My Olympic thoughts

I'm back from a vacation of sorts. I was able to watch a lot of the Olympics, and for the most part I was impressed.

The Chinese definitely put on spectacular opening and closing ceremonies, probably the best I have ever seen.

It was unfortunate to hear the news of the attack and murder of the father-in-law of U.S. men's volleyball coach, Hugh McCutcheon, after the opening ceremonies. It showed great strength for him to rejoin the team and eventually lead them to a gold medal.

Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt are amazing. What each man did in these Olympics is simply amazing. A lot of media has tried to compare their accomplishments and tried to discuss whose was more impressive. Personally, I think that is foolish. It is impossible to compare the two. Both men simply dominated their fields. What is scary for the competition is that both can get better. I truly believe that both men will break all of their world records again.

The USA men's basketball team found its redemption. Still, you can see that the gap between the US and the rest of the world is not that significant. It will be interesting to see how Team USA fairs in future World Championships and Olympics.

Two men who are definitely going to be unemployed soon, if they are not already are the USA Track and Field coach, and the USA Boxing coach. Both teams were pathetic during the Olympics. I have never seen the Americans perform so poorly in track and field or boxing. They usually get their fair share, if not the lion's share, of the gold medals in these two events.

Lastly, I found the whole controversy over the Chinese women's gymnastics team funny. There is no way those girls were 16. Still, the Americans should have challenged China prior to the Olympics. There have been reports that the New York Times and other publications had proof that some of these girls were 13 or 14 before the Olympics started. I believe that the US Team felt that because the girls were so young, they would fold under pressure. Unfortunately, during the team events the Americans were the ones to fold under pressure, which effectively killed whatever argument they had.

Overall, I found the Olympics to be pretty entertaining. I didn't appreciate the coverage too much. But, that's me.

I'm looking forward to London in 2012.

The Wizard has spoken.