Last year -- just as it was in 2015, DCBLOG devoted a series of posts to covering the world of sports to coincide with last summer's pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympic Games. In addition to covering the finale of Season 2 of MTV's The Challenge All-Stars this weekend -- during this month of February and continuing into the month of March as well, we're offering a special Winter Edition of "Summer of Sports" to cover not only the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics, but also Super Bowl LVI which takes place this weekend in Los Angeles following the expanded 17-game NFL regular season and historic conference playoffs, as well as the traditional slate of big sports events of the year's first quarter.
But if you've been following me on @DC408Dxtr in the past seven months or so, then you know that the main event is ongoing... and it's the one event than I look forward to more than any other: the Olympic Games. What we're seeing right now is taking place in a shorter turnaround than it has been in three decades: two Olympics being held within the space of a calendar year -- once the norm when both the Summer and Winter Games were held in the same year until a '90s scheduling change separated them and have made the Olympics a more frequent happening taking place every two years.
For this sports fan who loves so many of the kinds of sports that don't get the mainstream exposure, Olympics time means that I get to become a super-fan whenever the calendar hits summer or winter in an even-numbered year -- or in this case, last July 20th followed by February 2nd over a week ago. Whatever the case -- and aside from few exceptions like working on this blog and getting sleep, over the past decade or so I have altered my schedule for the one and only thing that I consider getting to binge watch when I go into full Olympic mode. Both Tokyo and Beijing represent the latest installment of this obsession I have with the world's greatest sporting spectacle.
When I first became an avid sports follower when I was a kid, like many other fans I have put a good deal of my fandom towards the hometown teams and one sport. For the former, it's the Bay Area sports teams which have been having quite the past dozen years with the Giants, Warriors and 49ers being consistent title contenders. For that one sport, it's the NBA and basketball... and not one day passes along in our house without a mention of our favorite game.
But over this time, I have developed a passion for following all kinds of sports outside of hoops, football, baseball and so many others that dominate the buzz here in the United States. The Olympics have always been that one event where that love for all of the sports world is on full display... and if you're one of those who grew up watching ABC's Wide World of Sports in the pre-ESPN days, then you were exposed to anything from Formula 1 racing to rodeos and barrel jumping while also going on a weekly trip around the world with Jim McKay and company.
But for the full kaleidoscope of what a vast sports world we live in, then look to the five ring circus for proof of that: for somebody who actually had his baptism ceremony take place during the weekend of an Olympics in the '80s, it feels like that this grand event and me were just about meant for one another. But it wasn't until 1992 and after I had begun becoming a sports fanatic that I discovered this event for the first time watching both the Albertville Winter and Barcelona Summer Games.
It's no question that the Olympics represents the holy grail -- nowhere can people watch events big & small, sports familiar & not-so-familiar, athletes well-known & unknown, and people from all over the world converge in a celebration as huge as this. And even during this time when the world has spiraled out of control because of the pandemic, politics, protests and the panic, just as it had so many times the Olympics of last year in Japan and this year in China have provided everyone not only a respite from those, but also the kind of inspirational moments and joy that has kept it the quintessential celebration of the best of the human spirit, along with the very best competition sports has to offer with its most-sought after prize of a gold medal at stake.
As time has gone on, my obsession with the Olympics has grown to the point that I have become a fanatic, and so have the tons of memories I have with the Games. When Atlanta hosted in 1996, I spent that summer fortnight watching the action on my summer off and was fixated on the news of the Centennial Park bombing. I gasped at Apolo Ohno's wipe out in that Salt Lake short track race and bothered my aunt sleeping in the room next door. And I have a box of video tapes of recording Olympic coverage and a bevy of memories from ten Summer or Winter Games... as well as highlight videos from American coverage and from Canada, Australia and Britain to see how they called their big moments.
Ten years ago during my first year of being a Twitter user, the London Olympics was the first big event I got to follow in 280 characters or less. Ever since, I've gotten to offer my own live Twitter commentary -- which if you follow my other Twitter channel DCNOW @DC408DxNow, then you'll find that I'm an expert at that. Summer 2012 also saw me borrow my sister's iPad during the overnight hours so I can watch the events live online... but it was only last year in Tokyo that I indulged in the total Olympic viewing experience when, a week before, I bought a new iPad and a new Amazon Fire tablet which afforded me the chance to have several screens in front of me watching simultaneous Olympic action thanks to authenticating our TV subscription and me spending a few bucks for Peacock.
And outside the screens, the Olympic obsession continues into my library and my closet: souvenir programs from several Games, primers to the various Olympic sports, guides that are distributed to the press and to the thousands of personnel who work for the world's networks and the host broadcaster, clothing from those networks that air the Games... and of course, lapel pins. And, it's because of getting to enjoy the competition of those London Games that had a hand in affording me the chance to give MTV's The Challenge a try for a change... and it's become the one thing I cover the most on this blog.
Those of you who know me from covering that show know that I am a huge fanatic of not only that show but also the other reality shows that air on that channel. But if there is one other big obsession that is as big as that, then it's the Olympics. So far since it began over a week ago, it has been the thing that has dominated my screens, my viewing time and my attention... it's no surprise given that this one loves anything from archery and sailing to alpine skiing to ski jumping when it comes to this. Just a simple sound of the kettle drums that start "Bugler's Dream," and it gets this Olympic superfan going.
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