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Socializing around the Olympics

By Michael Barnes | Monday, August 11, 2008, 07:58 PM

Everywhere I go, people are talking Olympics. At the dentist’s office, a discussion broke out about the rules of team handball. In the newsroom, the conversation ranged from criticism of team uniforms to estimates about the ages of Chinese women gymnasts and Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Conventry’s Valley Girl accent. Twitter, FaceBook and other social sites lit up around the U.S. men’s heart-pounding triumph in the 400 X 100 m freestyle relay.

It’s rare these days when any event — televised or not — so completely captivates the social scene. No one except hardcore political junkies care about John Edwards’ admission of adultery or his lying about it. Foreign affairs followers are trying to figure out whether Georgia or Russia is responsible for the open fighting there, and what role the U.S. should play. But the Olympics dominate almost every other public interaction.

At our house, there is no other subject. Kip comes from a family of athletes and coaches; his competitive field in youth was swimming, and he continues to swim almost every day. So you can imagine he has all the events and players memorized. Yet our first thrill was the Latvian men’s beach volleyball team beating a smug, lackluster U.S. duo. Like everyone else, we were surprised the U.S. women gymnasts racked up so many points after falls and mistakes in the qualifiers.

But nothing could trump our pride in Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones, former Longhorn and ham bone Garrett Weber-Gale and, especially, miracle finisher Jason Lezak in their relay climax. You live for moments like that.

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