Olympic Thoughts

I always enjoy watching the Olympics, so here's what I think of the Olympics thus far.

• The call them "the games" or "the events" for a reason: Not all of the Olympic games are sports. If the games are judged by somewhat subjective perimeters -- ie you do a jump and are graded for it -- it's an athletic competition. That doesn't make it worse, or less enjoyable; it just makes it fun in a different way.
  
• It's only important to note the difference because it helps (me, at least), not get so freaking mad when, for example, Johnny Weir performs an awesome short and gets slammed by the judges anyway, mostly because they don't like him.
  
• Shaun White does not have a modesty problem (e-gads, he's full of himself). That said, he does have a hair problem. $25 to his charity of choice if he cuts that thing off. It burns.
  
• The Olympic coverage is better and worse in some respects. The US MSM doesn't just cover Americans (good), but they do get overly focused on a few, particular Olympians, to the exclusion of almost all others (bad). The only thing that seems to determine the media's favorites is looks.
  
• The US is kicking more ass, thus far, than I would have suspected. More importantly, New England is raking up the metals. Cool.
  
• Curling is crazy. I do not get it at all, but the stereotype that they're all a bunch of middle-aged, portly men playing is clearly false. And Polka Dot pants? Really?
• Fashion is everywhere, apparently. Those "jeans" you see skiers and snowboarders wearing? Snow pants. Can't wear the old-fashioned shiny ones anymore... that would be, like, totally, uncool.
  

Update: The judges decided to screw over Johnny Weir again. Great blog, analyzing the scores and talking about the homophobia in the figure skating establishment, here. At this point, the scoring of Johnny Weir (and several of those ahead of him, who had clearly inflated scores) should be the biggest scandal of these Olympics -- almost on par with points-trading skating judges in Tourino.

If anything, this is even more nefarious. What does it say to other young, male figure skaters out there when, if they try hard, do well in competition, but wear tassels and speak your mind off the ice -- and get severely punished by the judges for it? It says they need to either give up their dreams or betray their very personal identity if they want to have any chance in the world at winning. Shame on the Olympics and figure skating establishment for its scandalous behavior -- and shame on the MSM for not forcing them to address it, like they did the last time Olympic judges stole a medal from the rightful winner.