Despite being incredibly busy, it seemed to be to my luck at coming home at 1 am almost every night meant that I could watch Olympic events LIVE (I found it hilarious though to watch the 7 o'clock news with Brian Williams expounding on the exciting events "coming next" although he already knew all of the results). I also fell asleep to some of those events out of exhaustion, but it did not stop me from enjoying the crazy mad exhibitions of human strength.
The opening ceremonies were a masterful display of artistry and precision. Every 10 minutes I found myself saying "did they just really do that?" Especially after the footprint shaped fireworks that marched their way to the Bird's Nest (it turns out that those actually were CGI). But the stadium could not have been more beautiful draped in video boards and filled with culture that honored the past while gave hope for the future. It was as if the director, Zhang Yimou, was unafraid to address the problems that China faced and how they could move on. My favorite quote from him would be, when asked why he used 15,000 performers, none of which repeated a performance, "we have enough people."
The first week was drizzled with swimming, which meant Michael Phelps was a headliner, keeping us as entertained as a scripted drama. I stoodup when he won a gold by only one one-hundreth of a second. I cried when his mother cried, I relished in his story of just a young boy in Baltimore turned superstar in a matter of years.
There was also gymnastics. Now, I grew up with Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, Kerry Strugg vaulting with the bad ankle greatness... so I have high standards for girls flipping about while trying to stay atop a 4 in wide beam (you know you're older when you no longer look UP to 16 year old gymnasts and instead remember when you used to be able to spend hours running about and not be sore afterwards [ok Dara Torres makes me feel even worse]).
I can't help but admit that I LAUGHED at the name "redeem team" I mean, yes, they needed to redeem themselves, but I mean, it was funny that it was newsworthy that Kobe, Kidd, and Lebron watched other sports (gasp) and said hello to other US athletes (oh my!), yet at the same time it was nice to hear that egos were set aside fo world-class competition and (like a great olympic movie stated) it's about the name on the front of the jersey and not on the back that matters (thanks, Miracle).
By the second week I was overwhelmed by all the coverage and found myself catching up with highlight reels online. I do have to give NBC credit though, as it never failed to keep up with all the action and allowed lazy viewers like me to was all or part of events by scowering through all of their content. In the end, it was a great olympics and I can't wait for Vancouver in 2010!
Check out highlights HERE!
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