Just free associating now, here's stuff I loved about the Olympic events I saw: I thought Matt Mitcham last night in the diving was amazing.
I don't really care for the diving, but that kid's story won me over. The fact that he'd left diving for a year or two, a bit of a headcase, that he had no expectations, that he was so freely in the moment, that he wasn't overwhelmed, that he took such joy in what he was doing, as opposed to the Chinese kid with the weight of a billion people on his shoulders, it was just beautiful. Then when he had won and he was crying, and an Australian girl came up to him and hugged him and said, Matthew you just won the Olympics! in that great Aussie way, and you could hear it on camera, and he didn't believe it, his knees buckled, I don't think you can ask any more from sports, or spectacle generally, than that moment. The downside of course is that no one will ever forget this as long as he lives, he will never escape that golden bubble.
I was grateful to Mitcham for overshadowing Michael Phelps who notwithstanding the fact he's from Baltimore, which makes him great in my book, it was a little grinding and joyless to watch, and too much luck on his side, and overladen with such American chauvinism I found it hard to watch.
Usain Bolt of course overshadowed Phelps first. It was his Olympics more than anyone's. And you had to love him, even if he was an asshole in the 100, taunting Asafa Powell. Hideous. Still, what a sense of showmanship and of rising to the occasion. And beautiful to watch. Like Mitcham. He's gonig to be around for a long time, and it's great for Jamaica, a country I really like, the wild free spirit of Jamaica.
I hated a lot of stuff. I always hate the American coverage, the way they chop and cuisinart everything and try to tell the story rapidly. Hate it. Give me the event in all its glory. Don't like Bob Costas though I thought he did a very good interview with George Bush and again last night with Rogge. I loved the Jamaican women. I loved the American women on the track last night in the 4by400. They made me proud to be an American, that they were thankful and smiling and didn't put on airs. I don't like Jeremy Wariner. He's too arrogant and weird. I love Logan Tom, I forget her name for four years and then there she is again, too beautiful, and I realize that's why they invented the Olympics.
Didn't like the beach volleyball, disappointed in the Nigerian soccer team. I'm forgetting that my headine is all positive. Loved Lionel Messi. Loved the Nigerian goalie, loved the forward named Promise Isaac. Hope he's in my future.
