Why again do NBA pro basketball players play in an event that is supposed to be for amateurs?

I look forward to ignoring all the coverage. At least in the US, the Olympics are events for spoiled rich kids whose parents couldn’t say no.

AJ….There will be no single player from any country who will not be a “Professional”.

I know Coach K, and two members of the US olyimpic team, They have been in my home for dinner and drinks more than once.

I will watch every basketball game that is on TV…and have friends in to enjoy the game when the USA is playing.

I may watch some of the other sports on a catch as catch can basis.

Most memorable? The US hockey team winning, or Jesse Owens being snubbed by Hitler. Take your pick.

I far prefer the winter olympics. I especially like the ski jumping events and curling. I tend to agree with AJ as to the general social status of our athletes. I don’t personally know any Olympians.

Looked through the Olympic schedule, and still very disappointed that Taekwondo and Judo are not televised. C’mon, China is considered the birthplace of martial arts. If there were ever a time…

The post dispatch and even the nbc olympic websites featured stories about the Lopez family, dubbed the “first family of Taekwondo,” and the arts are still restricted to online viewing.

Let’s see some primetime televised coverage. The “mixed martial arts” have been featured on network television, why not coverage of Olympic Taekwondo and Judo? It’s just not right!!!

I’m likely one of the few in this blog who doesn’t follow the Olympics–at all. A few years ago, though, I did watch several minutes of an Olympics figure-skaking event, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I kept fearing the skater would fall and destroy his obviously well-prepared performance. I don’t do well in front of a TV.

I do like the swimming and baseball events at the Olympics,but knowing that China with it’s terrible human rights record being the host country,I will found it very hard to get involved in Olympics.

My favorite event has always been the closing ceremony even though I do not watch it. But it means the whole thing is finally over and I will not have to be bombarded with it for a few more years.

I don’t watch the Summer Olympics as a rule. Too much to do outside in terms of both work and fun. The Winter Olympics are a different story. Number one, it’s cold and dark and icky outside so I’m ready for some serious TV time. Number two, I love ice-skating…maybe because I used to skate as a kid and I know how hard those manuevers are. (I also like ski-ing, even though I’ve never been on a pair of skis. Go figure.)

By the way, I was never an Olympic hopeful. I was more of a Bonnie Blair than a Michelle Kwan, but here I was on figure skates. I had the speed and the power, sure. I also possessed the grace of a wounded water buffalo. I could just see my scores on the artistic side: zero, zero, zero.

So my most memorable moment comes from the Winter Olympics. Actually, a toss-up. Brian Boitano winning Gold. Talk about the skate of a lifetime! But more recently, seeing Michelle Kwan when she did her exhibition skate after she’d failed to secure the Gold. Her choice of music for her program was “Fields Of Gold” and you knew she had intended it to be her Victory celebration. She bawled through most of the program and yet performed it flawlessly. I couldn’t help but admire the professionalism and maturity that allowed her to accomplish that.

I agree with slamfist, the Winter Olympics are better. Maybe it is all that snow that makes everything look more pure as opposed to the smog filled skies of Beijing.

My favorite Summer Olympic moment is when John Belushi won a track and field race after eating chocolate donuts for breakfast…