2008 Summer Olympics

So it's summer Olympics time again, and my family always watches the Olympics when they are on. GO USA GO!

I missed the opening ceremony in Beijing sadly. Most of the cool stuff I missed anyway. I did watch part of the parade of the countries. One of the most boring parts of the opening ceremony. Apparently I missed the drummers and that was the best part. I'll have to go find it online or something.

Anyway, so we only tend to watch some of the events. Some are far to boring to watch. But some of the ones we do watch tend to be; swimming, diving (which I missed this year, dang it) and gymnastics.

First of all, Swimming: Michael Phelps is this years 'Golden Boy' six gold medals and twelve total in his Olympic career. It's been fun to watch him this year. The announcers were talking about the perfect swimmer and they were using Michael Phelps as a model. Talking about his proportions. Height: 6' 4", arm span: 6' 7", foot size: 14, hands like paddles, double jointed elbows and knees, and a flat backside.

So as long as you have no butt you are ok. It just sounds funny to me. But seriously, swimming is fun and their shoulders are seriously huge.

Second Gymnastics: I missed the mens this year, so sad! But apparently the American's didn't cut it this year. But then again that's not the real reason we watch the mens Olympics now is it?

(Freakn air conditioning is broken again, it's so hot in the house right now. Grr!)

Anyway, womens gymnastics. Now I love watching womens gymnastics and those girls are seriously amazing at what they can do. And the uneven bars has got to be the closet thing to flying without an airplane.

But watching gymnastics can be somewhat frustrating. And the judges are slightly retarded. So both China and USA were amazing. But even the announcers were confused on how the USA girls were getting some low scores. And then how the Chinese girls would make more mistakes and still get high scores. Something just isn't right about that.

But in the end the American girls won the gold and silver. Good for them, they did some amazing balance beam and floor routines. Simply beautiful.

I had a drama teacher in high school who used to teach gymnastics, great guy still one of my heroes. Anyway, so he told my brothers class that although he taught girls gymnastics. He would never have sent them to the Olympics. Because the politics on judging is just terrible. The thing is if you have a couch that the judges just do not like, or something... It won't matter how good you do. Apparently you'll still score low. And he said the pressure is just to horrible for the girls to be perfect and skinny and beautiful. So he would never have sent them to the Olympics. And apparently an Olympic gold medalist when asked if she would ever put her daughter in gymnastics said 'no'.

Which reminds me, Although I like watching the event. I cannot believe the pressure they put these girls under. To be perfect and all that. My family was laughing while we watched the final of the womens gymnastics. The girl who one gold, Nastia Liukin. Her dad was an Olympic gold winner. And this is what he told his daughter. "Second place is the worst place that can happen to an athlete. Because only one color is for this family, Gold!"

What?! Are you kidding me! This girl is the world champion, she made it to the OLYMPICS. But apparently that isn't good enough. I mean it's good for her that she won. But now she's expected to win nothing but Gold. Makes you seriously wonder what would have happened if she won silver.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think it's wrong to put that kind of pressure on your kid. I seriously did not see her smile the entire time until after she was done with her floor routine and done with the event completely. And then she smiled. Seriously, seriously messed up!