Olympics off to a Good Start

I have been impressed by the coverage thus far with the Olympics. Everytime I tuned in over the weekend, I saw a lot of actual competition, and not a bunch of filler. NBC is doing really well and I hope they keep it up.

There have already been a few exciting moments.

• The women's sweep of the fencing event, which featured a local Notre Dame student getting the gold medal;
• Last night the mens 4 x 100 swim relay team shutting down (and shutting up) the French team, keeping Michael Phelps 8-gold quest alive;
• The "Redeem Team" taking it to Yao Ming and the Chinese basketball team, which it is said was the most watched sporting event in history;
• The women's gymnastics team qualifying for the team final, even though they were short one gymnast, which left no room for major error.

Then there were the opening ceremonies, which I was both impressed with and somewhat not. They did some spectacular things, but after a while, it started to get a little old. I thought it somewhat humorous when it was said that the Chinese plan to put a man on the moon by 2024. Note to the Chinese: Back in the 1960's, when you were having that little Cultural Revolution and killing millions of your own people, we were going to the moon ourselves. China is a peculiar nation to figure out. Because while they are still communist, they have made incredible strides over the last 20 years and millions have come out of poverty and are having a much better standard of living. Not sure what to make of all that's happening there.

Despite all the technical bravado in lighting the torch, I still found it much more memorable when Janet Evans handed off to Muhammad Ali back in 1996.