Friday Five: Olympic Edition

In honor of the Olympics starting today, let's have an Olympic Friday Five! Please play along, either by answering in the comments here or on your own blog (be sure to link back so we know where to find your responses)!

TGIF everybody!

1) Which are your favorite: the Summer or Winter Olympics?

2) What Olympic competitions do you most enjoy watching?

3) Who is your favorite Olympian?

4) What is your most memorable Olympic viewing experience?

5) Are there any particular Olympians you are rooting for in the Beijing games?

And my answers:

1) I like both seasons equally, I think. I can't pick a favorite!

2) My favorite events to watch are gymnastics, swimming, diving, skiing and skating (figure and speed). I also will watch other events, like track and field or volleyball or what-have-you, but I don't follow those; it's more of an "oh look, this is on and I can't find a rerun of any Law and Order family episode I haven't already seen" kind of thing.

3) My favorite Olympian of all time would have to be Greg Louganis. I watched every minute of his competitions in both '84 and '88, including the infamous dive where he cracked his head on the board. (Watching that still makes me wince!) Besides being an incredible athlete, he also was adopted, so we have that in common (um,whereas on the "incredible athlete" part we have nothing in common, that's for sure). I had the honor of meeting him once when he spoke to the media at Cornell while Hubby and I were living in Ithaca. Hubby used his radio credentials to get me in to the press conference, and afterwards I had a chance to speak with Mr. Louganis (I just can't bring myself to call him "Greg" like we're actually friends or something) and he also graciously signed my copy of his autobiography.

Other favorites would be Nadia Comaneci and all the members of the '84 Men's Gymnastics team. I followed the 1984 gymnastics competitions very closely and became a fan to the point that not only did I continue to follow their individual careers, but I went to see American Anthem in the theater (Mitch Gaylord, swoon) and I also saw Rad, which had Bart Conner in it, albeit not in the theater as it never played near me. My sister and I did rent the movie several times the summer it came out on video though. Heck, I even watched the team compete on a celebrity edition of Family Feud! (Another wince-inducing moment was when Tim Daggett snapped his leg at the World Championships a couple of years after the '84 Olympics. I believe that ended his competitive career, though he and Bart Conner have both popped up on TV as commentators over the years since the 80s....)

Oh, I've kind of got summer sports on the brain here, but I also was a big Brian Boitano fan back when he was competing...

4) I'd have to say it is a tie for me between the night the '84 US Men's Gymnastics team won the gold and the day that Greg Louganis won the gold medal after that horrible head-cracking.

5) I'm really rooting for Michael Phelps and Dara Torres in particular this time around.

And now, I will leave you with an appropriately themed LOLcats picture:


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