The Twain Shall Meet - 2008 Summer Olympics

I love the Olympics and I really love watching the Olympics.

Not in person- I've never done that. I blew the only chance I ever had to see an Olympic event in person out of sheer ignorance. In 1980 my father-in-law was on one of the Committees for the Lake Placid Winter Olympics and not only did he have event tickets - he had that rarest of all things, a pass to drive a car into Lake Placid and park. It was just a short hop from Ticonderoga to Lake Placid, and it is my recollection that he took advantage of both several times.

I don't know why he offered me the tickets - I was not "blood" and "low status" by his standards. Whenever he offered me a "cold one" for instance, it was usually Milwaukee's Finest, and not a Molson Brador- that was reserved for Bob or John, or for higher ranking company than me. But he did - 2 tickets to the Ice Dancing Finals. And I, stupidly and to my on-going regret, turned them down. I claimed I had papers to correct. That was true, but I always had papers to correct and they could have waited. The true reason was I had never heard of Ice Dancing and it didn't sound like a "real" Olympic event - why would I want to see that?

No, all my watching has been on TV, and every 4 years, I have been engrossed and riveted, openings to prelims, heats to finals, and award ceremonies to closing ceremonies. I could never get enough.

I loved it when the Winter and Summer Olympics were split out of the same year, so my wait was only two years from Games to Games. The TV coverage became better and more comprehensive and I loved that, too. But, it still wasn't enough. I guess my Type A personality extends to Olympics Watching, too.

I not only wanted to watch more, I wanted to watch more events. Sure I loved skating (including, it turns out, Ice Dancing) and gymnastics, swimming and track and field, but I wanted more. I wanted Team Handball, and Archery, Luge and obscure Nordic races. And I wanted to see the "Back of the Packers" from the other countries of the world, athletes like me who would never medal, but who were thrilled and proud to participate.

For the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, I was one of the few who actually bought the "Silver Package" of extra TV coverage offered by NBC through our cable company. I wanted to root for the obscure and the hopeful, but mostly what I got was a lot of boxing. I'm not opposed to boxing - as a kid I learned to box at my YMCA and I appreciate what it's like to hit and be hit, and I can get really excited by a good fight. But, I can see as much boxing as I want without having to wait 4 years.

But this year - finally - the Olympics and TV have been melded with the Internet! I can watch TV in the morning and in the evening. I can watch on NBC and MSNBC. And best of all - I can watch events on my computer - LIVE! It's wonderful.

AT 6 in the morning I've watched a prelim round of Women's Singles Badminton - England vs. Hong Kong. It was great! For those of you whose only experience with badminton is of the back yard or mandatory gym class kind - you ain't seen notin'! It's a fast and athletic game, filled with speed and grace, power and torgue, angles and touch. By the way, I've known this ever since 1970 when I was a waiter in a Howard Johnson's on South Road in Poughkeepsie - Millie, a personable and attractive "older" waitress of about 34 played competitively, and she set me straight about the sport.

So far, I've also watched fencing, field hockey, trap shooting, team handball (finally!),equestrian events and water polo. Did you know that men's water polo players often wear 2 bathing suits? It gets a little rough under the water, and it's not unusual for a player to have his suit grabbed and pulled right off. I learned this from our pediatrician - he used to play in Jamaica when he was younger.

I also watched soccer, basketball and swimming - I'm not opposed to the major sports. I like them , too. I am rooting for Michael Phelps and I hope he gets his 8 gold medals. But, I'm really rooting hard for Dara Torres - I know what it's like to be old and to go like hell for 50 meters in the water.

Here's a confession - sometimes I miss the announcers, especially when I don't know very much about the sport or the participants. I take the time to read the features on the website - there are lots of them and they are very comprehensive. But, I still don't know why the Italian fencer took off her helmet and complained after the South Korean woman scored a point. If it were basketball or baseball, an announcer would have let me know. I suppose I could always ask my daughter's roommate the next time I see her - she'll be the Captain of Boston College's fencing team in the fall.

Another great feature? If I missed it live, I can watch videos or photos whenever I have the time. There's a 52 minute video of highlights of the Opening Ceremony - I plan to make some room in my schedule to watch it. I found a pretty funny photo sequence of the Women's softball team goofing with President Bush, putting a chalk "Bird" hand imprint on the back of his shirt. He looks pretty relaxed, and was a good sport about it. By the way, he said the highlight of his 4 day stay at the Olympics was getting his picture taken with the men's and women's baseball teams. Good thing, too, since both sports will be eliminated in the 2012 games.

I'm pretty excited - there's still synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, modern pentathlon, and table tennis to go. This year they've added trampoline - I've got to check that out, too. If I click on the Video Control Room button on the left side of the screen, I can watch up to 4 events simultaneously - how can it get any better than that?

I'll be checking them all out on NBCOlympics.com. Click on the link and you can , too.

See you out there.