You guys probably have heard me talking a lot about the Olympics coming up. You're a schmuck if you don't think that shit isn't a big deal.
The OG Olympic games were formed in Greece in 776 BC and ran for freakin' 1,169 years. It took a break and started again in 1859. They've been running since then. That's why this time around, it's called the "Modern Olympics".
The marriage of great editing and Bob Costas had be believing, as a kid, that the U.S. not only dominated the world but even the world of athletes. I was a 14 year old boy in 1996. Everything on TV was Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Jaycie Phelps, and Kerri Shrug. Remember Kerri spraining her ankle and being carried off? That was some patriotic shit, man.
Anyway, I'm stoked about this year, and for once, Ethiopia doesn't dominate long distance running, USA Men's are underdogs in basketball, and the Russians aren't locked for gymnastics.
Which brings up who I really wanted to talk about: Liu Xiang.
There are over 10,000 athletes in this year's games, and internationally, there's not a bigger star than Liu Xiang. I say internationally because all you've heard about here is Michael Phelps, Lebron James, and Lolo Jones (only because she's hot). Liu Xiang broke the 100m with a time of 12.88, but Cuba's Dayron Robles took it away quick with a 12.87. It's the Cuban clocks. They run a bit slower, as like their runners.
Either way, Liu Xiang may be the fastest sprinter in the games, but he won't place, at all, in any event. There's way too much pressure on him- he's representing the biggest country in the world, for the most feared government (sorry, Cuba, Russia, but it's true), on his OWN turf, against a dude that took his most accomplished record days after he broke it, and of all things, by .01 seconds. There's no mental training for something like that.
For the record, I'm not rooting for him. I'm not rooting for anyone in the sprinting events. I don't like him because he looks like the cocky villains in Chinese action flicks, and growing up, I hated those guys.
Here's a cool spot Nike did for the Chinese audience. Awesomeness has no language.
