Olympic Observations...and Ultrarunning

First off, the mandatory joke about the primitive bathroom accommodations in Sochi, Russia (via Southern Beale, here):



Your bowel movement got a "10" from the German judge

 

 



I love the Olympics and am glued to the TV.  The drama, the impossibly hard work, the exuberance and, well, the disappointment, all represent a microcosm of life itself, all played out in a few short days.  So here are a few of my thoughts:

--Ultrarunning is not yet an Olympic sport (yes, I realize it'd be a Summer sport) but the longest running event is the marathon.  I'd love to see a 100K.

-- Snowboarders don't just slide down the hill doing tricks--they "throw down" a run.

--I have never yet seen a plain or homely looking Olympian.  I wonder if the process of selecting athletes somehow biases for the good-looking ones.

--The announcers continue to assume that the audience has a higher level of familiarity with a sport than they actually have (I'm thinking about figure skating in particular).

--The announcers also seem almost obsessed with making certain female athletes the darlings of the games or the face of the Olympics.  When Lindsey Vonn had to bail due to injury, the Today Show cast (on NBC) seemed apoplectic beyond all reason...till I realized they had lost their poster child.