Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Are you watching the Olympics?

THE OLYMPIC GAMES are going on in Tokyo. Are you watching? Do you care? Are you all wrapped up in the U.S. men's basketball team losing a game? The women's soccer team losing a game? Swimmers and divers and runners and bikers and, well, skateboarders?

I admire any athlete who trains for a lifetime and represents their county. It used to be the Olympics was a purely amateur event. That's when it was interesting. Joe Schmoe, a carpenter from Romania, trains at night and somehow makes his country's Olympic team, then shocks the world by winning his event. 

Now it's 13-year-old skateboarders who are winning gold medals. Geesh.

Olympic Skateboarders

The way the games are viewed has changed. Used to be events taking place in a different time zone meant watching the tape delay and wondering who would win. On Sunday NBC showed the men's basketball team blowing a late lead and losing to France. France? Whatever. The game had been over for 12 hours and everybody knew the result, so why bother watching a painful collapse by a super team full of professionals with bloated salaries and entourages? I watched 30 seconds and went back to my golf nap.

There are a few events worth following. Like Simone Biles and gymnastics. Wait. She had a mental breakdown today, or yesterday, or tomorrow, or whatever time zone Tokyo is on. Well, at least the 24/7 news cycles can show endless stock footage of her on the vault and then bring in a talking head who doubles as a mental health counselor to guess why she actually quit.

Then there's the fact no fans are allowed to watch, and COVID is running rampant, and maybe the games shouldn't have taken place in the first place. Nah. Let 'em play. Who cares if a global pandemic is still raging? The Olympics take our minds off trivial things like living and dying. 

I'll check out the results, and if a big event is on and it's not midnight, maybe I'll watch. Or sneak a few peaks between gigs and golf naps.

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