the Olympics are FINALLY over

Thank Goodness.

I accidentally watched the olympics this year once when I was at a bar and they had Curling on TV. Um. Yeah. this SNL skit sums it up perfectly for me:



I wanna like Curling...but really, it just looks like they're sweeping. And I do enough of that at home, so I'll pass. Thanks.

I really don't enjoy the winter Olympics at all. I know I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't and I'm sure y'all are throwing virtual tomatoes as I type this, but I can't help it. They bore the crap outta me...and I'm always cold when I watch.

I'm never happy when I'm cold.

So now we can get back to regular TV and I can be happy again.

Carry on.

Pressure and Controversy

You remember the struggles and pain you had
When all the good had turned to bad
For it all to simply just go away...
But when the pressure builds and tears you apart
How are you able to not depart
How are you able to still carry a smile
When everything inside is in a pile

That was an excerpt from a poem called "Champion", written by star US gymnast, Shawn Johnson. She wrote it during a stay at the national training center in March as a way to put into words the pressure she and her teammates feel to succeed.

I can't even imagine that type of pressure, at the tender age of 16, no less. The "ladies" on the US women's team range in age from 16 to 20 (team captain, Brown University student Alicia Sacramone). Your country's hopes riding on your back as you tumble and throw your body all over the mat.

You're 1 point away from the leaders with 2 rotations to go. Olympic gold is within your reach if you can just do your job. But you fall. Your nerves get the best of you. And you blame yourself because your team took silver.

That's what happened to Sacramone in the team finals. She fell during her mount on the beam and then again after a tumbling pass in the floor exercise. Some people feel that as the team captain, she has the most pressure, especially since she's the oldest, and thus able to internalize it more.

It's said that the older gymnasts feel more pressure, and the younger the team is, the less pressure they feel, because perhaps they don't understand it as much.

That could be one explanation for using underage athletes. I'm sure by now you've heard of the controversy over the Chinese women's gymnastics team. Last month, the NY Times uncovered evidence (as posted on the Chinese national team's websites earlier this year, but now taken down) that not all of their gymnasts are the legal age of 16 (or at least 15 1/2...a gymnast must turn 16 within the calendar year in which the Olympics take place in order to compete).

Sports Illustrated link

Even before I'd heard that a couple of the Chinese gymnasts had previously been reported as having birthdays in 1994 (but suddenly this year their records have been "corrected" and they now have government-issued passports that state they were born in 1992), I said to Mr. Brice, "wow, some of those girls look 8 or 9!" One of the girls is just 4'6" and weighs only 68 pounds. Now, I know gymnasts are typically very small, but that's just beyond tiny for a 16-year-old. That was about my size in 5th grade! Not to mention that she has a missing tooth...

My husband couldn't figure out why a team would falsify documents like that. In his mind, a 16-year-old would be stronger, and thus better than a 14-year-old. But he's forgetting two key issues. First, a bigger and more powerful gymnast pounds the floor in her landings with much more force than a smaller one. With a couple extra years of the extra force in the landings (6 more years, in the case of Sacramone), this can add up to stress injuries much more easily. Second, the younger gymnasts are more fearless and have less stress.

But I don't know about that. I'd think that competing for the host country would lead to an awful lot of stress, too.

Anyway, what do you think about the stress and pressure we put these young girls under? With the exception of the team leaders, these are teenagers, for the most part). And do you really think Deng Linlin (the super little bitty one with the missing tooth) is 16?

olympics=patriotism?

I'm not watching the Olympics this year. Does that make me unpatriotic?

As a young girl, I eagerly anticipated the Summer Olympics, especially during the Mary Lou Retton years. I wasn't a gymnast but I loved watching those girls twist, bend, flip, and jump their way to a medal. It was fascinating.

But this year? I could care less. And I kinda feel bad about it.

Only, here's the thing, I really hate that the Olympics are in Beijing. The air quality is terrible, and we shouldn't put our athletes through that, but that's not even the main reason.

Basic human rights. China is notorious for their uncaring and inhumane treatment of their own people. Why should we support their economy...which ultimately supports their human rights policies.

I support the athletes and wish them every success in the world. But I really struggle with watching this year's events. I suppose I could equate this to supporting the soldiers but not supporting the war. But I can't help but feel a little bit unpatriotic in the process. What do you think? Do I still bleed red, white, and blue?

Coolest. Job. Ever.

To date, my best summer job ever happened the summer in between my freshman and sophomore years of college, back in 1996. That was the year that Atlanta hosted the Olympic Games.

I should probably back up a bit. During my freshman year (well, actually all throughout college), I worked part-time in the box office on campus, selling tickets for all types of theatrical and musical events. We were using a brand-new computer ticket sales program, which certainly wasn't complicated, but not many people in the country had been trained on it.

Turns out that the Olympic ticket sales used that very same computer program, so they sent press releases to every box office across the country using that program, encouraging us to apply to work for the Games.

Well, duh. Of course I jumped at the chance. Who wouldn't?

But the temp agency doing the hiring kept losing my application. Seriously. I had to send it in 4 times, and eventually I made friends with the lady doing the hiring. She made certain to specifically look for my application that 4th time.

Which was a Very Good Thing. Because a slightly different position opened right about then...the Olympic Family Hotel (actually, it was the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta, but during the summer of the Olympic Games they always call the hotel hosting all the foreign dignitaries, IOC members, and VIPs the "Olympic Family Hotel") needed another employee in the IOC Ticketing Office, and the hiring lady noticed on my resume that I spoke French and some Spanish, and that I was majoring in International Relations. So she called me and asked if I'd be interested in working there instead of at one of the venues.

OK, let's think about this. Air conditioning, as close to business attire as you can get in regulation Olympc Games clothing, and access to heads of state and royalty? Hells yeah!

Turns out that the position was in Protocol, which meant that I worked in the unit who made the decisions as to who was higher than someone else, and thus got priority for complimentary access to the most popular sports. For example, President and Mrs. Clinton could walk into any event that they wanted and just show their security badge, and they'd get escorted to the VIP section, no questions asked. But Chelsea had to request her tickets in advance for the most popular events, such as Gold Medal Gymnastics, Basketball, and Swimming. And my office made the determination as to whether she would get them (hint: she always did).

Sometimes they needed additional hostesses at the VIP entrances of events, in which case, I got to work sporting events, not selling tickets, but merely smiling and welcoming the guests. I stood in the VIP section (thus, getting an amazing view of the sports) and showed Jimmy & Mrs. Carter, the King and Queen of Sweden, Prince Albert, or the Gore daughters to their seats.

A really cool perk of my job was that because I was just 19 at the time, most people assumed that I was a volunteer (I wasn't...I actually got paid pretty decent money at the time), so I got every available handout -- free tickets, passes to club openings, food, collectible lapel pins (don't ask...it's an Olympic thing...but I once had my Olympic pin collection appraised and it was worth over $600...and I didn't buy a single one), random free stuff from the various bid cities (cities trying to get the 2004 Olympics...I'm one of the few people in the world with a San Juan 2004 t-shirt). You name it.

So yeah. The highlight of my working career came at the age of 19. Really cool at the time, but it just serves to make me feel worse about myself every other summer since, when I'm stuck in a crappy job with little summer vacay. LOL!