Sunday, Aug 24, 2008
Ni hao, this is Ian, cosmowanda522, with the Olympics on my mind.
It happens once every four years, always in an even year, when the world comes together as one. It is a particular event, you may have heard of it, called the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games is essentially a two-week carnival of color, cultures and competition. Thousands of athletes representing hundreds of different countries compete in a certain metropolis. The opening ceremonies feature the host country showing off a sampler of what its art and culture are like. Then the athletes enter, Greek athletes first, and host country's athletes always last.
The Olympic Flag is raised, and eventually, the Olympic torch enters the stadium after a very long journey, passing it on to a special person who lights the cauldron. The events that follow depend on the year and season. During leap years, the Summer Olympics occur; in even non-leap years, the Winter Olympics occur. But my focus is on the Summer Olympics, which, this year, were held in Beijing, China.
There are hundreds of events in many sports, but the "big three" are track and field, swimming, and gymnastics.
Track and field is the sport where the world's fastest athletes are determined; there are also the field events including jumping, pole vault and the throwing of projectiles like the javelin, hammer, shot put and discus. This is the sport that exemplifies all three parts of the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, Higher, Stronger), especially in the decathlon. Many stars in the event have included Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Bruce Jenner, Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson on the male side, and Babe Zaharias, Wilma Rudolph, Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner Kersee on the female side.
Swimming is essentially a water-based version of track, where its athletes try to swim a certain number of laps faster than anyone else. Famous swimmers include Mark Spitz, Janet Evans and Michael Phelps.
And then you have gymnastics, which is not just a sport; it is, IMO, a fine art. Its athletes try to perform acrobatic stunts on various apparatus, including bars, the vault, and the floor; male gymnasts also use the pommel horse and suspended rings, and female gymnasts use the balance beam. The female gymnasts are best known in this sport; the best-known ones include the cute and adorable Olga Korbut, the perfect Nadia Comaneci, the talented Mary Lou Retton and the Magnificent Seven of Atlanta. And I personally think that of all the Olympic athletes that compete, the female gymnasts are the cutest of them all.
People who don't usually follow those sports wait for the Olympics to absorb those events.
The Olympic Games is also an event where you get to hear other countries' anthems. But the most familiar anthem could very well be the one from your native country, depending on where you live. But even if you don't live there, you certainly have heard other anthems, such as Great Britain's "God Save the Queen", France's "La Marseillaise", Germany's "Deutschland Uber Ailles" song, Australia's "Advance, Australia Fair", Japan's "Kimi ga yo", China's "March of the Volunteers", Russia's anthem, and the United States' "Star-Spangled Banner".
The Olympics often don't go without controversy, such as the 1972 gold medal basketball fiasco and the 2002 pairs figure skating incident, both were initially decided, IMO, by means of prejudice. There is also the eligibility issue; examples include Jim Thorpe being stripped of his Olympic medals when it was found that he previously played professional baseball (then, pros weren't allowed in the Games), every athlete who was ever caught using drugs, and the (as of this moment) ongoing issue of the ages of the Chinese gymnasts. Regarding that issue, I don't care what they do about it; I still think those girls are cute. Other issues include involvement in the Games themselves for political reasons; in 1980, the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, which led to the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. There's also the complications of being the host city; Montreal spent too much money on building facilities for the 1976 Olympics; Atlanta relied too much on corporate funding for the 1996 Olympics; Athens did not build to schedule for the 2004 Olympics. And then, there are the events that transcend an entire Olympics; they included the 1972 Munich massacre, and the pipe bomb in Atlanta.
Once again, this year's Olympics were shown in the United States on NBC.
When NBC's Olympic tradition began with the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, the network actually had a daytime schedule. This particular schedule consisted of three hours of game shows, followed by three hours of soap operas.
The game shows were:
$ale of the Century, with host Jim Perry, Concentration, with Alex Trebek, Wheel of Fortune, with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, the daytime version of Win, Lose or Draw, hosted by Vicki Lawrence, and produced by Richard S. Kline in association with movie legend Burt Reynolds and nighttime host Bert Convy, who also hosted Super Password, which followed; that was followed by Scrabble, with host Chuck Woolery.
What followed were three soap operas: the long-running Days of Our Lives and Another World, and the short-lived but highly acclaimed Santa Barbara.
Nowadays, NBC's daytime schedule only consists of Days of Our Lives, and even that show might leave NBC soon. That could be possible, especially considering that the Today Show keeps expanding.
The closing ceremonies of all Olympics, summer and winter, feature the athletes coming in as one. Then, three flags are raised as their anthems play: the Greek flag, symbolizing Olympic past, the current host country's flag, symbolizing Olympic present, and the next host country's flag, symbolizing Olympic future. Then, a special Olympic flag is passed on from the mayor of the current host city to the mayor of the next host city, and the next host country displays its art and culture. After the IOC president closes the games, the cauldron is doused, and the Olympic Flag is lowered and removed, thus ending the games.
I think that the Olympic Games are like a quadrennial world holiday, where many nations that are in conflict with other nations try to put their differences aside and let their athletes do the dirty work.
Well, the Beijing Olympics have concluded, and so has this blog. This is Ian, cosmowanda522, saying zai jian.
