Gymnastics: Where Scrunchies Live Forever!

Y’all, I still don’t have a computer. I can fight the kids to use the playroom computer, but mostly I’m limited to using my iphone. Blogging on an iphone is somewhere between maddening and suicide-inducing.

I can’t believe I’m not blogging about the Olympics! It’s been a frustrating ten days because not only do I not have a computer, we only have a TV that gets NBC and PBS. So I can’t watch anything. I shall not address the fact that the jerks at NBC have made it impossible for me to watch any of my favorite sports. You might think that the Olympics are an event for the world to come together but you would so very foolish. They are en event for only the people with cable to come together. But let’s discuss anyway.

I’m a huge fan of the lesser-known sports. (Although how things like Archery count as a sport, I have no idea.)  It infuriates me that NBC has decided that all I am interested in is swimming, gymnastics and running.  Don’t get me wrong, I like backflips as much as the next person. But I find the whole hair issue of female gymnast baffling to the point of distraction. Why are they wearing scrunchies? Do you know that their leotards cost around $500 each? And what do they think will compliment these pricey leotards? A scrunchie!  But who can see the scrunchie when there are approximately 17 hair clippies surrounding it? Gymnasts, please have a chat with some ballerinas. They have figured out how to keep their hair in place without looking like an elementary schooler who’s gone crazy at Claire’s.

Also, having painted nails is against the rules for gymnasts. Outlandish eye makeup is not (especially if you’re Russian). The fact that our poor Olympic girls can not have amazingly patriotic toenails is downright criminal!

The male gymnastics are a lot more interesting. Not just because I have a weakness for muscle-y arms and there are all these fantastic feats of strength (that pommel horse is cool!), but because there are contestants like these:


Nope, it’s not Napoleon and Kip Dynamite’s other brother. It’s Tomas Gonzales from Chile. And if that mustache doesn’t make you want to start singing YMCA then I don’t know what’s wrong with you.


You might think you’ve seen this Uchimura guy before. And you have if you watch Yu-Gi-Oh. I mean he looks like he walked right out of some Japanese animé cartoon. That kooky hair just makes me smile.

Enough about gymnastics; let’s move on to swimming. I personally have no feelings for or against Michael Phelps. I never root for him. I am a lover of the underdog. And Michael Phelps is the opposite of the underdog. All I know about M.P. is that his swimsuit always looks like it’s about 1 centimeter from falling off. He must use that tape to keep it in place like beauty pageant contestants. It makes me very uncomfortable.

Also swimming-related: I have a hard time supporting a sport where the women look just like the men. When they’ve got unitards and bathing caps on, they could be either one. Call me old-fashioned but women look better with breasts. My husband assures me that he believes this too.

My mother made me take swimming lessons at an indoor pool when I was very young. Swimming across the pool terrified me to no end. I was sure that I would drown right in the middle, being a very weak swimmer. To this day, walking into an indoor pool–hearing the echoes, getting a huge whiff of the chlorine–makes me have some sort of PTSD. (Also, I don’t like getting wet to start with.)  Thus, I cannot fully enjoy swimming.

I have so much more to say about the Olympics. I think I’ll try to chase my kids off the computer and blog again soon. What have you liked or hated most so far? At the end of it all I plan on having a beauty pageant and voting for the best looking athletes, so mark your choices down and let’s discuss.

 

 

12 thoughts on “Gymnastics: Where Scrunchies Live Forever!

  1. I totally agree! I can not take one more night of gymnastics! I also root for the underdog, especially if MP is swimming. I love watching the equestrian events, but because I don’t have cable…no luck! But, it’s still a lot of fun.

  2. As soon as I saw the guy from Chile with the mustache, I turned to my husband and said, “Look, it’s Kip!” So funny you thought the same thing…

  3. ugh…we don’t have cable either and the fact that having cable also means i can’t watch online is infuriating! that said, i am not a big fan of the olympics, but i do like seeing some track events and a few of the lesser known events…which of course aren’t on nbc. so frustrating. also….who cares about beach volleyball? i feel like that has been on every. single. day.

  4. If I have to sit through one more water polo game I’m gonna scream! Enough already.

    Last night I told Spencer he could never become an Olympic diver because I just can’t handle the outfits. I don’t think I have much to worry about since he still hates putting his face under water.

    I couldn’t agree more about the gymnasts and their hair. I don’t get it.

    1. And the bonnets don’t come with a chin strap, no. The big, burly manly – men tie them in a bow under their face fur. Just disturbing, I tell you!!

  5. The other night when I had already watched 2 or 3 Olympic track events (ie: more than plenty), I flipped over to PBS and saw a documentary on Synchronized Swimming. I’m a new fan! I happened to catch the Olympic Synchro event on t.v. this week, and it was truly amazing–those Russians and Spanish, dancing underwater!

  6. Hey, I just finally got internet! Never mind cable or dish. I haven’t seen ANYTHING olympic! But i will agree with liking men with muscles (and WITHOUT MUSTACHES, thank you!) and think girls look better with breasts and hips. Have you noticed what hipless-wonders those female gymnasts are? I must admit they are in great condition, though. Have you ever noticed that dancers, gymnasts and other healthy women do NOT have big gaping spaces between their thighs, but models do? I’ve always thought those gaps looked somewhat obscene, and certainly unhealthy. I must remember that models starve, they do not work out. Therefore, they do not have sartorius muscles (inner thigh).

  7. I have to say, I watch the Olympics solely for the gymnastics. I might watch a couple of diving events or a swim race or two just to feel more well-rounded, but really I just care about the gymnastics. Girls’ especially. The mens’ floor routines creep me out. All the weird skipping and fairy hand gestures…just not very masculine. But I like the rings and paralellel bars. I’m very sorry that I moved during the rhythic gymnastics and couldn’t tape them. Boo! Why they’re an olympic event, I don’t know, but they’re super fun to watch!

    What about that one Russian chick’s eye make-up that made her look drowsy the whole time?!

Leave a Reply to suburbancorrespondent Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *