The Big Fat Greek Disaster

I love the Olympics. Call me a sucker. Always have and always will. In fact those who know me will know that I had volunteered to work these games of the 28 Olympiad in Athens. The athletes, the competition, the nations, the five rings...

And what better site than Athens, right? The Acropolis and the Parthenon, the ancient sites of where the games were first formed. To quote Eddie Vedder....Do the Evolution..All this time I felt bad for the Greeks who had lost out on the 100 year anniversary of the modern games in 1996 to Atlanta, which isn't exactly one of the best the U.S. has to offer, let alone the world. Maybe they were just bitter and felt like giving old buddy Juan Antonio Samararch the bird.

The games were an unmitigated disaster. Drugs, judging controveries, half empty stadiums, and yet...the games still could have shone. But the hosts...just didn't seem to care. And these were the people who gave us the games in the first place? Booing, whistling, et cetera...not allowing competitions to proceed because of their own self involved transgressions. The true Olympic Spirit. The defining moment? Beach volleyball?

These games didn't have the soul of Sydney, the brilliance of Barcelona, or even Richard Jewell of Atlanta. Okay, maybe about that last part..Beijing in 08, thank the heavens. The Chinese will put on a show to display their country for all it is, and could be. It will certainly be a Great Leap forward from the folks in Athens who were just...preoccupied. Maybe its Euro 2004 hangover...

Oh, and Bob Costas. Wake up. The Olympics are over.

One thing to be thankful for? Jennie Finch. Some pitch you gave...