It’s been really interesting watching the Olympics from Spain.
Not that I’m a huge Olympics watcher, but my friend Barb is visiting from Milan and she enjoys watching, so we have been. (Especially, since we’re not going out into the COVID-infused air.)
One of Barb’s dog park friends is running track for Italy and yesterday we actually saw a heat where she came in 3rd. Yay Italy!
The coverage jumps around a lot and we’re seeing events that we don’t usually see – the key being that they televise the Spanish team if at all possible, and a medal match or the EEUU (USA) if Spain is not playing during a particular timeslot. So, in addition to swimming and the long jump, we’re watching a lot of women’s beach volleyball, skeet shooting, and “hand ball” (which seems to be a soccer-like game, where the ball is carried and passed by hand, using a bouncy ball a little bigger than a softball, played indoors on a kinda-sorta basketball court). We’ve seen only a little swimming and absolutely no gymnastics.
I guess we do this in the States – only show the sports that we participate in (or excel in) but I’ve never really thought about it like this. Maybe because the US participates in most of the activities?
A big discussion in our house has been the uniforms. My US-centric understanding of the Olympics is that the uniforms are based on the flag of the country. I clearly remember lusting after the one-piece girl’s bathing suit from the 1972 Olympics. Mark Spitz, anyone? Maybe this works for us because we have a cool flag that lends itself easily to graphic design.
And while many of the teams do follow this (perhaps mistakenly assumed) rule, of matching their flag – some with eye-scorching results – other go so far afield that it’s almost impossible to know the country from the uniform. And some uniform decisions are just kooky – like Italy doesn’t use the green, white, red, of their tricolore flag, in favor of a pretty blue, because they say the entire country is surrounded by the sea. (That seems like a stretch.)
Another big discussion for us has been about transgender athletes. Without previous discussion, we both believe that a male who has transitioned into a female has inherent advantages over natural born females. For me, I believe if person remained a boy until his voice changed and he sprouted hair ‘round his boy parts, he probably also has increased muscle development that will not be reduced with female hormone therapy. This is an unfair advantage over other females, similar to the runner whose carbon-fiber prosthetics made him "unnaturally tall".