In my last blog I talked about my Olympic moments from past and present Games.  Well, four days into the Beijing Games there has defintely been enough happening to talk about my non-Olympic moments.

-the Women's Gymnastics.  It's Women's gymnastics so even having an age-limit of 16 is stretching it. But, what about the  Chinese whose team was composed of a bunch of girls, yes, they are girls!, who are 15 or younger.  As everybody has been saying that violates the rules of competition for gymnastics in the Olympics, but still the Chinese girls, yes, they are girls!, were still allowed to compete.  Hey, I am not bitter about the USA getting silver.  They made enough mistakes and were not gold-worthy.  I just think that if you have rules, you either follow them or throw them out.

-Georgia's women's volleyball team.  No, we are not talking about the peach tree state. We are talking about one of those seemingly endless countries formed after splitting from the former Soviet Union. The women on the Georgia women's volleyball team are actually Brazilians.  Yeah, the have dual citizenship, but, let's face it, when you are the Republic of Georgia, you can grant citizenship to just about anyone you want. OK, in the grand scheme of things, having more Brazilian women playing beach volleyball is a good thing, but given the current conlict between Russia and Georgia, when the two teams played each other in Beach volleyball on Wednesday, I wanted to see some fireworks.  A good old kick of sand in the face or something along those lines would have been expected. But, when your team is made up of Brazilians they just don't care.  Too bad.  We all remember the Hungary vs. USSR water polo match in 1956. It could have been so good.

-judged events.  OK. I am about to suggest that any event that has judging be immeditely removed from the Olympics.  There is so much bias in all the judged events nothing seems to make sense except that there is no guarantee that a stellar performance will be rewarded.

-Equestrian events.  They should give the medals to the horses.  They are the ones who have to do all the jumping and while carrying all that dead weight on their backs.  Let's recognize the true athletes in the equestrian events.  If the riders were really athletes they would not be clothed in formal wear.

OK.  There were a few positives that could qualify as Olympic moments.  How about Tonga's first Olympic medal (and in the whitewater kayaking!)?  How about Kristin Armstrong winning gold in the women's TT?  How about Michael Phelps finally winning that long sought after gold medal.  After all this is his third Olympics.

Oy yeah, a big Olympic moment for me is the apparent kidnapping of Jimmy Roberts of the NBC crew.  With so much actual competition to show on TV, I guess there is no room on TV for Mr. Superlative. Hopefully he will feel scorned and book and early flight home. And anyways, most of us are not smart enough to get all the symbolism he seems to uncover at every turn.

What are your Olympic and non-Olympic moments?

Bruce