palladinemoo

i as just telling the boy yesterday while watching the first half of the closing ceremonies that I was disappointed that I never really saw my beloved Fuwa.  Granted I have missed way more coverage in general this week than I intended but since th efocus was more on running and less on swimming I was only bummed instead of very dissapointed.  While the athletes were coming in during the closing ceremonies yesterday I took an opportunity to make a dash for home so he could finish more of his art stuff for his show next week.

I dallied around a bit at the place I am staying (housesitting for a dog who spends 45mins on a treadmill daily ;) before turning the second half of the cermonies on.  And what to my wondering eyes did appear but miniature, and not so mini, Fuwa.  I called him immediately and in an excited tone tried to tell him he had to turn his TV on as they finally made their appearance.

My Olympics are now contently complete!

Also am I the only one who teared up, a lot, during the little segments they were showing between commercial breaks?   all the winning and not so winning moments replayed had me super emotional.

18 more months until Vancouver!!!!  

I imagine the SIL and I will be into it enough to be back on here blogging our obsession then too.

If i can scrape together some money, which honestly is not super likely but I will try, I want to use it as an excuse to visit friends there- a combo Olympic/ friends/ vancouver/ portland/ seattle trip ;)

palladinemoo

I feel like a delinquint Olympic addict--- been house sitting the past couple day so I've seen some, not as much as I would like, but at least some.  Bits and pieces - an our or two a day max-  volleyball, track and field, diving.  And watching diving makes me happy!

Prior to housesitting the treadmill dog (and yes he really gets on for at least 45mins a day) I was almost passing out asleep by 10 so I missed a lot fo the focus stuff on primetime.  sad... but I needed the sleep desperately.   

now I'll have to relive many things via recaps and possible hit up The Boy to catch some of what is on demand.  

You can tell I am still tired as I remember watching something last night and crying, but I can't remember what it was.  Yes I was overemotional but it was a good athlete story.  No idea though.

Oh I remeber what it is was that had me crying- I was so excited to see Russia win the relay.  It's extra emotional when the unexpected happens.  Still sad the US and then later Jamaica dropped the batons but man was it amazing to see RUssia pull it off.

Looking forward to catching what I can the next two days and then off course closing ceremonies!

rissykay99

I haven't said much about this, but now that it's "official" I'm going to weigh in.

First of all, I find it appaling that Ara Abrahamian (the Swedish wrestler) would put down his medal and walk out on the medal ceremony. 

I get that he had a beef with how they decided his earlier match (this keeping him from the Gold medal match later on). I'm sure he's not the only athlete that has qualms about scoring, tie breaking, or other judging decisions (I'm not even going to touch the Alicia Sacramone vault discussion). If you watched Michael Phelps swim the 100m Butterfly you will remember that Milorad Cavic's coach filed a petition after the finish (another judging decision I don't want to discuss really). Coaches have the right to do that, and in most instances there is a process you have to go through in order to lodge your complaint or petition.

That is how you handle yourself when you feel that a judging decision is not correct.

You don't put down (drop, whatever- there are conflicting accounts) your medal on the floor and stalk out of the room like a giant baby.

You're an Olympic athlete. Have some respect for yourself, your country, the Games, and the other athletes for pity's sake.

You can't win every time, and chances are as a world class athlete you're going to encounter judging/point systems that you think are biased against you. Part of being an athlete is dealing with those things.

I think that the IOC is absolutely right to say that Abrahamian violated the spirit of fair play with his behavior.

Don't they teach good sportsmanship to athletes anymore?

rissykay99

Well, I am not looking at any websites or papers or anything because apparently there are spoilers there about the Olympics. Which, yes I am not stupid, I get that China is a full 12hrs ahead of the US, but I would think that at least the NBC Olympics page would wait until they've actually aired the event to post a story about it.

Thankfully for me, my husband was kind enough to warn me.

I don't really know if there's a spoiler there about the Uneven Bars, or what (I know it's something gymnastics)- but sheesh.

In other news: I didn't get much watching done yesterday. I had an event at work that kept me until 8pm and was subsequently worn out when I got home.

I quickly watched the events I'd taped on Oxygen and let me just say: why are they even bothering to air stuff there? It's almost a waste of time.

Ok, so they did have the full Equestrian event (which, honestly, I watched on fast forward because I'm not that into horses)- but then the portion they billed as "gymnastics?" Yeah, it was a craptastic hour long gossipy recap of stuff I've already seen.

Listen up NBC. I see what you're doing here. You've designated Oxygen as your "female" network, so you're trying to throw sentimental garbage on there that you think will appeal to the female demographic. Well, it's not working. Frankly it's just insulting and stupid.

Yes, I am taping more craptastic Oxygen coverage tonight and tomorrow- but that's because it is the ONLY channel that you will air Synchrnoized swimming on, which is my all time favorite Summer Games sport.

But, I'm not happy about it.

I miss 2006 when you used Bravo as your cable destination for extra sports. Why did you change that? Too many new seasons of other shows going on? Yeah, probably. I guess it is more important to know who is rocking Project Runway or who has had their final cut on Shear Genius.

But, if you're going to air coverage on Oxygen, please at least treat your viewers like intelligent human beings. I don't think that's asking a lot.