Do the Olympics Have Sports Anymore?

By brian January 14, 2014America, Columns, Olympics, Sports, TV

I’m sure everyone has heard the news by now. Due to a knee injury, marketing plans for NBC’s coverage of the upcoming Winter Olympics are up in the air. This…

Save Olympic Wrestling

By brian February 18, 2013America, Columns, Olympics, Sports, Wrestling

I have had the good fortune to take some really cool trips in my life. When I think back over them, one stands out in particular.

In 1984, I went to Los Angeles with two of my brothers to see the Olympics. Back then, a 16-year-old had a chance to get pretty good Olympic tickets with his two older brothers without breaking the bank.

We found lodging with a sibling of a family friend, managed to get tickets to three of the six freestyle wrestling sessions in the ticket lottery and figured we would just wing it for the rest of our time at the Games.

I will never forget seeing Randy Lewis execute some wacky reach-back throw in his gold medal match or hearing the scream of the Turkish competitor as American Mark Schultz used what was later ruled an illegal hold to break the Turk’s arm. As a young wrestler, I thought I had found heaven even though the Russians and many other top wrestling nations boycotted the Games.

Now we have to wonder if future generations of wrestlers will get a chance to experience the same thing, either in person or on television. The executive board of the International Olympic Committee decided to drop wrestling as a “core sport” starting in 2020.

My primer on Olympic Freestyle Wrestling

By brian August 9, 2012America, Olympics, Sports, Wrestling

Since I follow international wrestling, some people have asked me about my thoughts on the Olympic competition. Men's freestyle, which starts tomorrow, is the area where I pay the most…

Things I Hate About the Olympic Live Stream

By brian August 6, 2012Olympics, TV

The events are delayed by enough time that it's impossible to be on Twitter at the same time without possibly seeing a score ahead of time Buffering There are no…

Olympic Obsession

By brian July 24, 2012Columns, Olympics, Sports, TV

I think my obsession started with the “Guinness Book of World Records.” We always had one lying around the house when I was a kid so you could check the distance of the longest grape toss which someone caught in their mouth.

The book also had lists of Olympic medalists in every sport. I used to study those lists and dream of my own Olympic glory. That’s how I ended up writing a sixth-grade essay about how I would defeat Roman Dmitriev, the Russian lightweight wrestler, to win my first gold medal in 1984.

Instead, I ended up in the seats at those Olympics watching with my two brothers. Dmitriev didn’t make it either because of the Soviet boycott, so I guess he gets half the blame for me not having my Olympic moment at 16. He had also retired at that point, but that’s extraneous to my fantasies.

I bring all this up because the 2012 Summer Olympics start this weekend. That means I feel a little distracted pretty much all the time. I don’t just get obsessed with who will win the wrestling competition. I get into pretty much everything.

Getting Closer

By brian May 4, 2012America, Columns, Olympics, Sports, TV

Sometimes, a milestone comes and goes with very little notice. That’s what happened a couple of weeks ago when we passed the 100 days mark before the beginning of the Olympic Games this summer.

I saw a brief mention of this news on Twitter or Facebook, but just went about my business. A few days later, I started to realize I should have paid more attention.

One hundred days until I can pretty much fill 24 hours with sports, both popular and obscure. Of course, I can kind of pull that off now with all the cable channels and online options available, but that’s not as much fun as the Olympics.