Olympic Fever! Catch It!!

I just can't get enough of the Olympics. I watch all day and all night. And I love watching the obscure sports. Team handball, water polo, volleyball, canoeing, boxing, and even baseball without big leaguers is a good sport to watch. But the swimming, not just the swimming, but the Michael Phelps stuff, has really been something.

He's won 5 gold medals so far this olympics. That's just amazing. He's won in dominating fashion and he's won by split seconds. He's won on relay teams. He's won everything. And not only has he won 5 golds, he's set 5 new world records along the way. Unreal. The relay when they beat the French relay team was one of the most amazing comebacks I've ever seen??? Especially for it to be over the French, what a great victory.

I even watched those little gymnasts last night. I felt real bad for the girl that fell off the balance beam. But the things that they do on that thing are amazing. Flips and twists and shit?? What the hell?? It's amazing!! They won the silver, I wouldn't be too upset about that. But the announcer guy was totally ripping this 20 year old girl to shreds. He certainly wasn't pulling any punches.

But, she choked, and from hearing the stories about what these kids go through, I guess they have ever right to be that upset that she choked.

And this brings me to the tragedy that is the olympics. My girlfriend and I were watching synchronized diving the other day and they interviewed one of the American girls. I believe it was Kelci Bryant who they were interviewing. She stated that she has no friends, she left her family 2 years ago to only train, the only people she talks to are her teammates. She's 18-19 years old and has given up here final high school years to compete. And before the end of the interview she made the comment, "...I have the rest of my life to have fun and do things for myself, but now, this is something I have to do..." Ummmm????? What????? Has anybody told her that her best years are her high school/college years? That she has just decided to give up?

And the worst was the Chinese gymnasts. There are all sorts of rumors following these girls around about their ages. The minimum age of all olympic participants is 16. And I can guarantee you that these girls were not 16. They looked about 13, tops. And they looked like very sick 13 year olds. They talked about these girls and how they are taken from their parents at 3 years old to do gymnastics, only gymnastics, for their country. They get to see their families once a year. What happens to these girls once they reach 17??? They obviously don't have any job skills, and I find it hard to believe that they have even had an education. So what happens to them afterwards? Scary.

And my last comment about the gymnastics last night, another comment was made that the Romanian gymnasts are just not what they once were. And what could have possibly happened to them, they were once so proud of their gymnasts. Well, apparently the announcer guy, that was ripping the poor american girl for falling and making a comment that she needs to get her head screwed on straight, spoke to the coach and this is what he said. "...we have to treat these girls differently now. They're westernized, they have friends, and they don't want to train as hard as they should..." Soooooo, wait a second here. These girls are being punished for wanting to have friends and lives outside of the gymnastics world?? God forbid them!!!! We should burn these girls at the stake for having a social life!! They should be winning golds for Romania, not texting their friends!

I always knew that these girls were worked to death, but I guess I didn't actually hear it firsthand like I heard it last night. I feel very bad for these kids. They deserve better than this...

Boxing is a joke. The scoring system they use is archaic. I watched some kid from Cincy fight the other day, somehow he lost. He thought he was winning, but he was losing, he slipped and fell, and somehow he was credited with a point. I do not know what the hell was going on.

But, the rest of the olympics have been great!!! Can't wait to see if Phelps adds to his Gold Medal count. What he's been doing has really been something to watch.

Olympics in Chicago 2016!!!