The Expert of the Olympic Games

Every two years whether it's summer or winter, a phenomenon known as the Olympics occurs. Bent on a mission of world togetherness and healthy competition between the finest atheletes of the planet, the Olympics is two weeks when most nighttime network TV in my house stops in favor of watching people I've never heard of, or people I haven't heard of since the last Olympics.

My mom, who loves TV, loves the Olympics (because it's on TV.) Well, she doesn't love the Olympics, but she does enjoy watching it and cheering for whoever is her favorite athlete at the moment. I'm the same way. Wescott who? Lysacek huh? Who cares! That one guy got a gold for the US! And that other guy was oh so close for a bronze. Four years man, four years. Don't give up the dream.

It is in these magical two weeks that my mom becomes an expert in all things athletic.

We're all guilty. Everybody does this, for almost every Olympic and some for any sport at all. We're all sitting at home, watching ice skating or gymnastics (or whatever your fancy), listening to the announcer and nodding in agreement when she says, "If So-and-so hadn't over rotated at that crucial moment, he would've landed that triple hinky-dink turn-a-ma-bobber with no problem."

Take Snowboard Cross for example. Snowboard Cross is a completely new sport just added to the Winter Olympics this year. The definition that everyone is using: Snowboard Cross is Motocross on snowboards. Completely new sport, I know for a fact my mom has never heard of it before tonight.

And yet...

Mom and Laura are watching the Winter Olympics filmed in Torino, Italy.

Announcer: See here where (name I forgot) catches that turn just a little too high. He falls and he simply can't recover. That gives (other guy) a chance to slide past him for second place.

Mom: (nodding in agreement) Yeah... he is way too high there. That is why he fell down. You see Laura? (Laura sighs)