DickZ
08-18-2008, 02:43 PM
It has been quite a week.
With my heart thumping, Logan Tom smashed the ball just inside the opponents’ line to give the US women’s volleyball team another point against Japan.
A few minutes later in another venue, Lee Hyojung on the South Korean women’s doubles badminton team, smashed an overhead volley right next to the baseline to win a point in her match against China.
And a few minutes after that in even another venue, Luminata Dinu, the goalie of the Romanian women’s handball team launched a court-length pass to a teammate, but the pass went over the teammate’s head and straight into the goal that the Norwegian goalie had strayed from. This apparently is a very rare occurrence in general, and more so for the Olympics.
And even later, out on the water, the British men’s doubles scull had just picked up the pace from 36 strokes per minute to an astonishing 42 strokes per minute, which propelled them to the gold medal ahead of Greece and Denmark, who took silver and bronze respectively.
And then, to top all this off, Michael Phelps swam the third leg of the men’s 4 x 100 medley relay with his butterfly stroke for the US team, and while this team failed to set a new world record, they were able to pull off a gold medal anyway. That gave Phelps his unprecedented eighth gold medal, and I'm still waiting for one of the TV announcers to point out that he's up to eight now.
I’ve watched so much swimming and diving that I feel like I’ve been in the water for at least 48 hours straight. I was tempted to go back and figure out how many hours I have watched all this stuff, but decided it would be too depressing to know the real answer.
The only thing I’m really puzzled about is why Al Trautwig heads up the coverage team for gymnastics. His abilities seem to be limited to:
pointing out that the gymnast took a step on his or her landing
pointing out that the gymnast stepped out of bounds in the floor exercise
pointing out that the gymnast fell off the uneven parallel bars or the pommel horse.
I only watch gymnastics every four years - whenever the Summer Olympics roll around - but I can tell all those obvious things without any help from Al, who is pretty much in over his head. Fortunately for Al and for all of us who watch the gymnastics events, there are two former US gymnasts - Tim Daggett and Elfie Schlegel - helping out with the commentary so our understanding won’t be limited to whatever Al Trautwig can produce, which isn’t very much.
I hope this ends pretty soon, because I can’t really afford to spend so much time watching this stuff. Oh well, it only happens every four years, so maybe I can afford to watch.
But then the Winter Olympics will be up in another two years, and I’ll have to worry about the men’s doubles luge and the women’s four-man bobsleds.
With my heart thumping, Logan Tom smashed the ball just inside the opponents’ line to give the US women’s volleyball team another point against Japan.
A few minutes later in another venue, Lee Hyojung on the South Korean women’s doubles badminton team, smashed an overhead volley right next to the baseline to win a point in her match against China.
And a few minutes after that in even another venue, Luminata Dinu, the goalie of the Romanian women’s handball team launched a court-length pass to a teammate, but the pass went over the teammate’s head and straight into the goal that the Norwegian goalie had strayed from. This apparently is a very rare occurrence in general, and more so for the Olympics.
And even later, out on the water, the British men’s doubles scull had just picked up the pace from 36 strokes per minute to an astonishing 42 strokes per minute, which propelled them to the gold medal ahead of Greece and Denmark, who took silver and bronze respectively.
And then, to top all this off, Michael Phelps swam the third leg of the men’s 4 x 100 medley relay with his butterfly stroke for the US team, and while this team failed to set a new world record, they were able to pull off a gold medal anyway. That gave Phelps his unprecedented eighth gold medal, and I'm still waiting for one of the TV announcers to point out that he's up to eight now.
I’ve watched so much swimming and diving that I feel like I’ve been in the water for at least 48 hours straight. I was tempted to go back and figure out how many hours I have watched all this stuff, but decided it would be too depressing to know the real answer.
The only thing I’m really puzzled about is why Al Trautwig heads up the coverage team for gymnastics. His abilities seem to be limited to:
pointing out that the gymnast took a step on his or her landing
pointing out that the gymnast stepped out of bounds in the floor exercise
pointing out that the gymnast fell off the uneven parallel bars or the pommel horse.
I only watch gymnastics every four years - whenever the Summer Olympics roll around - but I can tell all those obvious things without any help from Al, who is pretty much in over his head. Fortunately for Al and for all of us who watch the gymnastics events, there are two former US gymnasts - Tim Daggett and Elfie Schlegel - helping out with the commentary so our understanding won’t be limited to whatever Al Trautwig can produce, which isn’t very much.
I hope this ends pretty soon, because I can’t really afford to spend so much time watching this stuff. Oh well, it only happens every four years, so maybe I can afford to watch.
But then the Winter Olympics will be up in another two years, and I’ll have to worry about the men’s doubles luge and the women’s four-man bobsleds.