Miracle in Rio?

"But all in all, the games came off without a hitch. And the medal count for the United States was astronomical."

Well the summer games are almost over. And the prognosis of them being the worst. games. ever. seems to have been incorrect. Call it luck, call it excellent planning, call it whatever - the games were fun and entertaining to watch. All the talk about the harbor being so polluted with garbage that one could literally walk on water, seems to have been just talk. 

Oh, there was the usual (but rare) examples of some behaving poorly. Like our favorite swimmer with the lying tongue and green hair. Plus, there was some Olympic officials caught scalping tickets or some such nonsense like that. And we can't forget the doping scandal by the Russians. But all in all, the games came off without a hitch. And the medal count for the United States was astronomical.

Somebody on the radio or TV brought up a very good point. The Olympics are not as suspenseful as the good old days. Back in the days of the Soviet "machine". When the Soviet Union had a professional group of athletes who trained all year to be dominate in both the summer and winter games. And just like in the famed "Miracle on Ice" hockey game from 1980, the United States only had a bunch of college kids. A bunch of college kids going up against the finest hockey team in the world - and then beating them.

It was good vs. evil in just about every Olympic event from the end of the World War II to the end of the Cold War. It was Communism vs. the free world. It was fun to watch, even though quite often the free world took a beating from the finely tuned Soviet athletes. And every time an free world athlete could come up and steal a medal from a Soviet in any sport, it was a huge deal.

Some say it is a bit boring now with the professional aspect in the games. How we allow our pro athletes to take some time off from their seasons and play countries which are made up of just armatures. 

However, that is the nature of the beast right now. Boring or not, that is the way things are going to be unless the world cries out for change. But if the United States athletes continue to "act classy" (for the most part), maybe, just maybe, the world will not soon tire of seeing the caliber of excellence we can exhibit.