Cup of Cha
This is China

In the last few days it has begun to dawn on me that there will actually be sports going on during the Olympics. I know, hard to imagine. So I began to think about what the most interesting events will be. Personally, I want to go to a bunch of boxing. It’s pretty close to my apartment, there are a zillion matches, and it’s fun guessing which athletes will turn pro and immediately get incarcerated.

I know I’m supposed to want to see the traditional Olympic sports like gymnastics, diving and swimming, but I don’t. I’d still rather see the team sports like men’s basketball and soccer, even if the US has a spotty record in the former over the last decade. Baseball would be fun too, but maybe that’s only because watching the two Chinas battle the US, Korea and Japan is just too tempting. There are only eight total teams that qualify and the Americans always send their C-squad, so that’s not a bonus.

Women’s beach volleyball is a great draw. I like it for the articles. Really.

Ping-Pong should be a ton of fun this year. My over/under on the number of times someone references “Ping-Ping Diplomacy” is 1.3 billion. Which is actually the same under/over for how many times people mention that China has 1.3 billion people.

What else? Track and field is always good. Although I’m not sure why it’s now called “Athletics.” Maybe that’s to differentiate it from synchronoized swimming.

Perhaps my favorite ticket pricing scheme is for the marathon. A-level tickets in the Bird’s Nest? RMB 50 (about 7 dollars). B-E levels? RMB Zero (about zero dollars).

Or the whining about testing positive for steroids. No seriously, I didn’t take any, my pig did (that’s right, a Chinese swimmer is blaming pork for him testing positive for ‘Roids. If only Barry Bonds thought of that.)

Tags: sports
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