Olympic Fever

I have to say, I'm rather disappointed with the coverage of the olympics on tv. They can spend over an hour each night covering sychonized diving, but don't even mention some of the other events that are going on? The human interest stories make me angry too. Seems like they will only talk about people with tragedy or a tearjerking story as a part of their road to the Olympics. Let's completely ignore all the other athletes that have been working hard for a long time, shall we? The media is just sending a big message that they aren't as important as the ones with a "good" story. Same thing with Michael Phelps. Don't get me wrong, he's fantastic and I love to watch him. But does the focus of the cameras really need to be on him all the time? I was so disgusted with the way they had a tight shot of his eyes during one of the gold medal ceremonies that I turned off the tv. They didn't even show the rest of his face...in the hopes that he would well up a bit, and then they could all pounce on him later asking him what he was thinking. I really feel for the other guys on the swim team, they're really good too...but also being ignored or just asked about him. And poor Phelps, he's living in a giant fishbowl right now. There just doesn't seem to be a happy medium, either you're ignored or you're being hounded. It really makes me glad that I refuse to pay for television.

The topic at work today seems to be the story about the older Chinese gymnast (forgive me-I forget her name), who wanted to stop training and go home, but her parent's wouldn't let her. People here seem to be absolutely shocked by that. I wasn't surprised that they told her no. I keep forgetting how so many Americans forget that everyone doesn't have the same rights/live the same way we do. I don't know a whole lot, but at least I realize that I've got it very lucky to have been born here. There are other cultures, and some of them don't let their people have any rights at all. That girl was taken from her family at a really young age, and put into training. She hardly ever saw them. In exchange, her family was probably given some money or something equivalent. They have a better life for themselves because she's being built up as an athlete. Its not fair to her, and its not right what they do, but that's how it happens there. Add in the fact that the government would likely punish them if she quit, and its really not a surprise at all that they told her to stay there. I'm sad that the Olympics are taking place in China, but that won't stop me from watching quite a few of the events.