Olympics: Good

originally posted on 8/10/08

I love the Beijing Olympics so far, despite the fact that they kept me from visiting Beijing. I love seeing the events live, which I haven’t in forever. The Korean announcers kick ass. Every local announcer is biased, but the Korean announcers cheer and celebrate openly on air like a high school broadcasting team. It’s awesome. Imagine Bob Costas cheering out loud at a US win - that’s pretty much Korean Olympic coverage. Best of all, since I don’t speak fluent Korean, I can’t understand what the announcers are saying when they are giving the tragic back-story of each athlete. That definitely rules. Plus, I watched something like an hour and a half worth of live Olympic coverage this afternoon (fencing, women’s weightlifting, judo, some sort of unidentifiable indoor soccer-lacrosse hybrid, and other events) with exactly zero commercials.

So, you don’t follow me? You want more awesomeness to Beijing 2008? How about this - a US basketball team that should goddamn win the gold (and our first likable team that I bothered to cheer for an follow since 1996). I also love the Olympics being in Beijing (this year, at least.) It’s been since the Olympics were in this fair city (Seoul) that we’ve had such a fitting “Evil Empire” Olympic rival as China. Over the last 20 years, the Olympics have been sorely missing the USSR and the East German “women’s” team. After watching women’s weightlifting today, it’s good to see China bringing it back.

For the record, regarding team sports, I’m pro-USA basketball, but I’m cheering for Korea in baseball. The US team is only AA players or lower, and I’ve not heard of a single one. On the other hand, 2 of Korea’s starting pitchers come from my beloved Kia Tigers. In soccer, as always, I’m pro-Italy (who Korea starts against) though I hope Korea does well for the party in the streets factor. Plus, it would be nice to see Koreans take to the streets for purposes other than protesting beef or because of a couple of uninhabitable rocks in the middle of nowhere.