So I think that blogging is kind of corny, but...

... the Winter Olympics has motivated me to once more attempt to put my thoughts to words.

What is the deal with this stuff anyway?

1. Why should I care about the Olympics?

As far as I see it, the Winter Games are a bunch of sports that I have never played, will never play, or cannot afford to play more than a few times in my entire life. Granted, this doesn't mean that they are not fun to watch - but why the hell is NBC cutting out my Law & Order for this crap? Curling? Ice Dancing? The Skeleton Run?

Listen - I am sure people care about these things, but Law & Order has been on for 16 season for a reason, and the Winter Games are once every four years for a reason - food for thought...

2. Are all of these people even athletes?

I used to sweep at my job in Pizza Hut (ed. I no longer work at Pizza Hut.). Had I known that I could be in the Olympics doing that I would have worked a lot more hours perfecting the craft.

Honestly, there is nothing athletic about Curling, so much so that none of the people that I saw engaged in this blantantly lame activity even LOOKED like athletes.

While on the subject, the luge has to go, too. Aside from the fact that there aren't many more homoerotic activities out there for people to engage in than that two man luge, the fact is that these guys run for all of, what, five seconds and then pray to God they don't kill themselves for another two minutes... I guess the athleticism comes from pointing the toes...

The Bobsleigh is close as well, though, at least there is something TEAM oriented in that as everyone plays a part in the control of the sled of death...

3. Ego? What ego?

Toss up: who is more of an ego freak? Michelle Kwan, with her groin injury that went away long enough for her to march in the opening ceremony, and attend all the festivities that Emily Hughes missed, or Bode Miller, who has yet to even MEDAL in an event, let alone win the supposed FIVE golds that he was hyping himself to be able to do.

My winner, by a gate-straddled ski is... Michelle Kwan. Sure, Bode Miller is all about Bode Miller, and he has the Nike contract to go along with that attitude, but we all KNEW that. And while he did hype himself to oblivion by speaking candidly, and then "apologizing", he actually IS one of the best American skiers we have.

Kwan is another breed. After suffering a serious injury to her groin - love to know how that happened - she tried to be ready for qualifying for the Olympics and fell short.

BUT, never fear! The U.S. decided that she should get a "private" tryout for the team, and in a demonstration that was not televised and VERY few saw, she "qualified" for the Olympics - leaving Emily Hughes to sit at home.

Then she gets to go to Turin, and party like its 1999 - until of course, she is then expected to actually SKATE. All of a sudden, the injury that merely a week prior was supposedly a non-issue, became an issue and she withdrew from the games...

As a Olympian TWICE prior, and as an athlete, no one knows Michelle Kwan's body like Michelle Kwan. She should have known that she was not going to be able to compete. From personal experience as an athlete myself, it is easy to know if you are completely healed from an injury and whether you are ready to compete at your best.

My belief is that Kwan got what she wanted out of these games, and that was the party and fanfare. As an athlete that tends to go unnoticed for four years, she wanted to be seen and heard, and the competition was never really what was in her focus - at least Bode Miller has competed.

If nothing else, Kwan took away from Emily Hughes what Hughes had earned - the party and fanfare that she will have to wait another four years for that comes with the Opening Ceremony. Here's to hoping that Hughes gets to take in all of that in 2010...

4. Racism

This one actually hurts to talk about, as it has shades of Hank Aaron chasing Ruth all over it. Shawnee Davis...

I am sure that the story around this is well-known enough for me to not go into all of it, so I am just going to go right into the commentary:

Chad Hendricks is a douche bag.

The bottomline on what has gone down is that Shawnee Davis did a couple things that were true milestones, and have been forgotten. First, he won a gold AND a silver, which if you have not noticed, is not something the U.S. has had a lot of at these games (not that they haven't won golds, but when you consider the amount of events we have not medalled in AT ALL, a gold and silver are a big deal). Second, he is the first black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual event - which is a MAJOR LEAGUE accomplishment.

But the media has had little air time about that. Consider if Michelle Kwan HAD competed and HAD won gold, what the media would have done for that. Now consider that the story around Shawnee Davis is whether he is a good team player.

For the record, Davis had NEVER agreed to be on the relay... ever.

My take, is that no one aspires to go to the Olympics to be on a relay. Anyone who has been an athlete and had aspirations of going someplace in an event KNOWS that the goal is always a gold in your discipline - the exemption being team sports like Baseball, Basketball, et. al. Davis' goal was to win a gold in his event, not to help Hendricks get ANOTHER gold for his mantle. Perhaps that is selfish in some ways, but in respect to what he had worked for, is it not his right to be a bit selfish? If I had worked for years to do one thing and someone (who is NOT a person in charge of anything really) wanted me to do another, I would tell them where to go...

The shame in this is that Davis was not able to relish his historic moment in a manner he should have been able to. Like Aaron, who was being sent death threats as he chased the Babe, Davis could not really take in the moment in the way that people do when they win a medal. Winning a medal should not be bittersweet...

5. In closing, thank God this only happens once every four years...