Thirty-five sports, over 400

events, and enough snow and ice

to make even the most hot-natured

person chilly. Stephen Colbert of

Comedy Central’s “The Colbert

Report”

said, “it’s

the best

part of

every four

years,” and

I couldn’t

agree more.

Since the

opening

ceremony, I

have been hooked on the Olympic

Games. I just can’t get enough of

the speed skating, ski jumping,

snowboarding, and my personal

favorite, figure skating.

Every night on NBC a magical

mixture of winter sporting

events comes floating across the

airwaves into my living room to

provide hours of entertainment for

my family, or most of my family I

should say.

For some reason, my little sister

isn’t as interested in the Games

as I am. She would rather watch

Grey’s Anatomy or the newest

episode of Desperate Housewives

instead of the history making,

only-comes-around-once-everyfour-

years combination of winter

sports that has me so enthralled.

But the Olympics has its own

story line, filled with conspiracy

and revenge. What happens

at these games will be talked about for years to come. What’s

more important, a network show

that will be reduced to reruns in

a few months, or the historical

competition taking place in Turin,

Italy?

Watching the games is my way

of contributing to the “Olympic

spirit.” Even though I’m far from

being the world’s biggest sports

guru, and I don’t exactly know

all the rules, I love the Olympics

nonetheless. How can you not?

Each sport is enchanting in its own

way, and as I’ve grown older I’ve

noticed that it’s not all about who

takes the gold.

Countries compete against others

for the sake of redeeming previous

discrepancies. For instance, in

Men’s Speed Skating, it is possible

that the two South Korean skaters

that finished ahead of Apolo Anton

Ohno were working together to

shut him out as pay back for his

first place victory at the Salt Lake

Games in 2002.

The Olympics isn’t just a bunch

of sports, it’s a web of country

pride and loyalty mixed with the

excitement of competing against

the most talented athletes in the

world. It’s a race to see how many

medals a single country can bring

home, not only for the individual

competitors but for the sake of the

country for which they competed.

And in my eyes, it’s the most

interesting thing that’s been on

television since, well, four years

ago.