The Olympics Are Weird

I like the Olympics. Just the other day I was eating breakfast preparing for another scintillating shift at The Booze Emporium - and watching water polo.
You will watch whatever is on. Stuff you would never dream of watching. Stuff that doesn't interest you. Because it is the Olympics.
You feel obligated to watch the Olympics because of the hype. And because you know when you go to work your buddy is going to say "Did you see the badminton competition? Indonesia edged out Malaysia for the gold. It was INTENSE." You are obligated to know about this to appear worldly.
Everything about the Olympics is dramatic. Way over the top. The music is intense. The timpani booming, the theme song instantly recognizable.
The judging pisses me off. There are always scandals. Did you see the boxing deal? One dude got driven to his knees five times in one round - and was declared the winner of the fight.
This is boxing so its not as as  shocking as it should be. But its the goddamn Olympics. It should never happen.
I watch many events where it appears that one team performs as well if not better than the other but gets lower scores. Happens a lot.
This sucks. Take away the big names like Phelps and Lochte, and the Olympics means a lot to a lot of athletes. People who work their asses off to get there and to be competitive at the highest level. People whose faces will not be on Wheaties boxes, people who will not turn Olympic gold into corporate sponsored gold. People who will go home to backslaps, handshakes, maybe parades, but will not go home to swollen bank accounts.
These athletes performances should not be subject to judges' bias and incompetence.
And the judges are so arrogant. Look at those pinched faces, the self important postures.
Are you serious?
The commentators, the people who anchor the whole deal, always look exhausted and are forced to offer thrilling, insightful analysis on obscure competitions. They have to appear to be in awe at the privilege of being allowed to orchestrate and summarize the coverage of the Olympics.
When in truth they would much rather be at home covering the unbearable excitement of the NFL pre-season.
I caught a little handball yesterday. This is not the knock a ball against the wall handball. This is a cross between soccer and basketball. It was pretty cool. What was even cooler was that one of the commentators was Mike Gorman. Probably supremely happy to be away from Heinsohn.
I don't eat a lot of cereal. But if they put an Olympic trampolining team on a Wheaties box I would chow heartily.
All of that being said, I will keep an eye on the Olympics. Can't help it. I get sucked in.
And in the back of my mind I will be looking forward to the winter Olympics.
These goddamn people turned me into a fan of curling.