On Those Glorious Rings
This past Saturday morning, I awoke to a most glorious surprise. I’ve been crushing my goal of waking up earlier and was immediately rewarded because… the Summer Olympics have begun and holy smokes am I loving it!
As a prodigious sports-enjoyer, I’m always excited by upcoming major events. The Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the World Cup, etc. For some reason though, I just wasn’t hyped about the 2024 Summer Olympics. Maybe it was the confluence of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Covid (which pushed it back a year and had athletes competing in empty arenas) that sapped some of the magic away. Whatever caused it, every time those Olympic ad-rolls would play, I’d roll my eyes and look at my phone.
Fast-forward to 7 am Saturday morning. I’m sitting on the couch with a blanket and a cup of coffee absolutely locked in on Olympic Judo. It doesn’t matter that I have no idea what a shido is or that I don’t know an ippon from a waza-ari, it was RIVITING. Why was that throw a point while that one was a penalty? Who cares! I’m loving every minute of it!
Throughout the weekend I watched judo, fencing, kayak slalom, volleyball, various disciplines of swimming, boxing, handball, rugby 7s, and more. After years of watching sports, I’m intimately familiar with, it’s so refreshing to watch sports where I have no idea why something is happening.
The beautiful thing about watching an Olympic sport you have no familiarity with is nobody expects you to understand the rules of dressage or archery! Every sport has announcers who are world-class at explaining what just happened in the time it would take me to even formulate a question about it. All that knowledge comes with the enthusiasm that can only be summoned when explaining something you adore to someone who is (at least mildly) interested.
There’s also an emotionality to the Olympics that really gets to me. I’m hardly saying anything new here but watching athletes who have spent the last 4 years of their lives in pursuit of a single goal, oftentimes without the assurance or security of mega contracts, is certainly more exciting than a random A’s vs Royals game in late July.
The pure joy on the face of a Slovenian Judoka who just pulled off a massive upset, the abject despair of the Australian women’s rugby team losing in the final moments to the USA, the way a Hungarian fencer celebrates or the way the Romanian water polo team commiserates…it just gets me feeling some kind of way!
Almost every time the Olympics roll around, I’m just not that excited, and by the third day, I’m the biggest Olympic Andy you’ve ever met. And yet…I know, deep in my heart, if the 2028 Summer Olympics weren’t in my hometown of Los Angeles, I would be right back to rolling my eyes and pulling out my phone every time the ad-rolls started playing four years from now.
So, what about you? Are you a diehard Olympic watcher? Couldn’t care less? Somewhere in between?
It's amazing to me the way the competitors acknowledge the skill and effort of their fellow athletes. It is the real beauty of these games. Personally, I'm a big fan of the track and field events because the talent is so basic and relatable.
I'm loving watching them. I think the opening ceremony was incredible and wonderful. The coverage has been excellent (Gold Zone on Peacock, a knock off of Red Zone for football -- so smart!). And like you, I don't understand most of the rules but who cares. It's like dozens of Tour de France races; I never understand the rules but it's still beautiful and entertaining to watch.