Commentary By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



On Friday, the world experienced a phenomenon that only takes place every four years — the Olympics.

The games, set in Beijing, China, this year, have once again brought the world’s top athletes together for competitive sporting events that you only see or care about during the Olympics.

ESPN will occasionally air track and field, swimming and beach volleyball during non-Olympic months, but it’s usually after 1 a.m. on ESPN-2. However, now that the Olympics are in full force, those sports are now of prime-time importance.

I’ve never been a big fan of the summer Olympics, though I do admire the premise. The idea of all the countries in the world, most of which hate each other, coming together for a little friendly competition is a marvel in and of itself.

I’ve always been more of a fan of the winter Olympics. Ice skating aside, the winter games always seemed more dangerous and exciting to me. The dangers of throwing a discus as hard as you can, to me, don’t equal the danger of having four men crammed inside a bobsled, flying down an ice-covered tube at 100 miles per hour or more. Now, that’s excitement.

However, the summer Olympics do offer something for everyone. For the women, there’s the men’s gymnastics and men’s swimming events. For the men, there’s the women’s gymnastics and women’s swimming events.

My favorite summer Olympic sport would have to be women’s beach volleyball. Such grace, such poise, such pressure to hit that white ball over the net, all while wearing a bikini. It makes for riveting television.

Just because I’m not the biggest fan of the summer Olympics doesn’t mean I haven’t stood close to Olympic greatness. I have a vague, fuzzy memory of a torch relay runner huffing and puffing his way down U.S. 78 behind my folks’ house in Eastaboga on his way to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. I probably got bored after a while and went back inside to play with my Transformers.

In 1996, the year of the Atlanta Olympics, Jacksonville State University hosted men’s baseball teams from Central America. It was merely warm-up games for them, as the teams took on less-than-good American semi-pro teams, which featured lazy players with long hair, beards and beer guts. And because of those attributes, I was pulling for the American teams.

There are a handful of Alabamians appearing in the Olympics this year, about which you can read more on page 8S in your Shopper. It must be quite the culture shock for them to be strangers in a strange land. I hope they’re getting their fill of authentic Chinese food, or as the Chinese call it, “food.”

Who knows, in 12 years, Birmingham may be the site of the Olympics, if Larry Langford has his way. Talk about culture shock for foreign athletes.

It would be interesting to see track and field stars dare to compete after eating and drinking their fill of ribs and sweet tea as a toxic Birmingham smog hangs low over the Olympic stadium.

Who knows, maybe by then I’ll have a full-blown case of Olympic fever and actually find legitimate interest in something other than the opening ceremonies and women’s volleyball.

Until then, I’ll be waiting a couple of years for the next winter Olympics and wondering why they can’t play volleyball in the snow.