Trouble With Floyd: August 2012

Every four years we get to watch the Olympics. Honestly I have not paid much attention the last 30 years, but this year was different. Maybe it was the extensive coverage that caused me to watch more than I have before, or maybe it was because outside it was 100+ degrees every day over the last few weeks. Following are snippets I remember from all Olympics I've watched over the years: * I remember watching the 1984 Olympics with my mom in the game room. She introduced me to BBQ flavored Ruffles dipped in sour cream. Sounds like a strange combination, but we ate almost a bag of chips and 1 container of sour cream per night. Specifically, I remember watching men's volleyball. * In college, I guess maybe 2002, I discovered Curling. I thought it was the most ridiculous sport ever. And then I watched it for almost 2 hours, really impressed with Canada's overall broom speed and precision. * I remember watching the Winter Olympics in 2006 at Tiffany's house during band practice. Any time Apollo Ono competed we had to shut everything down and watch. We would watch his events, his interviews, his stretching, his walking around the arena multiple times because Tiffany had the biggest crush on the guy. * In elementary school our history teacher showed us the long jump during class. When they announced the distance of the gold medal jump he took us outside and put tape on the concrete of exactly how long that was. I remember seeing how many jumps it took me to make it from 1 piece of tape to the next. I don't remember how many jumps it took. * This year I watched Water Polo with Stephen, Nick and Haddiebug. I have decided that I do not care for Water Polo. It is too much of the same thing and lasts too long. I respect their athleticism, just can't get into the competition. * Watching Water Polo with L. and Dee. Same as previous bullet, except it was more fun listening to L. and Dee trying to understand the sport. * Anytime I turned the TV on and looked through the guide I saw several channels airing XXX Olympics. And for a quick second I wondered/hoped they were airing several channels of porn Olympics. * We watched the dancing with a bouncy ball event. Not sure what this is called, or why it is an event, but we watched it. I must admit, the women could do some cool things with the bouncy ball, but I feel that this is more of a circus routine and not an olympic event. It isn't fair to jugglers that they allow this event in, but not juggling. * We also watched the dancing with a hula hoop event. Same as previous event. * Usain Bolt is a freak of nature. We watched him sprint in the 100m and 200m, but missed the 4X 100m relay. That sounded like the best event of 2012. * I watched at least 30 minutes of the Women's US Soccer gold medal game. We have an awesome team, and they are fun to watch. * I feel like the story trying to come out of these Olympics was USA verse China. And throughout the games, the top two medal winning countries were USA and China. I don't think it matters much to me if we are the most medal winning country in the competition. I like all of the athletes and I want them all to do well. I like good, wholesome competition, and I feel like the Olympics take out Fandom from the equation for me more so than other sports, which makes it less stressful to watch. That being said, the US won the most medals and we took home the most gold. While watching, I felt like US Women dominated everything, and so I found the following graphics which illustrate how the medals are broken out. Sure enough, US Women dominated the games, and that gave me a great sense of pride. In this time in human history I have the good fortune to live in the country with the greatest women in the world. It doesn't get any better than that!