Professional-ish Commentary on #Rio2016 - Week 1

So the Summy family is completely consummed with the Olympics. Like all stellar Americans we are committed to every event. Watching them all live, re-watching the highlights on DVR, providing excellent couch commentary about sports that we only follow every 4 years. This is all very funny coming from the least athletic family in the US of A.

Yet here we are. The entire family is obsessed. Starting with the Opening Ceremony. Amelia decorated the den and the front door. We invited family to celebrate. We grilled out and ate lots of very patriotic cupcakes. The OC provides all the pomp and circumstance that I love. Sure it was long, but its my one chance to get a very thorough Geography lesson and it only comes around every 4 years. So you better believe we will watch every single tiny country march out with her flag. I feel so proud for those athletes of the small former Soviet Union countries and their teams of 3 and their sweet flag barrier just crying like a baby as he walks out. Just go ahead and rip my heart out. The patriotism is flying high in our household during these 2 weeks and, thankfully, all the yuckiness of this election year is forgotten... for now.

Speaking of crying athletes... Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the Michael Phelps domination, but there is something so heartwarming about the young newbies crying on the gold medal podium and mouthing the words to our national anthem. I just want to jump through the tv and give them a hug.

There has been a little bit of a priority struggle this year as the first week of Olympics coincides with the first week of school. Sure school and sleep are important, but we can't possibly go to bed before seeing every second of every swimming semi so that means a lot of late nights followed by very early mornings. Morning hours that the kids and I haven't seen in 2 months. So I'm feeling like an Olympic champion of coffee drinking this week. I excel in both quantity and quality as sometimes nothing but a complicated Starbucks $5 soy latte with 2 pumps of caramel will do.

And that just brings us to the inevitable self comparison and obvious self loathing that comes with watching these Olympians in their rock solid bodies. Those beach volleyball ladies. Kerri Walsh Jennings! What?!? You are MY age! AND a mom of 3! I just sit on the couch eating patriotic cupcakes while she performs feats of strength that make my body hurt just by watching. And that amazing 41 year old gymnast? Come on! Oksana Chusovitina from Uzbekistan is gettting. it. done. in her 7th olympic games. To be that motivated and physically awesome for that many years is astonishing to me. On behalf of all the "past our prime" moms of the world, well done Ms Chusovitina. Your 17 year old son has to be so proud of you!

Let's not leave out the youngsters who are kicking butt out there. Katie Ledecky.... gracious girl. You are like the energizer bunny. Owning that 800m freestyle like it was a walk in the park. But it isn't at all a walk in a park. It is more like running for you life from a pack of wolves for 10 miles. It is 16 lengths of the pool. I would sink before I made it across 1 time. How do you keep count of how many laps you have done? How do you stay afloat that long without getting a cramp? How do you NOT DROWN! All very valid questions I think.

The USA gymnastics team, the Final Five, are each so good that it is a shame they were weren't all able to compete for the all around because they are clearly the 5 best gymnast in the entire world. Hands down.

And then there is MP. He is not human. I am more impressed with him at this Olympics than ever since he is beating kids more than 10 years younger then he is. He is showing some 31 year old fatigue, yet still blowing away the competition. And his ready room run in with Chad Le Clos has provided some of the best, most entertaining memes ever seen on Facebook and Twitter.

My kids have seen this face more times than I care to admit. Most days, it sums up my feelings on their behavior quite nicely. This will also be my face when these 2016 games come to an end and I have to get back to my regularly scheduled life.



FACEBOOK FROM THE PAST
August 2010
During an important family discussion, my husband quoted Boyz II Men and tried to pass it off as a valid point.