Olympics
 

I am starting this in entertainment, I am not sure where it should go. Is anyone else as excited as I am for the games? Any favorites? Anyone you know going to compete? Anyone actually going?

Heck yeah, I'm excited! I will be glued to the television set the entire time.

My cousin will be playing for Greece's softball team! Softball is not a sport in Greece, but as the host country they receive an automatic bid into the tourney. So Greece put out a call for women of Greek descent to try out for the team--my cousin landed one of the spots. We are SO proud of her!!! :D

Three cheers for Bryan Clay, American medal contender in the decathlon, has come a long way since our summer fun days at Kapaolono Park.

I'd love to go to Athens, but I'll be content with my TV at home or at the bar.

I'm all for watching the opening and closing ceremonies... always prescribed to the same formula laid down by Baron Pierre de Coubertin over 100 years ago.

Politicians are tempted to grandstand the opening ceremony... but Olympic rules require them to only declare the games open.

Here's the rules for the opening ceremonies, straight from the IOC's website: http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_840.pdf

I'm sooo excited. I love the opening and closing ceremonies.

I pay special attention to the gymnastics and swimming.

Me too; I also love the diving.

i tend to be more of a winter olympic gal myself (what can i say? i dig men in tights on ice), but i do watch the gymnastics and diving comps. i remember the olympics being a HUGE deal when i was little, but i don't feel the hype now. who's gonna be the last person carrying the torch i wonder?

The run-up has been building for a while, and this weekend was the send off at the cottage for people going...

My second cousin is there for wind-surfing
Some guys from the lake are there for sailing
and
A chapter alumn is there for the CBC :)

I recently read an article either in the ESPN magazine or the Sports Illustrated. It basically stated that they were against this b/c the people trying out for the Greek baseball/softball teams have some Greek ancestry but it's pretty far removed & that Greece is only doing this to try to win a medal in a sport they do not play. Also, these "temporary" Greeks do not know the language or the culture or even the national anthem for the country they are competing for. The most of Greek culture that they know is based on movies like "Zorba the Greek" & "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."
It was an interesting article to say the least. I didn't know that you could do this kind of thing.

However, good-luck to your cousin. The Olympics is a once in a lifetime opportunity so may she enjoy & make the most of it.

Re: Olympics
 

I always watch the olympics. My favorite events to watch are: Track & Field(men and women), Swimming(men and women), Diving(men and women), Women's Gymnastics, Women's Soccer, and all the equestrian stuff(because I'm from Kentucky the land of Beautiful horses and the Rolex Three Day event which is an olympic qualifier here in Lexington).

I think there was another Olympic thread a month or so again, but nobody answered my question: Does anyone know of any GLO's being represented this year?

aj

I watched bits of a really interesting TV program last night about the games. Hitler was actually the one who started the tradition of the torch relay. There was also something about the rings - the Germans planted some in Greek soil and had their archeologists "discover" them as a link to the original Olympics (don't know if the rings were in use before the Munich games or if it was another Hitler invention) and he also was the first to make such a production of the opening ceremonies. I was surprised that some of the traditions we now love were started by Hitler and that no one has put up a stink about it...

Sorry, AJ, don't know any GLO ties to the games.

And I'm excited that Mo Bhardwaj gets to go. I didn't realize they had set the team yet.

I think someone mentioned members of Iota Phi Theta and Omega Psi Phi are competing. Not sure of other organizations.

I love watching gymnastics, rowing, and football. Yay!

In days of old, the Olympic salute to the head of state during the opening ceremonies was very similar to the Deutscher Grüss ("German greeting", aka the Nazi salute), that ended after the 1936 Olympics.

The torch relay was introduced in the 1936 Berlin games.

The modern Olympic ring design and flag was designed by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Originally, the flag had the motto of the Olympics - Citius Altius Fortius - (Faster, Higher, Stronger) below the rings but that was dropped from the flag in the 1920s.

After the Nazi-engineered spectacle of the 1936 Olympics stricter controls were placed on the opening ceremony after World War II.

(On a semi-related topic, Hitler drove the first Volkswagen Beetle off the assembly line (originally known as the KdF-Wagen (Kraft durch Freude "Strength through Joy" - the Nazi-controlled travel and entertainment industry for workers), but the Bug (and Volkswagen) endures today.)