Too Much Swimming... and Phelps Overload
Yeah, I like the Olympics as much as anyone, but I'm fed-up with turning on the T.V. and seeing another broadcast from the Water Cube.
How many ways are there for people to race through water? Theres the butterfly, the breaststroke, the backstroke, the freestyle, fine. I get it. Then you have all of the different distances like the 50, the 100, the 200. Then you have the relays. Then you have the combo-relays called "medleys." THEN we get to the men's and women's divisions...natch.
Is this enough to occupy the T.V. every night for almost a week straight? Apparently. I was excited to see the U.S. men's relay team win the big event, I even actually jumped out of my seat at the final second. But now I find myself settling in for the evening to watch women's gymnastics, volleyball, archery, weightlifting, ANYTHING...but somehow I keep tuning into the Men's 8,000 Meter Hibbity-Jibbity, featuring some combination of Micheal Phelps, Brian Lotche, and some other people I never knew existed before last week...
Which brings me to my next rant: I'm sick of Micheal Phelps. There, I said it. Let the hate E-mail come pouring in.
I admit, he is the absolute best at what he does. He's like Swimming's Tiger Woods; young, focused, cool, and with that easy smile that the cameras just love. As recently as a week ago I was as wrapped up in his Gold Medal chase as any good American sports fan. But then something happened.
Somewhere along the line, maybe it was after he won his 6th Gold Medal, I just stopped caring. I think it's always that way when somebody is just "too good." Like Jeff Gordon, the NASCAR driver, in his prime, or even the aforementioned Tiger Woods. There just ceases to be anything fascinating about a guy heading back up to the podium to collect his 12th, 13th, 14th Gold Medals of his lifetime. "And here we go again, Mr. Phelps. Up to the podium, grab the garlands, kiss the presenter, smile, wait for the flash bulbs to die...and, we're clear."
Just so I'm understood: In no way am I decrying his achievements. He has attained greatness, something which few people ever do.
But as for an interesting story, I think that train left the station somewhere back around Gold medal number 4. Give me the underdog, the lovable loser, the undersized and overmatched nobody, the one-legged Latvian hurdler who suffered years of Soviet oppression and spent his last dollar to buy boat-fare for the 10-week trip to China and had to earn his keep scraping barnacles the whole way. Now that's exciting, baby.
I guess I'm just another fickle media consumer. Give me too much of a good thing, and (yawn) I'm not interested anymore. Even in SuperMan there were episodes when he ran into Cryptonite.
If Micheal Phelps wants to increase his marketability, he needs to hit some kind of rough patch and bounce back. Noboby likes the perpetual Golden Boy for too long. This is America, dammit. We actually LIKE IT for our heros to get knocked around a bit and re-surface. It adds to the charm. In fact, the longer you keep winning and winning and winning, the LESS people will actually like you. But you can't lose too much either. It's twisted, yes, but that's life.
How many ways are there for people to race through water? Theres the butterfly, the breaststroke, the backstroke, the freestyle, fine. I get it. Then you have all of the different distances like the 50, the 100, the 200. Then you have the relays. Then you have the combo-relays called "medleys." THEN we get to the men's and women's divisions...natch.
Is this enough to occupy the T.V. every night for almost a week straight? Apparently. I was excited to see the U.S. men's relay team win the big event, I even actually jumped out of my seat at the final second. But now I find myself settling in for the evening to watch women's gymnastics, volleyball, archery, weightlifting, ANYTHING...but somehow I keep tuning into the Men's 8,000 Meter Hibbity-Jibbity, featuring some combination of Micheal Phelps, Brian Lotche, and some other people I never knew existed before last week...
Which brings me to my next rant: I'm sick of Micheal Phelps. There, I said it. Let the hate E-mail come pouring in.
I admit, he is the absolute best at what he does. He's like Swimming's Tiger Woods; young, focused, cool, and with that easy smile that the cameras just love. As recently as a week ago I was as wrapped up in his Gold Medal chase as any good American sports fan. But then something happened.
Somewhere along the line, maybe it was after he won his 6th Gold Medal, I just stopped caring. I think it's always that way when somebody is just "too good." Like Jeff Gordon, the NASCAR driver, in his prime, or even the aforementioned Tiger Woods. There just ceases to be anything fascinating about a guy heading back up to the podium to collect his 12th, 13th, 14th Gold Medals of his lifetime. "And here we go again, Mr. Phelps. Up to the podium, grab the garlands, kiss the presenter, smile, wait for the flash bulbs to die...and, we're clear."
Just so I'm understood: In no way am I decrying his achievements. He has attained greatness, something which few people ever do.
But as for an interesting story, I think that train left the station somewhere back around Gold medal number 4. Give me the underdog, the lovable loser, the undersized and overmatched nobody, the one-legged Latvian hurdler who suffered years of Soviet oppression and spent his last dollar to buy boat-fare for the 10-week trip to China and had to earn his keep scraping barnacles the whole way. Now that's exciting, baby.
I guess I'm just another fickle media consumer. Give me too much of a good thing, and (yawn) I'm not interested anymore. Even in SuperMan there were episodes when he ran into Cryptonite.
If Micheal Phelps wants to increase his marketability, he needs to hit some kind of rough patch and bounce back. Noboby likes the perpetual Golden Boy for too long. This is America, dammit. We actually LIKE IT for our heros to get knocked around a bit and re-surface. It adds to the charm. In fact, the longer you keep winning and winning and winning, the LESS people will actually like you. But you can't lose too much either. It's twisted, yes, but that's life.
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