Olympics

I LOVE the Olympics. When they are going on, all I want to do is watch them and read about them. I've been like that about the Olympics since I was a little girl. I used to choose competitors' names for spelling words in elementary school. I screamed when Michelle Kwan fell in the 2002 Winter Olympics, and to some extent I'm still not over the fact that she never won an Olympic Gold. Other favorite past Olympians of mine include Victor Petrenko, Brian Boitano, Katarina Witt, Alexei Namoff, Dominique Dawes, Bonnie Blair, Michael Johnson, and the Dream Team. I even follow curling during the Winter Olympics.

This year is no different in terms of my love for the Games - I screamed when Alicia Sacramone fell on the floor routine in the women's gymnastics team competition, I've been cheering on our swimmers like crazy (almost broke my heart when the women's relay team didn't win the gold for the first time ever in the 4x200 free relay), and of course I've been thrilled with Michael Phelps's performance so far.

However, I have noticed something different. You'll notice that I've listed several foreign athletes among my favorites above. This year, I have realized that I haven't cheered on a single foreigner. I just want the Americans to win, and I even cheer against the other athletes, particularly the Chinese (who are ahead of us in the medal count!). I was almost happy when the Chinese gymnast fell off the beam, although I did feel bad when I saw her face. I've thought about this, and I think the reason for it is that I've seen almost no human interest stories or commentary about any of the foreign athletes. Perhaps this is just due to what I've happened to watch, but I seem to remember in times past that while the majority of stories were about Americans, there were plenty about foreign athletes, particularly from poorer countries. For whatever reason, I think it is a shame. The point of the Olympics is to bring us together as a world community and compete peacefully and in a friendly way. I feel like I am betraying the Olympic spirit when I cheer against the other countries' athletes, probably because I am. I'm not sure if this is just a personal problem or whether it's indicative of a change in Olympics coverage. Hopefully, this feeling will change, and perhaps there will be more stories soon about non-American athletes.

In the meantime, go Phelps, and go Nastia and Shawn!