The Games they Play

"How's your week been?"

"Good, Chinese athletes are doing very good in the Olympics."

This is a common response I've heard the past few days; the people of China are happy because the Olympics have so far been successful and China is racking up loads of medals. My first reaction was to scoff at them as bandwagon fans (the greatest insult a true sports fan can levy), because they know nothing of Olympic history; however after pondering how many Americans ambivalent to sports every four years get swept up just as my students have I realized there was no need for the usual superior fan snobbery, especially considering I myself don't care about swimming, weightlifting or track save every Olympics. The masses are happy, so why criticize?

I could watch every event live, but who really wants to watch the 10m mens air pistol semifinals? At my house the TV shows almost every event on at every time, but at work I'm left scouring the Internet for feeds. NBC has its US obligations (not to mention the need to surpass the Great FireWall of China), so I've found myself unable to watch its programing. I have discovered a great web page which shows every event China has an entry in, which is great, but obviously the commentators (all in Chinese) are ridiculously biased - no I can't understand what they're saying, but they seem to shout every time something good happens for China. It means that while I'm writing my blog from work I can flip through the China-Angola basketball game happening now (China had been winning big, but I haven't heard much shouting lately so I don't know whats happening). Not since Atlanta have I been in a similar time zone to the games, which was well before broadband internet afforded us with live viewings, so this is the first time I feel I've ever really watched the games instead of getting after-the-fact scores.

I may not be in Beijing, but that doesn't stop the Olympic spirit. Every day on the giant TV screen (see the picture) they show an hour long 'lunch break special' of Olympic programing. They'll show whatever is live on the TV that hour, which can be hit or miss: one day it was shooting, but the next was the mens team gymnastics final which drew huge crowds and massive cheers. Though it stings to watch the cheers, knowing that my squad, my team just lost, its nice to be caught up in the moment. Plus, I can always cheer for Michael Phelps.