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First of all, the current Olympic swimmer use those cheatey bathing suits, the ones that compress the body like a sausage, are probably teflon coated, and take a half hour to get into. Also, the modern Olympic swimming pool is deeper and wider, which results in faster times due to the increased room for turbulence to dissipate. They use ice vests today prior to events to cool the body core temperature down, and Mark Spit had a helluva lot more 1970s-style facial and body hair resistance to overcome, while I'm sure Phelps is cleanly manscaped! So, let's not pretend Phelps and Spitz can be fairly compared. The new bathing suits and technologies are unfair to those who have gone before.
- Mood:
tired
Once again, the Olympics are upon us. Though I'm not a huge sports fan, with the exception of hockey, I'm always fascinated with the Olympics. I have a vague memory of the ill-fated 1972 Olympics in Munich, but the first games I clearly remember were the 1976 Olympics. The 1980 "Miracle on Ice" winter Olympics was a high point for me, but I still tune in every time they're held, summer and winter.
In recent decades, the Olympics have become comfortably formulaic, with the lavish, slightly strange opening ceremony, the march of the teams into the stadium, the "what country is that" moment that always occurs. The US team always disappoints in the opening ceremony, sporting cowboy hats and garish uniforms, in contrast with the more tasteful outfits of the European nations. My wife points out that team USA always seems a bit more disorganized that the others while marching in, and cockier, too, pumping fists in the air, waving flags - in general reflecting the unilateralist foreign policy of the current administration. Hee hee hee.
There are the goofy mascots, and the sappy, sentimental human interest stories. I've already heard about the "lost boy" from Darfur, who has overcome all adversity to be the flag-bearer for the US team. There will be the usual Dan Jansen-type stories, and lots of soft-focus camerawork and violin music when they talk about whatever disease or problem the athlete has overcome. I love it!
Another great thing about the Olympics are the curious, little-known sports that make the headlines only every four years: biathlon, synchronized swimming, curling and bobsledding. More sports of the "extreme" variety are added each time around, perhaps if only to ensure a high medal count by Americans who created and have mastered the sport. I'm looking at you, Mr. "Flying Tomato", getting big air on the half-pipe. Eventually, the remaining Communist countries get their act together and beat us decisively at the sport in question, then we'll have to come up with something new. In the future, I'm thinking we'll find a way to get yoga, Nintendo Wii, and bike-messenger racing into the Olympics.
When the Olympics are over, there's a closing ceremony, and then it's sad because the games are over. For all their goofiness and cliches, they do seem to bring the world together, if only for a couple of weeks. I'll be tuning in tonight, for sure.
- Mood:
excited
The stadium is brand new, and is being called Nationals Park for now, at least until the owners find some bland corporate identity to foist upon it. Access from the Navy Yard Metro station was excellent, with the crowds moving along smoothly and efficiently. Ingress and egress from the stadium was a breeze, and featured some nice views from the ramps to the upper levels. I was pleased to see that the food concessions were primarily local restaurants rather than national chains: Ben's Chili Bowl, Hard Times Cafe, etc. The seats were quite comfortable, and my back pain didn't act up the whole time I was there, which is a very good thing. The amount of lumbar support in the seatbacks must have been just right.
The game itself was OK, the Nationals eventually won, but compared to ice hockey, baseball is deadly slow and boring - it's really about the atmosphere rather than the on-field action. I like the IDEA of baseball, America's pastime, memories of the Senators, NY Giants, and Brooklyn Dodgers, hot dogs, organ music, Lou Gehrig, baseball cards (I had a rookie Roberto Clemente!), Field of Dreams, but in reality, it doesn't live up to the image in our collective memories. I did get my photo taken with their Theodore Roosevelt mascot, which is up on Flickr in "friends only" mode, since I'm such a dork.
A great time was had by all the knitters, though. They were chatting with each other, comparing projects, passing around books and patterns, and exchanging their usernames on Ravelry. My wife's coworker sat with us, and we ran into one of the women from the Columbia Heights knitting circle (Saturdays 2-4:30 PM upstairs at Mayorga). It was pleasant for me, as well, because I was surrounded by friendly female knitters instead of obnoxious, drunk guys with their shirts off. We'll go again next year!
- Mood: relaxed
Thanks to "New2CH" who first noticed this and posted it to the Columbia Heights News Forum.
- Mood:
hyper
The sport this group has chosen is curling, because there's a reasonable chance of learning to do it well, it doesn't require a ridiculous level of athleticism, and it isn't too expensive to field a team. They're in the process of petitioning the Internatinoal Olympic Committee to be invited to the next winter games, so please check out their website and click the links to send the IOC a message of support. I hope it works out - it'd be great to see the lovely DC flag flying in the opening ceremony in 2010.
- Mood:
quixotic
