Question of the Week
What Will You Be Doing While Athletes Go For Olympic Gold?
Posted Aug 7, 2008 5:17 AM CST
By Molly McDonough
The Olympic Summer Games set to begin in Beijing got us wondering about your dreams of competing for gold.
Were you at one point in shape to go head-to-head with a Michael Phelps, or just imagining you were that year’s DeeDee Trotter? Will you be watching a favorite sport during the games? Or are you more interested in the political protests and human rights issues?
Either way, tell us if you intend to participate in the '08 games. We’ll announce our gold, silver and bronze favorites next week.
Answer in the comments below.
Read last week's question and answers about bar exam tales.
Our favorite from last week:
Excerpted from a post by Ron: "...the weirdest thing that happened was when I took the patent bar exam and it was held in a government building on a hot day. The air conditioning did not work and the clerks would not open any windows. Sweating, I opened a few buttons on my shirt and then ended up taking off my shirt. After the test was over, I started to put on my clothes and for the first time noticed that everyone, men and women alike, were doing the same thing. Most people were sitting in their underwear and no one noticed until the test was over! Talk about concentration!"
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Comments
Laurie/HaloSecretarial
Aug 7, 2008 7:42 AM CST
I love watching the Olympics. I’ve never been a particularly athletic type myself, so no past dreams of glory, but I do enjoy most of the sports on a spectator level. My favorites are the rowing events and gymnastics.
I am concerned about China’s human rights issues but feel the time is past for the Olympics to “fix” the problem. The IOC should never have awarded Beijing the Olympics, but now I will watch and cheer on the athletes who have worked so hard, for so little, to get there.
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Veronica
Aug 7, 2008 10:06 AM CST
I do plan on watching the Olympics! However, my favorite sport is tennis. After watching… I do plan on going out after watching the event. I also like to see the runners go! It is soo intense and exciting!
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J.D.
Aug 7, 2008 10:18 AM CST
I plan on throwing every “Made in China” item in my apartment into a bonfire.
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NN
Aug 8, 2008 6:10 AM CST
Hey J.D., will there be anything left?
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Stephen Terrell
Aug 8, 2008 8:16 AM CST
The Olympics come around every four years. The Cubs with a chance to be in the World Series—now there’s something that comes around once in a century. Keep your backstroke / back flip / slam dunk olympics. I’ll be watching the Cubbies !
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JW
Aug 8, 2008 8:27 AM CST
I’ll have to wear a mask when I watch the games. Just thinking about exercising outdoors in a place more polluted than LA on a good day makes me want to reach for oxygen.
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todd
Aug 8, 2008 9:06 AM CST
I will be billing in six minute increments
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Andy the Lawyer
Aug 8, 2008 10:10 AM CST
Given the time difference between my time zone and Beijing, I’ll be sleeping—and if awake, cursing NBC for not broadcasting all the events live, as broadcasters in civilized countries are doing.
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Public Housing Escapee
Aug 8, 2008 11:56 AM CST
I plan to watch the equine events. I had trained to ride and hoped to be the first olympic equestrienne of color but law school debt and the persistent lack of a well-heeled sponsor killed that dream. So, I just watch the experts. It should be interesting to see how they accomplish a 3-day event in all of that “mist”. Tally-ho!
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Dad
Aug 8, 2008 5:03 PM CST
I’ll be watching the Tae Kwon Do. My daughter fought against Diana Lopez, odds-on favorite for one of the women’s golds, at the National Tournament a few years ago. Though they were in the same weight class, Diana was about a foot taller than my daughter, so it was very interesting to see the effect of height vs. strength. My daughter ended up losing that match, but still talks about just being in the ring with her.
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Should-a-been-a-dancer
Aug 9, 2008 6:34 AM CST
There were moments—a modern dance class in 1968; bharata natyam in a San Francisco apartment a decade later. Took a day job instead. Became a portly middle-aged lawyer, fighting evil lenders.
Evil banks, Chinese totalitarians, stupid tv networks, Monica Goodling—bad guys wherever you look.
I’m glad I’m still in the fight!
I’ll dance when I retire.
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Should-a-been-a-dancer
Aug 9, 2008 7:03 AM CST
and to answer your actual question—I’ll sneak a peak, to remember what it felt like to be young and fit but I am so saddened that the IOC gave the Olympics to a brual regime and that my own nation has embraced so much brutality too in its drive to dominate the world. REALLY takes the edge off ...
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df
Aug 9, 2008 10:27 PM CST
My favourite sport is fencing (I fence recreationally) and I watched live, the U.S. women’s sweep of the medals in sabre. My not-so-favorite but necessary sport is sleep deprivation, necessary to see some events.
[end of pithy comment, remainder is more rambling due to aforementioned sleep deprivation…]
I live in Canada, and am watching sports like fencing on the CBC website (the Canadian broadcaster with Canadian rights), I believe NBC also offers a number of sports like fencing through its website in the U.S. and you can search for the schedule of when the sports you like are on and even set up reminder e-mails. Hopefully the U.S. women’s sabre team sweep will provide some extra “visibility” to the sport!
I too have human rights etc. concerns about China (and the IOC!). To pick the most recent story I read, President Bush attending church at an “authorized by China” church disgusts me. I’m a regular churchgoer and still think it would have been more appropriate to skip church under the circumstances.
On a more personal note, I know an athlete who through an athletic federation screw-up lost her last chance to participate in the Olympics despite her high ranking, so that’s an additional “close to home” bothersome issue. I don’t particularly care about, and didn’t bother watching, the opening ceremonies—if I really cared, I know people who taped it.
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John Holland
Aug 18, 2008 10:12 AM CST
Rooting for my friends who are competing, and wondering if I could better on the whitewater kayak slalom course than I did in Munich in 1972.
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