Thank God We Live In America...

The Games Of The XXIX Olympiad
I have been watching the Olympics (off and on) since they began almost two weeks ago. Softball and baseball have been relegated to the Oh-Dark-Thirty hours, so I have had to satisfy my jones for international softball/baseball by reading the newspaper.

Women's Beach Volleyball has been a favourite of The Lifeguard (beaches and women--what's not to like). Congratulations, by the way, to Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh.

Then, there was the FUBARed baton pass in both the Men's and Women's 4x100m Relay.

Well, at least USA Track can take solace that they don't live in the former Soviet Union (where they would be sent to the Gulag); or, Iraq (where Uday or Qusay would drop them into an industrial shredder).

So, at least they have that going for them.

That all having been said, The Lifeguard does enjoy the Olympics. I grew up watching them every four years; and, I remember cheering for the American athletes. I took it personally when the United States didn't win every medal; but, I also understood (and admired) the situation facing the athletes from certain countries. Athletes whose lives changed drastically (for the worse or the better) depending upon their success on the balance beam, the court, the pool, or the track.

I remember watching the tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympics as it happened.

I remember Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon, and the "Miracle on Ice."

I remember the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics...and the Soviet Union's boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

I remember thinking that I could be on that podium, collecting my gold medal (if only I were citius, altius or fortius.) And, by gum, I would sing the Star Spangled Banner. I mean, I would belt it out ('though they might have then stripped me of my medal for my awful singing).

Anyway, back to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, y'all.