I adore curling more than is sane. I nearly pranced with excitement when the American men's team - from Bemidji, Minnesota!!! - won the bronze in Torino.

I love the Olympics and plan to spend far too many hours in front of the tv. I miss the "old style" of coverage, though - you know, where they actually showed sporting events instead of Lifetime movies about how This Athlete Overcame Massive Hardship to Become a Champion. American coverage used to show non-American athletes, too. Just imagine.

If they want to do non-sports stuff intended to make us cry, they can do a huge tribute to Jim McKay.

You know, that's an interesting point in that now that I think about it, maybe one of the reasons I've lost interest in the Olympics today versus when I was a kid is because Wide World of Sports isn't around. Back then, WWoS would cover a lot of the events that were part of the Olympics. Now I would imagine you have to scour ESPN 2 to find some of that sort of coverage. I'm not as familiar with the participants going into the competition now as I was back then.

Your points about the Lifetime stories and the USA-centric coverage are spot on, also.

I love the Olympics. Anything to break the monotony of the baseball season!

Fair warning I will go apeshit when ever I hear someone lament that the games aren't about amateurism anymore or that politics are involved.

One of my LJ friends started a community called olympicoasis. She said to mention it to anyone who might be interested. This seems to be the place!

Someone on my flist has already kindly posted swimmer Olympic Trial picspam.

Hell-O Ryan Lochte.

I am so going to miss the Thorpedo and the Thoogie, this August.

I agree with your Lochte assessment. Helloooo, indeed. I wonder if he gives private lessons...

So yesterday the Trail Blazers signed Spanish superstar basketball player Rudy Fernandez to a four year contract. Rudy will be playing for Spain during the Olympics this summer. One of the local sports talk stations had an extended call in segment about whether the local fans would be rooting for Rudy/Spain or the US men's team in Beijing.

The entire segment was one big cry for help, I think. Talk about a lack of interesting topics.

Tagentally related, but since Kobe's an Olympian. My favorite, "I need a topic, anytopic!" sports radio discussion was Kobe getting booed during the All Star Game in Philly and the host was asking if it was because Kobe didn't act "urban" enough.

Uh no, it's cause Kobe's a prick and these are Philly fans we are talking about. He should feel flattered he didn't get nailed with a car battery.

I have nothing against the huge majority of U.S. competitors in the games, but the men's basketball team? I pull for pretty much any other team. I do root for the women's basketball team, though.

Is softball one of the sports this year? I enjoyed watching softball eight years ago, but I seem to recall they didn't have it at Sydney last time around, for some reason. I'm mesmerized by how fast they can burn in those pitches using an underhand motion.

It is.

ETA: Apart from swimming, I'm totally looking forward to archery and shooting. The skeet and trap competitions are my summer curling, so to say.

Last time around was Athens and the US Women's Softball team won a gold medal. One of the things I took note of during my brief tenure as a "Celebrity Apprentice" viewer was that Jennie Finch was looking forward to training for the Beijing Olympics when Trump fired her.

Actually, the US has won all three gold medals awarded in Olympic softball (Atlanta, Sydney, Athens). That may be one of the reasons the IOC voted to eliminate both softball and baseball from the 2012 Olympics. As far as softball is concerned, only five countries have qualified to compete every Olympiad.

Good grief, of course it was! Thanks for reminding me.

I'm looking forward to Men's and Women's Diving, then Gymnastics, then Soccer, Water Polo, and Synchronized Swimming, and the Marathon thingy is always worth seeing, but for some reason as much as I love Tennis, Olympic tennis bores the shit out of me, it doesn't have the same kind of build up that the pro tourney's do.

Here is an interesting article about Dara Torres trying to qualify for the US swim team at age 41. To be honest, she sounds like a real piece of work, but you can't deny her work ethic or her body. Wow.

I just googled Ryan Lochte and he is super cute. Also, I came across US swimmer Peter Vanderkaay, and that may be my new fun name to pronounce during this Olympics.

Will Lenny Krayzelburg be competing, or is he retired? And I saw something on Pieter van den Hoogenband's Wikipedia page that he is seriously trying to qualify to compete in Beijing. Yay!