<p>First, I have to say…I’m so sorry to hear Paul Hamm will not compete and I have so much respect for him for making that tough decision. But … Woot!!! Go Raj!!! Raj Bhavsar will replace Hamm and I am so excited for him. He and fellow Olympic teammate Jonathan Horton both got their start and trained at the gym where my daughter competed. I’m so excited I can’t stand it. 
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<p>I LOVE the Summer Games!</p>
<p>Also excited here, ldmom. Canada’s women’s soccer team will be competing for the first time in the Olympics. Two of the girls on the team are girls we know and who have played with one of my Ds. Can’t wait for the games! :)</p>
<p>Yay, Olympics! Can’t wait to see the gymnasts! Swimming is going to be HOT, too. I hope our guys and gals kick the Aussies’ rear ends! Will Michael Phelps finally get his 7 gold medals?</p>
<p>I can’t wait to watch the swimming, too, BB. I hope Dara Torres can win gold in the 50… did you happen to see her on the cover to Time? (They have multiple covers out this week of different athletes, so it’s easy to miss.)</p>
<p>Here’s a link with the different covers. Check out Dara; looks like she has zero percent body fat! [TIME</a> Magazine – Europe Edition – August 4, 2008 | Vol. 172, No. 5](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/magazine/europe/0,9263,901080804,00.html]TIME”>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/europe/0,9263,901080804,00.html)</p>
<p>Yes, I did!!! I’m so proud of her. She set an American record in the 50 and also won the 100 at the trials but opted out of it for the Games. I got that issue of Time out of my mailbox and started running around the house screaming “My people! My people! My people are going to kick you people’s butts!” D (who used to swim) thought I needed meds.</p>
<p>Count me in as an avid Olympics fan!!! I am sooo happy for Raj. I wish he’d gotten on the team in the first round. He’s got the mental toughness to do well</p>
<p>I admit that I am relieved that Paul is out - he should be very content with what he did last time and have nothing to prove. I’m so happy for Raj!!!</p>
<p>We are very un-sports watching family but we love to watch the Olympics. My daughters and I chat about the female gymnasts by their first names, like we know them or something.</p>
<p>I guess that’s one good thing about school starting later - school won’t interfere with our Olympics watching!</p>
<p>Smog, smog, and more smog. That is the weather prediction right now. Maybe the winds will change but it looks like outdoor athletes may be in for a challenge to their health.</p>
<p>Some athletes are having to walk around with masks on, some have decided not to runin certain long races, and some are scared for their health.</p>
<p>I personally find the Olympics boring. I hate the way the American coverage is done. I don’t need to know how many kittens some swimmer has. And it si so commercial. Also, its so professional now.</p>
<p>I won’t watch them at all. And I won’t even go into the host country this year. But I just couldn’t be bothered to watch.</p>
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<p>LOL! Hysterical, Bunsen. I am so stoked! I love the way television coverage of the games is available almost 24/7. Other than Boxing, all the events interest me. Especially of course, gymnastics and swimming. Track and Field is also extremely exciting. I’m going to be spending a lot of time in front of the television in the upcoming two weeks:p</p>
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<p>Yeah, that’s a real problem. China’s air quality problem has been long known and well documented. When the IOC awarded the games to them, I thought, “What the heck were they thinking?” The human rights issues alone should have disqualified them from serious consideration.</p>
<p>Oh well…</p>
<p>Maybe this will finally provide the Chinese Gov. with the impetus to seriously address their long term air pollution crisis. But I’ll not hold my breath…:rolleyes:</p>
<p>I agree that Paul Hamm should have just bowed out.</p>
<p>Why are gymnastics and swimming everyone’s favorite sports? Mine, too. But I also love track & field.</p>
<p>Yes, my sons are very happy that school is starting later so they’ll get to see the Games. We don’t have cable, but I hope that lots of it will be online.</p>
<p>Bumping this! Was up at 5 a.m. this morning to watch the first match for the Canadian womens’ soccer team. They won this preliminary game 2-1 over Argentina, so off to a good start. Very excited and happy for them that they are there competing.</p>
<p>I LOVE the Olympics!!! I would love to get off for the whole thing, but I doubt that work would approve the request!!! Way back in 1992, I was one of the few who had the NBC triple cast! It didn’t go over very well back then, but I loved it. There were no commercials and no human interest stories. We got to see every competitor in all of the events. It was fabulous. My husband better not expect me to cook great meals for the next few weeks. Thank goodness for tivo – of course, if I watch the tivoed stuff, then I’ll miss the events that are on. Such a dilemma.</p>
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But US women lost 2-0 to Norway. :(</p>
<p>I heard there is going to be less “human interest” stories and more “real” coverage. We will see…
Very excited to see the opening ceremony, directed by the man who created The House of Flying Daggers (Shi mian mai fu) Yimou Zhang. Music is being created by a classical composer - can’t wait!!!</p>
<p>I don’t mind the human-interest stuff. What I can’t stand is when they edit the competitions so much that the whole thing is down to two minutes. I like to build up to some suspense …</p>
<p>The coverage used to be so different. I remember watching the Olympics as a kid and they’d show entire heats of the long distances in swimming and running. I’d watch for a while, get a snack, do something else and come back and those same people would still be swimming or running…it didn’t make for excitement-every-second-TV, but it really gave one an appreciation of how grueling those events are.</p>
<p>I must be the only person who’s looking forward to watching the Olympic taekwondo tournament, though as a martial artist myself I’m biased! I’m also looking forward to the track&field coverage, but gymnastics is something I just find weird.</p>
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<p>Yes, I heard. Divided loyalties as someone who has dual citizenship but Canada’s girls are number one for us as two of the players are girls that one of my Ds used to play with when they were all much younger. Great kids and great soccer players, both of whom attended U.S. schools on athletic scholarships.</p>