thumbed!

One of the great things about the Olympics is you get to see some sports that you never get to see any other time of the year. Some of my favorites are the Madison, a bicycle race more than 100 years old that involves a complicated scoring system and the sling-shotting of riders around the track. It's fun to watch because it's like a game you might make up as a child, except this one was made up by crazy, 24-hour velodrome racing cyclists at the turn of the century who were racing around Madison Square Garden. One suspects they might have been bored or heavy into betting when they invented it, but it does make for interesting viewing. To see the Madison races you'll likely have to skip the tv coverage and move to the internet.

BMX, aka bicycle moto-cross, on the internet has all the races from all the heats instead of just the highlights featuring American riders. (I also love my country, but the logo has more than one ring.) BMX is another fun sport that moved from the streets to the track and the nick-names followed: Butter(Kyle Bennett), Stumpdog (Randall Stumpfhauser), Salad Bar (Segio Salazar), AfroBob (Rob de Wilde), and Doctor Smooth (Luke Madill). There's even an Aussie who's real name is Kamakazi. The races are fast and furious with wipeouts so you never know what'll happen at the end.

Another favorite sport, one I get to see only every 4 years during the Olympics, is water polo. Again, it looks like a game you might have invented as a child around the pool. On top of the water, folks swim around the pool trying to throw a ball in a net while opponents try to stop them. Beneath the water, it's a constant battle to create an equipment malfunction for your opponent.

US women's water polo teams are under some sort of curse, no doubt related to festering the world with all those Disney movies about mermaids. They've lost the gold medal in the last seconds for 3 straight Olympics. In 2000 at Sydney the Australians scored the winning goal with 2 seconds left in the game, in 2004 at Athens, it was the Italians scoring with 1.2 seconds left, and this year in Beijing, it was the Netherlands who scored the winning goal with 26 seconds left in the game. Talk about a thumb in your eye, but stayed tuned, the Americans will defend their silver medal in 4 years at the London games.