Summer Olympics

I love the Olympics.

I remember the first time knowing that the Olympics were going on. It was 1992, and it was during the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. My mom watched them quite a lot, and I remember her telling me that the Olympics only happened once every four years, so I should definitely watch them. I'm sure I watched more than a few events at the time. Of course I could recognize the American flag, and I absolutely loved being able to cheer on my country. I think that was the time that I also fell in love with gymnastics.

I think it was that year that they did the switch from hold the Olympics only once every four years to once every two years. I remember being at a Mexican restaurant with my family and discussing with my mom and brother how much better it would be that way.

Anyway, the point is, OLYMPICS! We bought a TV antenna so we could get reception on our TV in order to watch the Olympics.

On Friday night we stayed up until 4:30 on Saturday morning watching the Opening Ceremonies. We thought they were wonderful and mostly worth staying up for. (Actually, we pulled out our couch bed and contemplated just sleeping there instead of moving to the actual bed. It was an awful lot like a slumber party, so that was entertaining!)

We were told the coverage here would be quite bad, but I've found that it's been excellent. Unlike the American coverage, which is very American-centric, the New Zealand coverage is not Kiwi-centric. This is partly because there just aren't as many Kiwi athletes who are likely to win their events as there are American athletes who are likely to win their events. Of course, that is expected from a country of only four million people, as opposed to America's three hundred million.

With all that said, I think it really frees up the Kiwi broadcasters to show whatever events with whatever participants they want. In some ways it is frustrating because I am not really interested in who will win the basketball game between Iran and Russia. At the same time, I think it really gives me a feel for the entirety of the Olympic games instead of it being, "Wow! America is the best at EVERYTHING! See? America rules! Go America!" The Olympics are supposed to be about celebrating international competition, and the Kiwi coverage does that nicely.

That's not to say that I want America to lose. I really, really, want America to get more medals than China. Because I'm pretty sure that by "One World. One Dream." they mean "China's World. China's Dream." I'm just a little leery of China taking over the world.