It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! - Monday Cardinal Couple

OK, it's a Christmas song, but I found myself singing it in the Jeep on the way to work this morning.

The Olympics Are Here!

We're a couple of days in, now, but this is one of the most joyous times of the year...wait...every two years, when either the Summer or Winter Olympics roll around.

I self-style myself as an Obscure Sports Guy.  I love the sport of Basketball as any red blooded Kentuckian pretty much does, but I get excited when I see a new sport, or a sport that doesn't get mainstream sports and non-sports media attention.  That opportunity doesn't arise often, but The Olympics are one of the consistent times when that happens.

The Olympics, and particularly the media coverage of the Olympics tends to highlight the "stories," which I must admit I have a bit of a soft spot for.  This year, the big "story" that I've heard has been Yusri Mardini.  The Syrian refugee, competing as part of the Olympics Refugee Team.  Her refugee boat, as it was crossing part of the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece had its engine fail.  She, another competitive swimmer and two other strong swimmers, the only people among the 20 on the boat built for 6 that could swim, spent over three hours in the water swimming, pulling the boat of refugees, to Greece.  Quite a story indeed.

The Olympic stories are frequently about underdogs or overcoming challenges.  It's great that they
shine a positive light on great stories that otherwise wouldn't be seen or heard.  The same goes for some of the "obscure" sports.  Many of these sports only see nationwide, and even worldwide, coverage during the Olympics.  Sports like Judo, Fencing, Field Hockey, and plenty more never see national television, and The Olympics offer an opportunity and a forum for those sports to be exposed to so many people that wouldn't otherwise see them.  The Olympics also provide a framework and an "event", for people to talk about what obscure sports they've been watching and enjoying.

So, in addition to my well-known-in-Cardinal-Couple-circles love of Volleyball, I've been getting super excited the past couple of weeks anticipating getting a chance to watch Handball, Canoe/Kayaking, Water Polo, and Badminton (yes, badminton...have you ever seen Olympic level badminton?  It's intense).  Of course, this year, I've been keeping an eye on the pool with so many current and former UofL swimmers at the games.  I also caught some of one of the US Rugby games with UofL Field Hockey alumna Jessica Javelet.  As I write this, I have the live stream of US vs Australia Field Hockey up...I think maybe Coach Justine Sowry might be watching as well.

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CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

Here is the link for the Saturday radio show. 

LINK: https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20160806


JMcA