The Times that Try NP's Soul

I hope I didn't infringe on any copyrights by using that but I thought it would be cutesy. So I did it. I decided that I'd finally blog b/c I now have something to blog about. Every 2 years, the Olympics come around, and my patriotic streak, which I sometimes, or often, forget exists, rises to the surface. I hold my breath as an American almost beats the Chinese in some event, even though I have no idea who is competing and will probably never meet them, and they will sink back into oblivion soon after the games do.

(This also applies to many of the countries that we will completely forget about until the next Olympics, or a major catastrophe happens there, which ever comes first)

But I still feel a sentimental attachment to them, so the Olympics are the times that try the patriotic part of me. I scream at the TV when something goes wrong. I pity the Americans who are .01 seconds away from winning.

(Unless of course they are basketball players, and are paid to do what they do, and they can't win, but more on that later.)

I am watching much more sports than I usually do, and for someone bizarre reason I found myself watching table tennis (i.e. ping pong) and I was cheering for some American who was playing. Don't know why b/c I have no idea why that would be considered a sport, but I wanted her to win. Of course it was on Bravo, so I've decided that Bravo is now NBC 8 (as in ESPN Ocho from Dodgeball), and that is how we shall refer to it.

My second point is that the Olympics are a bit coincidental. This is b/c of the fact that it is dependent on how well ppl. do on one day in a few trials, and then they are considered the best in the world. It doesn't seem quite fair to me that they hold this above every other major event b/c its impossible to determine the best. People are winning by hundreths of a second or inches based on where gymnasts place their foot, or a touch of the net in volleyball. It's reminds me of biology (words I never wanted to say) b/c we learned that the best race horses are all so similar now that the races are always up in the air b/c these horses are basically the same, and so it's all based on one performance, one day. And one horse that may have a slight, slight advantage over the others doesn't necessarily always win.

Sports these days have gotten so that there are a few power countries in each event and no one else has any chance. If you watch any swimming event-there are the top two or three people, and the others get cut off by the camera b/c they are so far behind. These people are all training exactly the same way, and there is little difference, so any edge they can get, they try to use. This sounds a bit disjointed but you get my idea.

The last, and funniest thing, or perhaps, most astounding, is the men's gymnastics. I was watching them, and there appeared to be a very sparse group of fans on camera. So about every half hour these anchor people would come on and try to explain why nobody was going to one of the Olympic events that we consider the most important. Their points were:

1) People in Greece just don't think that gymnastics is as prestigious or as important of a sport as the classics like track & field that were around when the Olympics first began.

(So, that still doesn't explain why I saw more fans at the table tennis event than the gymnastics. Are they saying that ping pong was in the original Olympics)

2) The Greeks are on their annual vacation right now, much like France's little "light break" at the end of Aug., so many people are deciding to leave Athens, and travel to sunnier destinations instead of staying and supporting the athletes.

(still doesn't explain why there were thousands of fans sitting out in the hot sun watching swimming, instead of sitting in air conditioning watching gymnastics)

3) Tomorrow is apparently Assumption Day, which is a major holiday in the Greek Orthodox faith, of which 96% of the population is a patron of, so many people are staying home.

(I just don't get this one. Using religion as a scapegoat... it just doesn't seem right.)

4) (This is the point where they try to redeem Greece's reputation) Up to a few weeks before the Olympics there WERE a lot of unsold tickets, but recently the Greeks have been buying up lots of tickets (apparently not for gymnastics) which shows what kind of people they are.

(They failed to mention the fact that if a lot of tickets don't get sold, then the Greek govt. will go bankrupt b/c of all the money they spent on these spectacular events. They probably guilted people into buying tickets. "So, (insert long Greek name), do you like the chair you are sitting in? Well, unless you buy a ticket to table tennis we're just gonna have to take up this chair and pawn it? (jingle can of money w/ sign- Save the Olympics)" )

5) They however did point out the fact that the upper levels were packed, so people really DO like gymnastics.

(Ok. This is simple supply & demand graphs, which we all learned in eighth grade. Q- Is it better to sell 5 tickets at $70 a piece, or 1000 tickets at $40? hmmm.... Apparently the Greeks can't figure this out. If I were NBC, I would definitely make sure that next time there are some gymnastics, they better get some people in those seats b/c NBC is paying hundreds of millions for this coverage. They want to make it seem like every event is important, and wasting time explaining why people aren't in the seats isn't cost effective.
That's called opportunity costs. Instead of talking about sports & points & scandals (and more importantly, advertisements that bring in money!!), these commentators are forced to go into the religious affiliation of a country to explain why they just don't like gymnastics. So let's say that they get 1 million dollars for each 30 sec. spot. Now, if they only have to explain for 30 sec. then that doesn't seem like a major loss, but wait... if they have to explain ten times, then that's ten million dollars, which gets a bit more impact and if they have to explain 100 times... ouch.

Final point- Just to explain the extreme intelligence of the Greeks (or why these times try me), last night at the Opening Ceremonies, they decided to announce the countries in order based on the Greek alphabet. Now, I'm sure that it just makes the Greeks feel great that they impacted the world like that, but even I was confused. There was no order. One of the last countries was Djibouti. Zambia was like number 30 out of 202. Great Britain was in a string of countries beginning w/ R. There was no logic. We just better be glad that the athletes didn't have to try to put themselves in order. THAT could have been disastrous. So, that was part of my rant about the Olympics, and its only the first day.

Also, a judge from a competitive country decides that the US men gymnasts can't use part of their routine, and they have to change it, only a day or two before the event, so this totally confused them, and people like Wilson, who worked so hard to get there in the first place, had their dreams dashed b/c they fell while they were performing the new move that they had to replace for the old, illegal one. Let me tell you, that Wilson guy was really mad. I would be too.

About the professional athletes- It just appears to me, that some of the athletes don't really have their hearts in it. I'm sure a lot of them do, but, for example, there were a lot of NBA players who refused to go to the Olympics b/c they were afraid that they might get hurt and affect their marketable skills. To some of these people, if they lose the Olympics, so what? They still have their job to go back to, and they can say it was a mistake. They should have won anyways.

Last point. Apparently the US baseball team didn't qualify for the Olympics. Ok, maybe this just seems ironic to me, or perhaps strange, but weren't we the ones who created baseball, hence shouldn't we be able to compete w/ the other countries. I suppose it's much like basketball, but I mean, come on. Baseball is an American tradition. I have lots more to say, but you're probably tired of reading, so... BL. NP.