Two more days...

The summer olympics start on Friday.  I can't wait!  We are a family who loves the olympics. 

My first memory of the Olympics was in 1972--Olga Korbut.  She was this cute, young girl from Russia who was amazing on the uneven parallel bars.  Since then my favorite summer Olympic sport is gymnastics. 









Olga was followed by Nadia Comanici in 1976.  The first woman gymnast to earn a perfect 10--several of them in fact.  These days the scoring system is so complicated that it's probably impossible to get a perfect score.








Then there was the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles and Mary Lou Retton, the first American woman to win gold.  The Eastern Block countries boycotted the 1984 Olympics probably because the U.S. boycotted the 1980 summer Olympics.

I never did agree with the 1980 boycott.  Athletes train for years and then when it's their time to compete, the U.S. pulls out for political reasons.  Really unfair.

Anyway, would Mary Lou have won gold if the Soviets were there?  Maybe, maybe not.  All I know is that it was great watching the U.S. team that year.

Another thing I remember about the 1984 Olympics was Lionel Richie's performance of 'All Night Long' during the closing ceremonies.  It was awesome.

By the way, I think people had really crazy hair during the 1980s.  What the heck was everyone thinking with the big, curly hair?





Gymnastics isn't the only sport I love to watch during the Olympics. Track and field, swimming, volleyball, and of course, the equestrian events. Did you know that the only sport where men and women compete equally is the equestrian events?

There were a couple summer games where we were in the middle of a move.  In 1992 we were moving into our house in Manhattan, Kansas.  In 1996 we were moving into our house in DeForest, Wisconsin.  We apparently didn't have a TV in 1996 because we entertained ourselves with our own version of the summer Olympics--the Intertube Olympics.  One member of our team (Irv) sustained a catastrophic injury during the Intertube Olympics which put a quick end to the games, but that's a blog for another time.

So Jillian and Brian are supposed to be having an Opening Ceremony party on Friday, but I haven't received an invitation yet...

So what's your favorite Olympic sport?

Comments

Yogi♪♪♪ said…
I love the Olympics also. The USA Women's gymnastics team is my favorite so far.

I just want to know why synchronized diving is a sport.
August 2, 2012 at 7:57 AM
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