Am I becoming an Olympic Addict??

For the first time in my recent memory (as horrible as mine is), I have become a nightly Olympic watcher. I would initially characterize myself as a "casual observer" as I really only watch the high profile sports. The problem (for lack of a better term) is that I watch it until it's over. Which as some of you may know, is in the neighborhood of 12:30 or 1:00am. Ugh. I haven't stayed up that late since I stopped playing video games!

What got me hooked was on Monday (8/11) the commentators read a quote from French swimmer, Alain Bernard who said, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for". Say what??? Oh no you didant.

Well, of course, now we had to sit there and watch.
Then the actual race began and it looked like the French team was gonna walk the talk and "smash" the USA. Not only would they win the Gold medal and back up the smack talk but they would deny USA star Michael Phelps of winning 8 Gold Medals.

Then in the last 25 meters (1/2 the length of the pool) Jason Lezak of the US made an absolutely remarkable push for the lead and touched the wall a fraction of a second (.08 to be exact) before the Frenchman. (replay, in case you missed it). My wife and I were screaming and hooting at the TV like we have never done before. We were hollering like you do in a crowded sports bar where you high five perfect strangers standing nearby!

Boy that felt good. My wife Kellea said it best when she said, "It wasn't like those guys won for just themselves...it was like I won it with them!" (cue song: "I'm Proud to be an American").

One last bit of "humor" that just kind of capped it off was in the post race interview, Garrett Weber-Gale, who swam the 2nd leg of the race said, "...Bob came by and said the Frenchies were talking...and I just said I didn't want to hear it and we just came and took care of business." Ummm, I'm gonna just..umm, leave that one alone.

But now I'm hooked. I actually looked up the schedule to see when the track and field events started and the individual gymnastic events as well. I even watched some badminton the other day...but just a few minutes. And man that volleyball is awesome! And I haven't even watched the Men's basketball yet! Sweet!

Hey gotta run...MSNBC has the Modern Pentathlon Finals starting in 10 minutes!