Thoughts on the opening ceremonies

We generally don't watch sports - aside from the occasional figure skating competition that we find while channel surfing.  But we become virtual couch potatos during the Olympics - both winter and summer.  We watch lots of the individual sports - figure skating, ice dancing, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, or track and field, also lots of the smaller team sports - bobsled, relays, but very little of the large team sports like basketball or hockey, and we try to see some of the sports less known in the United States such as curling or the biathalon.  By the time the Olympics are done, I'm done watching TV for awhile.

Anyway, following are some random thoughts on the opening ceremonies - not particularly well organized because I'm very tired.

- I was wondering why, with Italy's rich musical history, they played American disco while the atheletes were entering.  They made up for it in the rest of the progam, though (not that I mind disco, but I wanted something more Italian!).

- When the tv commentator said that they wouldn't skip any countries during the commercials, my daughter looked at me and said, "So they won't skip Estonia this time" - which happened at one of the recent opening ceremonies.  Being half Estonian and half Finnish, I pay particular attention to those entrances (and to Baltic and Scandinavian entrances in general).

- But, they didn't say anything about the Estonian atheletes because they were too busy talking about the Danish controversy - they didn't say anything about the Danish atheletes either. 

- The flag bearer for Latvia used to play for the Carolina Hurricanes.

- Patrick Singleton, skeleton athlete from Bermuda, graduated from Elon University - less than half an hour west of here.

- Iceland, surprisingly, has never won a medal.

- I liked the people making the image of a skier going through his run. 

- The Finnish team is pretty large - 93 athletes.

- And I like the dove figure that the acrobats just made (I'm going back and forth between computer and TV, because I was about to go to sleep sitting still).

- Interesting choice of women to carry the Olympic flag!

- I liked the story about Philip Boit of Kenya,  who, in cross-country skiing in the 1998 Olympics, took twice as long to finish as Norwegian gold-medal winner, Bjorn Daehlie.  Daehlie stayed around until Boit  finished, however, and Boit later named his son after the Norwegian. 

- Pavarotti was a treat!