement that could be heard murmuring through the room.

Regardless of whether the relay team wins the last Gold for the great eight, he has at least tied Mark Spitz for the single Olympics Gold mark. And there have been numerous quotes I’ve read from other swimmers and coaches that say in one way or other, that Spitz was swimming in a far less competitive generation. Let me help put his accomplishment into perspective a little more. I don’t have the benefit of super promotion via NBC. I’m just watching uncut, live feeds. The CHINESE cheer for Phelps as loud as their own athletes. His success has transcended nationalities. He has simply become the man...and very rich at the same time.

You wouldn’t believe some of the hours that people have to keep here. This is a 24/7 operation and most of it is divided into shifts to give coverage to everything that needs to happen. Some of the NBC interns work 3pm - 3am, 6 pm - 6 am, and so on. That really puts your body out of whack. I have a hard enough time with 3:30 pm to midnight. The light outside says one thing and your body gets trapped in this bizarro sleep schedule. And why? So that you the captive audience at home can have the best coverage imaginable.

This is the last Games for baseball and softball. They did not make the cut for the London Games. The IOC needs to cut some more sports. The amount of competition that gets played out over the two weeks is just silly. And within each sport its silly the number of different events that get competed in. Like sailing. Who cares. Just pick a boat, put a crew in it and see who can make it the fastest across a lake. Takes one day, you’re done. Road Cycling has it right. Make a course, startem, and see who wins. The other thing that drives me nuts about the Olympics is when they put in sports that really aren’t world championships. For instance. Tennis is a world tour already. We don’t need another sport added to the Games that already is competed in internationally by the best. Basketball has at least gotten to level internationally that it works to have an international tournament. Baseball is being taken away for precisely this point. Who cares. Minor leaguers getting together to play. We don’t care. Men’s field hockey. If only a quarter of the countries even know it exists, it shouldn’t be an Olympic sport.

Some sports are around just to give small countries something to get excited about. You know what Iceland is good at...handball. They dominate handball. And we all care. Its all about including everybody. And sometimes even countries like the U.S. start to steal the limelight in sports we shouldn’t. Table Tennis. We have a pair competing for the bronze as I write, although it should be noted they are Chinese by race.

I’ve decided that Stacey and I’s children are going to compete in the Olympics, and we’re going to hire a private badminton coach from Indonesia to come train are kids. Very little risk of injury, very little competition to make the team in the U.S. You have several windows of opportunity to crack the competition as well. They can practice in the backyard, cheap gear needed, and it won’t cause them to have no social life.

In all seriousness the Games are really a great place for many of these unknown athletes to shine. I can appreciate the discipline and hard work they put in for years to compete at the biggest event in the world. For Olympians they get to have a very rich cultural experience in the village hanging out with the other athletes. To see USA basketball members show up at a swim meet is something you only see at the Olympics. My only question is, what will Michael Phelps first post Olympics cameo NBA game be?