I always look forward to the Olympics whenever they roll around. I spent time yesterday thinking about my favorite way I'd seen the torch lit (definitely from Barcelona, when they shot a flaming arrow into it) and my favorite Olympic moments (Michael Johnson outrunning the camera in 1996 as he broke the 200m world record). I convinced friends last night to watch the nigh-eternal Parade of Nations for a couple of hours as we waited for the torch to be lit. And wow, was it worth it. The Beijing opening ceremonies were something to be remembered for a long time. Gymnast Li Ning appeared to run along the outer rim of the stadium as a scroll unrolled, showing the torch relay. (Absolutely amazing, if you didn't catch it.)
And this morning, I was up at 7.30 to watch a women's team handball match between Brazil and Germany. I've never seen a team handball match, and I don't have any particular connections to Brazil or Germany, but man, I was hooked. It looks like it's going to be a fantastic few weeks. If you're not watching it, I strongly recommend it.
3 comments:
Did you watch the first part, too? It was pretty amazing. It was directed by Zhang Yimou (I probably spelled that wrong... the director of To Live et al.) and it was so detailed. Anyway, we really enjoyed the parade of nations, too--except that they followed the US team for an absurd amount of time--and the torch lighting was pretty neat.
I kept welling up with tears between every commercial break. Completely overwhelming, those Opening Ceremonies.
I also love the olympics! The parade of nations is actually my very favorite part of the opening ceremonies. By pure chance I stayed up late Sunday night and caught the U.S. Mens 4x100 swim relay. It was so exciting. I also watched some columbian and chinese guy lifting weights the other day, and totally got into it. I am never interested in sports like these any other time of year, but for some reason during the olympics they become SO COOL!
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