Ah, the Olympics: somebody’s gotta finish 4th.

The high five

Has anybody else noticed how many athletes from so many different parts of the world use the high five? I first noticed it during the men's gymnastics - the Romanians, Koreans, Japanese, all of them high-fiving each other. Same with beach volleyball. Has anybody noticed it anywhere else? Basketball? Table tennis? Team rhthmic gymnastics?

I wondered then what the origin of the high-five was - is it an American invention? It is, according to this.

Was it Bush Sr. who got into trouble, doing the peace sign backwards to an Australian protesters? That means to them what the middle finger means to us. There are all kinds of little gestures and reactions that mean entirely different things to people in other parts of the world.

Given that, it just seems odd to see people from different cultures all using the same gesture for the same reason.

Competing for a different country

I've also been noticing a lot of athletes who are competing for countries they weren't born in. I have heard of this kind of thing before, but it seems to be more prevalent this year.

For example, the guy who won the 400 hurdles – he was born in NY, lives in LA, but has Dominican parents and began competing for that country after missing the cut for a previous U.S. Olympic team. He's a big star in the Dominican Republic now. There was a Russian female diver who couldn't compete in Sydney because Russia wouldn’t release her to compete for Australia. This year she did compete for the Aussies. Another Russian diver, competing for Russia, lives in Austin. There are, apparently, several track athletes from Cuba competing for Spain. The U.S. marathoner who got the silver was born in Eritrea, lived there until he was 10, then lived in Italy for several years before moving to the U.S.

Not sure what all that means. I think a "one world" proponent might approve, though.

National Anthem

It was good to see the women's soccer team singing at the tops of their lungs. I told the kids that, if they're ever any kind of public official, you have to sing or say the anthem every time, but if you're an athlete at the Olympics, it's optional. I can't think of a better time to sing and sing loud, though. That's what I would do.

Did you get to see any medal ceremonies where a Greek athlete won the gold? Those people all sung at the tops of their lungs. So did the Israelies, after their guy won a sailing gold.

The time delay

I never did look up the time delay between here and Greece, but I frequently knew the outcomes of the big events before getting home and still watching them (which set me up for some amusing second-guessing after Paul Hamm fell on whatever event that was).

I heard some grumbling about it, but didn't pay close enough attention to know exactly what the problem was. What exactly is the network supposed to do? Show the events as they happen, while we're all at work or asleep? Please.

That said, I have my own gripe. Knowing that everything I'm watching on TV happened hours ago, I would think the network could show us more. For example, one night last week, they went into a long documentary about the Hamm brothers and the whole scoring controversy. This was at about 10:30 pm.

WHY? We already knew about all that. Wasn't there any weightlifting we could watch? Wrestling? Rowing?

Another case: right before the men's 200 meter finals. That's the one where the crowd started booing, because the Greek runner was out after skipping a drug test. Apparently, the newspapers in Greece were saying it was an American plot to get him out.

Oh, please.

This all went on, probably, more than ten minutes. I know, because I watched it. The whole thing. All these guys pacing back and forth.

SHOW ME SOMETHING ELSE. Show me highlights from the gold medal table tennis and badminton matches, instead of all this nothing. Then show me two minutes of booing, explain what's going on, and let me see the race, which by the way was a U.S. sweep, because that's the only way to respond to that sort of situation.

Best news of the Olympics: the gold medal diver from China, according to the commentator, has endorsement deals in China. I wonder what an "endorsement deal" means in Communist China - or maybe I should say not-so-Communist-China-anymore?