Let The Games Begin

Friday night was the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. I enjoyed the ceremonies though I like the games itself a lot better. Certainly better than the half time show of the Super Bowl. For someone who is a fan the ceremonies or half time show is not the same as the games other than the first day of competition.

The Rio Games has been under conflict more than other games I remember before they begin. Usually during the games they talk about the political angle although as a fan I find it unimportant. This time the problem comes about the virus where some of the athletes did decide not to participate along with others unable to do so because of doping. The doping I usually here during the games though it has happened before the games began as well. A third problem is the pollution in and around Rio especially with swimming in the waters.  I expect there is little problems with this all in the Olympic village.

The first Olympics that I watched was the 1968 in Mexico. A lot of politics came out of that Olympics and I was not very old so I did not really understand what was going on.

What I like about the Olympics is seeing sports that I don’t get to see very much of except every four years when the Olympics are on. With the expansion with television we can catch them a little bit more often but not with those who are the best at what they do. I am not talking about sports like basketball or hockey along with soccer (football everywhere except USA) who have professional leagues and an event like World Cup in football.

Some of the early rounds of events I sometimes miss. I wait until the rounds get going. A lot depends on what is going at a specific time. Much of the Olympics I enjoy watching on Canadian TV. They show more events I like to see and they are live to. NBC who covers for USA only shows most of the events during prime time except on the weekends and they are not usually on live TV. I can watch some of the live events on NBC’s cable channels. Also I like the way the Canadian channel covers the events as well. Often I will switch back and forth during the commercials depending what is playing.

I especially like watching women gymnastics along with beach volleyball. I don’t watch much of the USA basketball team since they are NBA players and I no longer watch their games either since the Sonics left Seattle for Oklahoma City. I have to say NBA basketball is not the kind of basketball I enjoy. Depending on the other sports going on I may watch some of the basketball of the other countries participating.

I hope that you take the opportunity to watch some of the Olympics and root for your home country. Also I enjoy rooting for the underdogs as well. I can hope that politics will not play big in these games.