Summer Olympics

[JenW]

Ever since I was a six year old girl watching the Olympics when Nadia Comanici was a decorated gymnast, the Olympics have always held a special place of interest in my heart. I watched the Opening Ceremonies on Friday Night. Can I just say I am in awe?!!!!! It was breathtaking and so innovative! Thank you to our neighbors in China! The scale of that production must have been amazing to see in person, because on my television it looked huge and very graceful.

[mgmsrk]

I did not catch all of it but it was undoubtedly the most beautiful opening ceremony I have ever seen.

[tizzylou]

I was in awd just watching on tV, so cannot even begin to imagine what it must have been like to watch it live. I agree, it was so beautiful and graceful. I'm am Olympic junkie, and always look foward to the Opening Ceremonies.

Since we are on the subject of Olympics, what is your favorite sport or sports to watch? Jen, I know from the ATM board that you like swimming, gymnatics, and diving and rowing.
My list is almost identical to that, In addition, I enjoy some of the track and field and am looking forward to watching Tramplining this year,since it one ot the new sports it should be fun to watch.

One other question, do you like the Summer games ot the Winter games the best?

Hollis

[JenW]

I loved gymnastics as a kid, but as I got older, I had issue with some of the judging. Really, I am kind of -meh with any judged event, not that I don't appreciate the hard work of the athletes. I just think in some of those events, the athlete is moving so fast and it is near impossible to judge fairly. It is just one of my quirks.

Summer to Winter is a tough one! I guess I like more of the events in Summer, but love some of the 'odd' ones from Winter like Curling, Bobsled, Luge, and Speed Skating. So, yes, I am an Olympic junkie, too.

[ladycattat]

Jen, you won't believe this, but I actually got to see Nadia Comanichi perform in the '76 Montreal Olympics! My mom is Canadian, and we did a whole big family vacation to the East Coast that summer to see all the relatives back there. I was 14 and going thru a *very difficult phase* and I didn't even give a crap(at that time) about being dragged to *some dumb sports thing!* We saw the earlier qualifying stuff, not when she won. I ended up being impressed despite myself! Gosh, all those gymnist are so tiny!!! Then we went to Connecticut, New Jersey, and finshed by going to New York for a few days and saw a Broadway production of My Fair Lady.(we got to meet the cast afterwards)
Laurie

[karen]

I just plain love the Olympics- the whole idea of it is just incredible. There's just something about the idea of what can be accomplished when there's a big group effort and probably a lot of compromise that gives me hope.

For me the winter Olympics are more interesting to watch- something like bob sled, or hockey is just more my cup of tea than someone running really really fast- but I can appreciate that too. What I really like about the summer games is that the events tend to be more diverse with more medals coming from a broader cross section of countries...with the winter games, you kind of have to have ice or snow to be able to train, but with the summer ones- any person with a road can train for a running event, and the human part is just what's so interesting for me.

How cool that you got to see Nadia Comanichi!! I can completely relate to being 14 and "difficult"- we went to Lake Placid in the 90's, and toured the facility because my stupid little brother had to see the ice rink. Going to the top of the ski jump platform was just wild- but that's where my day topped out. I was in the car listening to my Walkman when they met Gordie Howe and some of the "Miracle on Ice" team from the '80 Olympics...I'm glad you came around better than I did.

[JenW]

Wow, Karen and Laurie! The closest I ever got to an Olympic Venue was when we went to Atlanta this summer. The Georgia Aquarium is right next to Olympic Park. I guess since I wasn't 14 I appreciated it a little more (I remember those days of attitude issues; all part of growing up).

[ladycattat]

Hi Guys,
I guess I'm a little jaded....we had the summer Olympics in Los Angeles in '84 and since I live less than 20 miles from there all I can remember about them was really dumb stuff; like really huge traffic snafus and stuff like that. Every store that you went into had *L.A. '84 Olympic Merchandise*! I think somebody even made toilet paper with the logo on it!!!!
3 years later they were still trying to get rid of all the leftover junk at the 99cents only store!!!

I did get Mary Lou Retton's autograph a couple of years later!

Laurie

[tizzylou]

To answer my own summer or winter question, I enjoy watching the winter sports more, but am like Karen in the fact that I appreciate the diversity of countries that are able to participate in the summer games.

And I have to admit that I'm envious ,I think would have even put up with traffic snafu's in LA to have been able to see even qlualifying rounds. I still remember being in about 4-5th grade when Denver was supposed to host the Winter Games, until then Gov.Lamm decided to let the people vote on whether we as a state really wanted to host the games, which of course was an unaminous no, and Colorado became the only site to withdraw after already being chosen to host the events. I sure was mad.

On the other hand the IOC's offices are in Colorado Springs ( 1 1/2) hours away and lots of the athletes not only from the US but also from other countries train the the Olypmic training facilities which are open to the public, so hopefully one of the times we are up there for some reason , I will at least get to see someone who is a serious medal contendor practice.

I think all teenagers must go through that difficult stage, I remember being dragged plenty of places that I didn't want to go when I was 14, and I am sure that my children will remember being dragged somewhere that they didn't want to go also.

[karen]

I can see the jaded...we just had NASCAR weekend at Watkins Glen, and you can't really go anywhere near Watkins that weekend- it's just one giant mess. My high school graduating class was less than 100 people, and in one weekend we get about 85,000-100,000 tourists. I'm okay with the other races (there's one pretty much every weekend)- I like seeing all the cool cars in town, but NASCAR is just a bit too wild for me.

I'm watching the gymnastics events OMG- they're amazing. I'm just in awe- each thing is so interesting, and so unbelieveable and then the next girl comes along and does something even more mind blowing. They train 10 years+ every single day, and in a few events they're over in less than 30 seconds. I'm just so impressed with all of the athletes. I'm afraid of heights so even getting up on those bars is too much for me- let alone spinning backwards, doing a split, then doing a handstand, sommersault, 3 twists, and not loosing a limb somewhere in that process.

Time for balance beam!