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    by Randy Ooney     

My Nickel’s Worth                     by Randy Ooney

 

My Nickel’s Worth                      by Randy Ooney

 

OOOOO

 

    That five ring circus that we all know as the Olympic Games has landed in London this year and 30 or 40 hours per day on NBC.  I look forward to watching the Olympics once every four years, but after a few days I also look forward to the end.  I have finally figured out why my favorite sports, bowling, golf, and baseball are not Olympic sports, (Although they did try baseball for a short time about 20 years ago.)  These three sports are not played with a net or in a pool.  I have hit more than a few golf balls into pools over the years but that’s not the same thing.

    I was thinking that maybe they could adapt bowling to become an Olympic sport by replacing the pins with a net about the size of a hockey rink net.  So it’s not too easy, a goaltender would be positioned in front of the net, about 60 feet down the lane.  But so it’s not too easy for the goalie, about 60 units of oil would be put down on the last 30 feet of the lane, sort of like they do in Reno.  Let the games begin!

    I watch many of the events that we only see on TV once every four years.  Since you can find an NBA or college hoops game on TV nearly every night for about nine months out of the year, I don’t normally watch much Olympic basketball.  But the talk show media stirred up a little controversy when Kobe Bryant was asked if this year’s team could beat the 1992 dream team, and he said “yes”.  I would expect him to say that, but of course Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley scoffed.  Larry Bird offered the best answer by saying that Kobe, LeBron, and company could probably defeat the 1992 Dream Team, because most of those players are now over 50.  This is the same thing I say when people pose the question about whether drock can beat me on the lanes.  Well it’s either that or sometimes I just use the “He’s left handed” excuse.

    But I cannot get over the incredible endurance that many of these athletes have.  I get tired just watching them.  The men had a 150 mile bike race and the difference between first and second place was about a second.  Then the women biked the race on Sunday in the rain, and the difference there was the length of a bike.  Some of the longer swimming races are exhausting I am sure, but playing water polo will never be on my things to try.  Running a marathon is popular among all ages, but running one in under 2 hours and 10 minutes is a different story.

    Women’s gymnastics used to be an event in the Olympics.  Then along came a girl named Olga, and another named Nadia, and now it’s the showcase event at the games.  The young ladies have tremendous talent!  It amazes me that they do hands free backflips on the 4 inch wide balance beam.  It seems that when they speak in an interview after a session, they sound like we did as kids after inhaling helium from a balloon.  If they ever give up gymnastics, they could probably be jockeys at Churchill Downs.  And Olga and Nadia still see their names in a crossword puzzle at least once a month.  Of course I remember watching Olga and Nadia amaze the world, but what is really great about the new technology of this century is that young guys like drock can revisit the 70’s performances on you tube.

    So, whether or not you won a medal, whether you are from the US, Canada, Britain, China, Russia, Japan, or a small country I cannot spell….Congratulations on becoming an Olympic competitor, and thank you for entertaining the world for this brief period in history.    

 

         

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