It happens once every four years, always in an even year, when the world comes together as one. It is a particular event, you may have heard of it, called the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games is essentially a two-week carnival of color, cultures and competition. Thousands of athletes representing hundreds of different countries compete in a certain metropolis. The opening ceremonies feature the host country showing off a sampler of what its art and culture are like. Then the athletes enter, Greek athletes first, and host country's athletes always last.
The Olympic Flag is raised, and eventually, the Olympic torch enters the stadium after a very long journey, passing it on to a special person who lights the cauldron. The events that follow depend on the year and season. During leap years, the Summer Olympics occur; in even non-leap years, the Winter Olympics occur. But my focus is on the Summer Olympics, which, this year, were held in Beijing, China.
There are hundreds of events in many sports, but the "big three" are track and field, swimming, and gymnastics.
Track and field is the sport where the world's fastest athletes are determined; there are also the field events including jumping, pole vault and the throwing of projectiles like the javelin, hammer, shot put and discus. This is the sport that exemplifies all three parts of the Olympic motto, "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Faster, Higher, Stronger), especially in the decathlon. Many stars in the event have included Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Bruce Jenner, Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson on the male side, and Babe Zaharias, Wilma Rudolph, Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner Kersee on the female side.
Swimming is essentially a water-based version of track, where its athletes try to swim a certain number of laps faster than anyone else. Famous swimmers include Mark Spitz, Janet Evans and Michael Phelps.
And then you have gymnastics, which is not just a sport; it is, IMO, a fine art. Its athletes try to perform acrobatic stunts on various apparatus, including bars, the vault, and the floor; male gymnasts also use the pommel horse and suspended rings, and female gymnasts use the balance beam. The female gymnasts are best known in this sport; the best-known ones include the cute and adorable Olga Korbut, the perfect Nadia Comaneci, the talented Mary Lou Retton and the Magnificent Seven of Atlanta. And I personally think that of all the Olympic athletes that compete, the female gymnasts are the cutest of them all.
People who don't usually follow those sports wait for the Olympics to absorb those events.
The Olympic Games is also an event where you get to hear other countries' anthems. But the most familiar anthem could very well be the one from your native country, depending on where you live. But even if you don't live there, you certainly have heard other anthems, such as Great Britain's "God Save the Queen", France's "La Marseillaise", Germany's "Deutschland Uber Ailles" song, Australia's "Advance, Australia Fair", Japan's "Kimi ga yo", China's "March of the Volunteers", Russia's anthem, and the United States' "Star-Spangled Banner".
The Olympics often don't go without controversy, such as the 1972 gold medal basketball fiasco and the 2002 pairs figure skating incident, both were initially decided, IMO, by means of prejudice. There is also the eligibility issue; examples include Jim Thorpe being stripped of his Olympic medals when it was found that he previously played professional baseball (then, pros weren't allowed in the Games), every athlete who was ever caught using drugs, and the (as of this moment) ongoing issue of the ages of the Chinese gymnasts. Regarding that issue, I don't care what they do about it; I still think those girls are cute. Other issues include involvement in the Games themselves for political reasons; in 1980, the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, which led to the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. There's also the complications of being the host city; Montreal spent too much money on building facilities for the 1976 Olympics; Atlanta relied too much on corporate funding for the 1996 Olympics; Athens did not build to schedule for the 2004 Olympics. And then, there are the events that transcend an entire Olympics; they included the 1972 Munich massacre, and the pipe bomb in Atlanta.
Once again, this year's Olympics were shown in the United States on NBC.
When NBC's Olympic tradition began with the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Korea, the network actually had a daytime schedule. This particular schedule consisted of three hours of game shows, followed by three hours of soap operas.
The game shows were:
$ale of the Century, with host Jim Perry, Concentration, with Alex Trebek, Wheel of Fortune, with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, the daytime version of Win, Lose or Draw, hosted by Vicki Lawrence, and produced by Richard S. Kline in association with movie legend Burt Reynolds and nighttime host Bert Convy, who also hosted Super Password, which followed; that was followed by Scrabble, with host Chuck Woolery.
What followed were three soap operas: the long-running Days of Our Lives and Another World, and the short-lived but highly acclaimed Santa Barbara.
Nowadays, NBC's daytime schedule only consists of Days of Our Lives, and even that show might leave NBC soon. That could be possible, especially considering that the Today Show keeps expanding.
The closing ceremonies of all Olympics, summer and winter, feature the athletes coming in as one. Then, three flags are raised as their anthems play: the Greek flag, symbolizing Olympic past, the current host country's flag, symbolizing Olympic present, and the next host country's flag, symbolizing Olympic future. Then, a special Olympic flag is passed on from the mayor of the current host city to the mayor of the next host city, and the next host country displays its art and culture. After the IOC president closes the games, the cauldron is doused, and the Olympic Flag is lowered and removed, thus ending the games.
I think that the Olympic Games are like a quadrennial world holiday, where many nations that are in conflict with other nations try to put their differences aside and let their athletes do the dirty work.
Well, the Beijing Olympics have concluded, and so has this blog. This is Ian, cosmowanda522, saying zai jian.
