Five rings of "meh"

 This past weekend the peerless Novak Djokovic was sublime on the Roland Garros clay, young Pato O'Ward went from fourth to the winner's circle in eight sublime laps on the streets of Belle Isle, and Chris Paul and the Phoenix Suns, suddenly sublime themselves, swept the Denver Nuggets from the playoffs on the NBA hardwood.

Also, there were people falling with style off diving platforms.

This happened in Indianapolis in the Olympic Diving Trials, which I blipped past a few times as I surfed Sportsball World on the tube. The Olympic qualifiers sounded totally jacked about it, egged on by the network mic jockeys whose job it is to get everyone jacked about the Games. 

I'd like to say I shared their giddiness, as someone who's always looked forward to the Games. But that was not my reaction this time.

This time, all I thought was, "Oh, yeah. They're still doing that."

Mainly that's because the organizers have been so bullheaded about shoving the Tokyo Games down our throats, and when I say "our" I mean the vast majority of the host country's citizens, health professionals and, well, pretty much everyone except the organizers. The Bastard Plague is still a major presence in Japan, the nation remains largely un-vaccinated, but, what the hell, let's bring a whole pile of folks together from all over the world to breathe on one another for two weeks.

It's the OLYMPICS, ya'll. It'll be FUN.

I suppose so. But it just doesn't feel right to me. It just doesn't feel, I don't know, Olympic-y.

Maybe it will once they march everyone in and light the flame, but I can't imagine anyone but the athletes will be excited about any of it. With so much of the host nation so profoundly unenthusiastic about the whole business -- even vehemently opposed to it -- I have to think the usual edge will be missing. I have to think it'll be five rings of "meh" instead of five rings of magnificence. 

It's possible, of course, that only I feel this way. Maybe the rest of you will tune in just as eagerly to see bulimic pixies tumble and Michael Katie Spitz-Schollander break eleventy-hundred swimming  records while winning eleventy-hundred gold medals, and one of the usual Kenyans or Ethiopians win the 10,000 meters in track. 

Maybe the Russians will cheat again. Maybe the U.S, will lose in basketball again. Maybe the Americans will sweep the podium in the 100 meters again, unless some rando Jamaican shows up to shock the world.

I'll probably watch some of all that. Millions of others will, too.

Maybe it won't feel weird and a little deflating to them. But it will for me.