Olympic Yawn

There seems to be a general positive buzz over the Summer Olympics being held in London.  The quadrennial congregation that supposedly pits the best athletes in the world against each other is a big deal.  I genuinely would love to be excited about the competition but I find the whole thing to be a way over-commercialized and over commented upon.  And the politicization of the results, focusing on medal counts by country sullies the air around the awards podium.  The commentators will just not shut-up.  In one race, Michael Phelps was lagging slightly in his lane, and the color commentator started wondering if Michael's career was over, finally out of steam, past his prime, tired and beaten.  A few laps later Phelps had made up the slack and won the race.  The yakker said, "I take back everything I just said."  So, exactly why did we need your "expert" bloviation?

I don't like watching swimming anyhow; it is about at uneventful as a competition can get: bang, splash, splash,splash, turn, splash, splash, splash, etc....  And the gold medal winner is a mere .34 seconds ahead of the silver.  I don't believe that a five minute swim should be decided by a fraction of a second; I think it should be considered a tie, since silver and bronze medal awardees are consoled as "losers".

In fact, I do not like watching gymnastics either, especially the pommel horse and the balance beam. These events just leave me cold.  The scoring of gymnastics is subjective.  The kids who go to Olympics spend their lives preparing these difficult stunts, and most of them go home in tears because of one stumble or mis-step.  I don't like watching their disappointment.  (One hopes they will eventually find a successful career working at Cirque du Soleil, because there is precious little use for these skills outside of unpaid athletic competition events)

Some "sports" clearly do not belong in the Olympics.  Beach Volleyball comes to mind, Badminton, synchronized swimming, Water Polo, and Ping Pong, to name a few.  I do not deny that some of these activities demand athletic skills and may even be fun to watch for some viewers, but to my mind they do not rise to the level of Olympic competition.

I prefer to watch team sports, where there is a discreet score, with points expressed in whole numbers.  A goal, a run, a basket, etc.  Or individual competition where points are measured by KO's or Bulls-eyes.

So, perhaps I am out of sync with the popular definition of sports/entertainment, again.  It's not all negative, I enjoy watching the events with the mute button clicked, and I usually fall into a sweet slumber by the third lap.  I do not care who wins.