Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
Olympics: And so it ends. Now we begin filing the memories: Let's see, Phelps, hoops, drugs, two Hamms, empty seats and a nutcase at the marathon. Plus: Dee-fense!
Aug 30, 2004 | I miss the Olympics already.
Watching Jim Lampley sign off Sunday afternoon after that crazy men's marathon finish, or even as I listened to Bob Costas' farewell after having fast-forwarded through most of the Closing Ceremonies, I felt like summer camp had ended. I couldn't believe that when I woke up Monday morning I wouldn't have six hours' worth of rowing, shooting, badminton, tae kwan do and beach volleyball to catch up on.
I can't say I enjoyed every moment of the Athens Games, and as the 70-hour days ground on and took their toll on various body parts, there were times when I hated them. But you can't spend two weeks watching such a huge collection of athletes competing in what for many is a do-or-die event and not have moments of awe and wonder. A lot of them. More, in fact, for me than there were moments of "I have such a pain at the base of my neck and my God is there another rowing heat?!"
Everyone who spends much time with an Olympics comes up with a little list of unforgettable moments, images that will pop to mind whenever those Games are mentioned in the future.
The few that enough people agree on become the indelible images from those Games, particularly if the media helps with the remembering. So we Americans get Edwin Moses flying over a hurdle in Los Angeles, maybe that side shot of the outdoor diving platform in Barcelona, Flo-Jo burning up the track in Seoul.
I have my list from Athens and I'm sure it's different from everybody else's, a mix of what I'm interested in, what country I grew up in, what NBC and its hench-networks decided to show me and, maybe least of all, what happened.
The mental slide show is hundreds of images long, but there are highlights, from the torpid look on the faces of the U.S. men's basketball team as they got smoked by Puerto Rico in the opener to the sight of a religious nut dressed as an elf jumping onto the course and pushing marathon leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil into the crowd.
It includes Michael Phelps, shot from head on, pulling up to breathe as he swims the butterfly, already my enduring mental image of him, thanks to NBC. Gary Hall Jr., in a stars-and-stripes boxing robe and trunks, clenching his fists on both sides of his head like a movie champ. Natalie Coughlin sticking her tongue between her teeth as she smiles the smile that will soon have her hosting youth-oriented TV shows, the kind where the camera zooms in and out for no reason while she's talking.
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