Okay, I'm going to have an Olympic rant in a minute here, and bound to offend someone, so you'll just have to get over it.

I turned the Olympics on this morning to watch the gold medal match for women's water polo - underwater warfare, WOOOO - and very angrily watched the US team completely blow it. This was the only women's WP match I was able to watch this year and it was pretty disappointing.

I did watch the women's beach volleyball final last night, and LOVED it. I've seen most of their matches and have been pretty hooked. I don't really understand why the women's team wears uniforms that equal less than underwear from Fredricks of Hollywood yet the men's team wears actual CLOTHES, but whatever - if I had a body like theirs, I'd wear those outfits too. Or maybe even go naked, heh. Anyway, I really like the sport.

But now today we have, right after the fierceness of waterpolo... rhythmic gymnastics. And of course that's a sport that is somewhat of a joke anyway, but... seriously now. I sat and watched it anyway, wondering how this qualifies for an Olympic event and then... and then came the GROUP rhythmic gymnastics. Like synchronized swimming, only a much bigger mess and the potential to hang your own teammate with a jumprope.

So here is my rant, like it or not. This is not a sport, and it should not be in the Olympics. Period. I'm not saying the activity is not hard, I'm not saying that I could do it. But I can't do salsa dancing either, and the dancers from SYTYCD and even Dancing with the Stars are in better shape than these "gymnasts", work just as many hours, have stronger bodies, and are NOT in the Olympics. Why? Because ballroom dancing is not a sport, just like rythmic gymnastics are NOT a sport. And I'm going to sit here and include synchronized swimming while I'm at it. I live in the synchronized swimming capital of the USA (Santa Clara County) but it is NOT A SPORT. Difficult, yes, but not an Olympic event. Speaking of synchronized - the synchronized diving almost brought me to fits too, but at least it involves AN ACTUAL SPORT. I did four years of marching band in high school, and we were worked as hard as the football players (for some reason marching band requires running laps and pushups) but I don't see synchronized marching band in the Olympics. But hell, maybe they're already on a waiting list. I mean, marching in straight lines across a football field, creating perfect circles and even building pyramids while carrying and playing a tenor saxophone is not much easier than dancing with a hula hoop. I'm just saying.

As I'm writing this an equestrian event is on, another event I don't quite agree is fit for Olympics, however I don't know enough about it to rant. BUT - they just announced that one of the horses tested positive for an "illegal substance" and GOOD GOD, now we're drugging horses???? I hope I heard that wrong.

Speaking of, the whole Marion Jones thing just makes me so sick I want to puke, honestly. I feel so bad for her and am so furious with her at the same time. I'm a little more furious than I am feeling bad, that's for sure.

On the other hand, the actual female gymnast bodies look a lot less disgusting and body-builder-ish than in previous years. They just look like normal athletic teenagers. I remember always being so repulsed by the muscles and veins in those poor girls' legs, but something has changed - I hope they weren't actually giving those poor girls steroids - but whatever, at least they look normal now.

I'll end the rant here for now. No need to leave long arguing comments about your beloved synchronized gymnasts/swimmers/gardeners, etc, because this isn't an olympic forum, it's my blog. Deal with it.

I hope Dara Torres is proud of herself and not the slightest upset that she got the silver medal (two of them!) because I have to say I didn't see any other 41 year old women at the pool with medals around their necks, not even any 41 year old men. She's awesome and I love her. Truly inspiring and my hero (of the moment).

And congrats to Michael Phelps too of course. I don't agree with this "Greatest Athlete in the World" title I've been hearing, but he certainly is without a doubt the greatest swimmer ever. I think it would suck to be a male US swimmer this year, knowing that if you beat Phelps you'll go down in history as the villain, but I still love Phelps and am proud of him. Buffy has had Phelps posters on her wall since before anyone out of the swimming community ever heard of him - the boy has ALWAYS been a great role model.

Ahhhh, I just love the Olympics. I shall miss the swimming events. But now it's on to track and field!!! Speaking of, I was shocked at the outcome of the women's marathon today - I've personally never seen anyone pull out of the pack so far so early and not bite it big time near the end (yeah, I'm a crazy person that actually watches marathons on TV). I thought there was no way she would finish first, but good on her.

What a great Olympics so far, eh?

We have been getting some Olympics in too. Last night we saw Gymnastics and Spike got to see that awesome swim relay with Michael Phelps (Buff and I fell asleep) - as a swim family we obviously love Michael and all the swimmers and are so excited about all the races. Personally I love Dara Torres, for obvious reasons. We also watched water polo today while eating our greek food lunch. So we're not missing out on a whole lot. It's going to be a good week.

Today was the last day of my own swim class - where I reminded the coach that I am getting an A+ in class, heh - and then I raced back to our neighborhood pool where the kids were having time trials. I tried to get some reading done for English Lit but apparently I am Little Miss Popular at the pool this year. It was very strange. I don't mind playing the outsider, I like being the outsider, but not today. I was never alone for two minutes before another mother came over to chat - mothers who have never spoken to me before.

The paranoia of an online diarist.

Regardless, it was odd.

So it's against the rules to take off your shirt and show *gasp!* your sports bra (which I will wear while running in public in the summer) but now they're urging the women to wear skimpier uniforms!
Maybe they could add bunny ears while they're at it.

But god forbid they show their sports bra.

OHHHH, now I get it. A push up bra would probably be fine, but not those unsexy sports things, right?

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