I'll admit I'm a little obsessed with the Olympics. It's strange, especially because I don't usually like watching sports. Yet there's something inexplicably appealing about the diversity of athletic events, the sob stories about injuries and subsequent recoveries and Bob Costas' plastered-on smile.
I can't be the only one who feels this way: the NBC-covered Games drew the most viewers last week, toppling American Idol's ratings streak. Only 18.4 million people watched Idol - unusually low numbers for the show - proving Olympic stars to be the true American Idols.
After all, we'd rather watch Shaun White and his Double McTwist 1260, Lindsey Vonn winning despite a serious shin injury, Evan Lysacek out-skating Russian champ Evgeni Plushenko and the ever-present short-track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, who became the most decorated American Winter Olympian after winning his seventh medal.
Apolo's not the only one racking up the medals; 2010 has been an especially successful year for American athletes in general. The United States already has claimed 24 medals one week into the games.
Perhaps the nation's winning streak is what makes the Olympics so much fun to watch - after all, who doesn't like to win? Just watching the world's best athletes gather in one city is a treat in itself. And the Olympic Games are the arena that budding athletes dream about, making the stakes that much higher. You don't come to the Olympics to give a half-hearted effort, and that's part of the appeal. Everyone, from first-time Olympians to Game giants, is giving it his all.
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