I’ve been tuning into the summer Olympics, mesmerized as I am by the sheer power and superhuman qualities of the athletes competing there. Last night I watched China win the gold in the men’s gymnastics. I sat on my couch holding my breath every time one of the athletes took to the floor, high bar, horse, vault and then, once he landed (and especially if he stuck the landing), I found myself involuntarily grinning or tearing up. Sometimes both. Maybe it’s knowing that if China hadn’t won gold, the coach had promised to fling himself off of the top of the tallest building in Beijing, maybe it was just knowing how it will change the winning athlete’s lives (and the lives of their families), but I could not help rooting for China. I wanted our boys to get that bronze and when Alexander Artemev killed on the Pomel Horse to clinch that medal, I jumped up (in my mind) and cheered. But for some reason, it was the Chinese who had me at hello.
But if I may, I’d like to register a complaint: The NBC reporter interviewing the swimmers poolside is getting on my last nerve. Her cringeworthy interviews feel cheap and ridiculous, more red carpet coverage on E! than Olympic Games. (Not that I don’t love the red carpet coverage, but you wouldn’t have Ryan Seacrest interviewing athletes, would you?) Case in point, when she yelled into her microphone at Matt Grevers to come back to be interviewed after he tried to sneak away and leave his teammate in the spotlight. Don’t blame him one bit for trying to make a break for it.
