If you're like me, you've spent the last week suddenly caring about sports you barely knew existed the week before. The Olympics are under way - a time when Americans come together to root for athletes participating in activities the majority of us only become aware of every four years.
Of course there are the major sports - gymnastics, basketball, track and field, etc. But then there are the events that are a little more novel in nature which get my attention. And the more attention I pay to them, the more I realize how similar many of the games are.
We all know soccer. It's two teams on a big field trying to kick a ball into the opposing team's goal. One of the sports which I've been drawn to this week is water polo. It's two teams in a pool trying to throw a ball into the opposing team's goal. It occurred to me after watching, water polo is just soccer in a swimming pool. I also like to think of it as being an ice hockey game where the ice melted and people just decided to keep playing.
Following water polo, the TV broadcast switched to handball. It's two teams standing on a court trying to throw the ball into the opposing team's goal. Going from one sport directly to the next made me realize handball is just water polo with the pool drained.
Then there's field hockey, which is basically soccer with hockey sticks which are way too short, forcing all the athletes to run around with an uncomfortable lean which makes my 50-year-old back hurt to watch.
Other events which have caught my interest are ones a little more relatable, ones I've actually competed in before - table tennis (or as I prefer to call it, ping-pong), and breakdancing, which is a new addition to the Olympics this year.
Nearly everyone can relate to ping-pong, albeit perhaps not at the level Olympians play it. As I grew up, my dad and I spent many years having our own ping-pong tournaments in the basement. Every year during Wimbledon, the esteemed tennis tournament, we would hold Wimpleton, the decidedly wimpier competition which would see us vying for Wright-family supremacy on the ping-pong table. Then every four years, we would hold the Pinglympics to coincide with the Summer Games.
When it comes to breakdancing, I have an award won outside the walls of my own home. I am the proud champion of the sixth-grade breakdancing competition at Eastside Elementary School. I was intrigued to learn Sunny Choi, one of the leaders of the U.S. breakdancing team, grew up in Cookeville.
There's no telling what other sports will capture my attention between now and the closing ceremony on Aug. 11. I've got to go now. It's almost time for men's fencing.
Standard Managing Editor Seth Wright can be reached at editor@southernstandard.com
