Bits & Pieces

All That Olympic Hullaballoo

By Kim J. Harmon

 

I took unusual joy in seeing the United States men’s basketball team fall to Puerto Rico in the preliminaries last weekend. It just goes to prove a point I had made a number of times to anyone who would listen, that the NBA has become a travesty.

Did you watch the Opening Ceremonies? After all the countries had paraded into the stadium, NBC reporters interviewed different athletes and asked them what all the pomp and circumstance meant to them and all of them seemed to happy they were on the point of tears.

Until NBC got to Allen Iverson. This is a guy, the co-captain of the men’s basketball team, who was unable to get to a mandatory practice on time and had the gall to take offense at being reprimanded for it. When he was interviewed on Friday night about the meaningfulness of the Opening Ceremonies and what it meant to captain the United States men’s basketball team, he looked bored stupid.

The U.S. team and its NBA ‘stars’ need to be taken down a peg by other countries that can play better fundamental basketball – which, my friends, includes defense. I didn’t see any of that in the loss to Puerto Rico.

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I will freely admit that someone needs to be physically gifted in order to play beach volleyball or table tennis or badminton or perform synchronized swimming or synchronized diving, but how in the world did these things ever become Olympic events?

I had to bite my tongue this weekend when my wife, who is no more a fan of sports than I am of dancing, said the beach volleyball matches were exciting and that she didn’t like the indoor (or, to me, ‘real’) volleyball. I nearly bit my tongue clean off.

International-level volleyball, in my opinion, is art and sometimes it’s hard for people to grasp. All six members of the team move in fluid harmony to keep a ball in play and as you watch from the perspective of the camera, you can see the setter handle the ball while the rest of the team shifts and moves into proper position.

Gosh, it’s like ballet.

But beach volleyball – jeez. Sure, it may be fun to watch (“why go the guys get to wear shirts and shorts when the women have to wear these skimpy outfits?” my wife asked) and it’s certainly athletic, but why mutate a beautiful sport like volleyball into two Olympic events?

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Bob Costas spent five minutes this past weekend trying to explain to us (or reassure his bosses) why the gymnastics venue was half empty (religious holidays were his explanation) but I had to ask him (although I’m not sure he heard me through the television) why the upper deck (about $81 a seat) was jammed and the lower deck (about $118 a seat) was half empty.

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Let me ask this – why is it such a big deduction in gymnastics to not stick the landing off the vault or the uneven bars or the rings or whatever? Whenever an athlete performs a dismount from one of the apparatuses and bounces a little on the landing, or takes a step back, everyone gasps as if this was some critical blunder yet, if you watch enough of these athletes, maybe three out of 10 ever stick their landings.

Sticking a landing should be extra credit rather than a necessity.

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You know, watching the rowing event was pretty exciting. There are some residents of Newtown who are into rowing and after doing a story on a couple of them a few years ago, I gained some appreciation for the strength, balance and teamwork needed to keep a boat (or, I guess, a ‘shell’) moving in the right direction and at top speed.

In hindsight, I could ask myself how a five-minute boat race could be so thrilling but watching two straight 1,500-meter races (the U.S. men and women winning gold in those races) come down to the final two strokes was just incredible.

Now, thinking that New York has been hankering for the 2012 games, I had to wonder where they might hold the rowing event then.

The East River?

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My 11-year-old son, who thinks soccer is boring, loved the synchronized diving. I am going to have to have a serious talk with him.

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I still contend that the most exciting sport to watch at these Olympic games (and, by default, I’m watching most of the events since my wife has commandeered the television) is the swimming.

Now maybe NBC is over-hyping this kid Michael Phelps, but he is an outstanding swimmer and the head-to-head battles he has had with Ian Thorpe have simply been captivating.

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Putting their feet in their mouths (notable quotes from past Olympiads):

“Britain’s last gold medal was a bronze in 1952 in Helsinki.” – Nigel Starmer-Smith

“That’s the fastest time ever run … but it’s not as fast as the world record.” – David Coleman

“The American’s heads are on their chins a little bit at the moment.” – Ron Pickering

“Ingrid Kristiansen then has smashed the world record, running the 5000 meters in 14:58.89. Truly amazing. Incidentally, this is a personal best for Ingrid Kristiansen.” – David Coleman

“… and finally she tastes the sweet smell of success.” – Ian Edwards

“It’s obvious these Russian swimmers are determined to do well on American soil.” – Anita Lonsborough