Olympic Finale

I was reminded of somethin' when I was pawin' through the Homespun Bloggers list this morning where Wandering Mind has an interesting slant on the Olympics--and how we lost. Hmmmm.

AHM didn't watch much of the Olympics--most times she already knew the results so why bother watchin' people tryin' to pretend there was a mystery about the winners. I can't see the stuff anyway, so I could have cared less… Except…

Did ya' know animals compete in the Olympics? Yep, they do. And did ya' know there is one sport where men and women compete equally? (AHM said our basketball team would have been better if they'd let the women play on the men's team but I don't know cat barf about basketball so I'll take her word.)

'Course it wasn't canines competin' (their loss). It was equines. Horses. Somethin' NBC totally ignored. Well, maybe they showed somethin' on BRAVO or MSNBC during their wee-hours broadcast, but AHM couldn't find it. USA won medals, too--just like they usually do. Sure as hell did a lot better than those silly runners everyone was moanin' and groanin' over.

So, in an effort to round out the coverage, here's the result from the sport where men, women, and animals compete equally.

"ATHENS, 27 August - The Olympic Equestrian Games of Athens 2004 saw six sets of medals given out in three disciplines at Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre.

"For the first time, Eventing was held in a new format in which individual winners were decided by a second round of jumping. France won Team gold in front of Great Britain and the USA.

[…]

"The individual medals in Eventing went to Leslie LAW (GBR), riding his partner in World and European Championships, grey gelding SHEAR L'EAU. American Kimberly SEVERSON and WINSOME ANDANTE were awarded Silver, with Bronze going to multiple European Champion Pippa FUNNELL (GBR), riding PRIMMORE'S PRIDE.

We screwed up in Dressage--American horses just do not take to prancin' and dancin' real well. We leave that to the Germans and Spanish and the Low Countries.

"The Jumping competitions at Markopoulo were decided in two jump-offs for silver and bronze for the teams, as well as the individual medals.

"Germany won their third successive gold medal by a large margin, while the USA and Sweden had to fight for their medals in a jump-off. The USA won silver with seven seconds advantage in front of Sweden, with both teams staying clear in the jump-off.

"Dubliner Cian O'CONNOR, 24, won gold in the individual competition with WATERFORD CRYSTAL. It was Ireland's first medal at the Athens Games.

"Silver went to Brazilian Rodrigo PESSOA. He claimed the first individual medal for his country after two team bronze medals in Sydney and Atlanta.

"American Chris KAPPLER landed a bronze after he had to retire his mount ROYAL KALIBER in the Jump-Off."

Now on to the political Olympics.

posted by Harrison at 1:37 PM