Last night after watching the USA win three swimming golds in a row (Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Aaron Peirsol), I was ready to call it a night. There didn't seem to be anything else really going on, my eyes were tired, and it was 10 PM.
Then I started watching men's gymnastics, where Team USA was giving the host Chinese a run for their money. And before I knew it, I was sucked in. Could they indeed pull off an unexpected medal finish? And so I stayed up until 11:45 to see them win bronze. And as a result, I was very tired this afternoon and not sure how late Olympic watching will go on tonight.
I've never watched much men's gymnastics - I suppose because the U.S. really hasn't been a contender. (No medals in the 1988, 1992, 1996, or 2000 Olympics.) But the stuff some of these guys can do is sick. They also seem to have a little better handle on their nerves than their female counterparts. Not that anyone goes to the Olympics with more pressure on them than the women's gymnastics team, but I'm just saying.
The best men's events are the high bar, the pommel, and the rings (in that order). The parallel bars look mostly like they hurt, the vault is kind of blah no matter the gender of the performer, and men's floor exercise is painful to watch.
The reason for the late night was that the event was "live" from Beijing, which was another thing that sold me on staying up. I really like the idea of live action for the Olympics. They have to show you what is happening right then and you can watch the drama unfold. I don't like stuff taped and edited and packaged up so that NBC can manipulate the drama - besides, you probably already saw the result on the internet earlier in the day.
My main point is that staying up late is well worth it if I get to see the event live.
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