More on Olympics

Apparently Canada has in the last four or five days acquired a nice haul of medals, which should at least allay fears that we were not going to win any. Of course Australia has a lot more so I'm sure there will be more moaning by Canadians once the initial rush has calmed down and the Olympics are over. Whatever.

I do like watching the Olympics possibly because it gives you the chance to see all sorts of sports that I would never usually see. So here is my take on some of the sports I had been watching:


Rowing -- pretty interesting to follow, races do not take a lot of time and they are usually quite close which adds to the excitement.

Volleyball -- decent amount of action, sometimes good drama, but I find the matches sometimes take too long

Boxing -- to me Olympic boxing is not as exciting as watching regular boxing (you know, 10 to 15 rounds, usually ends in a knockout). Knockouts are rare Olympic boxing and they do not fight many rounds.

Taekwondo -- not that exciting to watch unfortunately. A lot of time is spent with the fighters just moving a bit back and forth waiting for their opportunity.

Diving -- interesting for perhaps about 20 minutes then gets repetitive. I couldn't get caught up in the excitement.

Athletics -- I like watching it, even the more obscure ones like polevaulting. Except for speed walking, which I just find bizarre.

Gymnastics -- a lot of people really like watching it but I find myself kind of neutral about it, doesn't really grab me.

Water Polo -- actually not that bad. I happened to turn the TV on when one match was starting (Greece versus Germany) and watched the entire match. It will not be replacing hockey or soccer any time soon though.

Handball -- I don't really get it, rather watch water polo or basketball

Basketball -- the games featuring the United States have not been all that great because the US has been stomping over every opponent. Basketball is at its best when the game is close. I will still try to watch the gold medal game though.

Equestrian -- believe it or not I actually watched a large portion of the team competition and found it interesting. But I must confess it was interesting only in that I wanted to see just how badly some riders were going to screw this up. One horse refused to jump over a water hazard, and another almost managed to throw his rider. One horse seemed to make a career out of just crashing through the gates, which I found quite amusing. I also amused by how the Saudis had one "his Royal Highness" on the team (one of the hundreds of Saudi princes I assume) and he was the worst one on the team.



So enjoy the last few days of the Olympics, I'll try the catch what I can.