[cougjunkie]

Originally Posted by TripletDaddy

I am all about Phelps. I am more interested in him than in USA basketball, actually. He is on the cusp of something truly amazing.

However, I have been glued to the Olympics since I was a kid in 84.....Los Angeles Summer Games. I caught the bug and never looked back.

My favorite things about each Olympics:

1. Watching the new and creative ways to light the Olympic flame. Does everyone remember the archer with the flaming arrow in Barcelona? How amazing was that?

2. Parade of Nations (I know many find this boring...I find it to be really cool)

3. Track and Field...esp the relays.....there is something terribly exciting about watching 4 USA sprinters pass that baton and watch them build that lead on each pass. I could do without the mugging and posing and using the American flag as a cape, which took place several years ago. That was lame.

4. Looking at the medal count and seeing the USA at the top

5. Looking at the medal count and seeing that one lone tiny nation with one medal.....maybe a bronze, maybe even a gold.....but you know that whomever it was that won the medal will forever be a hero in his or her country.

6. The National Anthem and the raising of the US flag. That never gets old for me. I love watching the atheletes....will they cry? will they be stone faced? will they attempt to sing (and mess up the lyrics?)...it seems silly....why should I feel a tremendous swell of national pride simply because an American swam a faster 100M butterfly stroke than a Japanese person? Who cares, really? I cannot explain it, but for whatever reason, the Olympics make me care.

7. The Olympic rings/logo everywhere. yes, I realize that it is a branding exercise and that the Olympics are largely about corporate sponsorship and money. However, for those that have lived in a host city....SLC, for example.....did you think it was cool to see Olympic stuff all over the place? The gigantic murals or pictures of atheletes draped over downtown buildings, the Olympic Flame burning at the local stadium, flags of nations everywhere.....you just feel like you are at the epicenter of something incredibly important and fun. Maybe others felt it to be an intrusion (traffic, crowds, etc...), but i loved being a part of it. I hope the Olympics return to Los Angeles again in my lifetime.

I thought the archer was the atlanta games after Muhammad Ali came out?