2010 Winter Olympics

Television ratings so far for the 2010 Winter Olympics have been strong. The Opening Ceremony on February 12 drew a bigger share than the 2006 event and five days later the NBC broadcast of the downhill skiing, snowboarding and speed skating events drew a higher rating than American Idol, the first broadcast of any kind to beat Idol since May 2004.

For all the excitement over this year's Olympics, my interest has been warm at best. Don't get me wrong-- I love sports and I love my country. I just have a hard time getting excited over events that involve a broom (curling) or riding a sled (skeleton, luge and bobsled).

Even so, some of the greatest sporting events in history occurred during the Winter Olympics (1980 Miracle on Ice, Eric Heiden winning five gold medals in speed skating, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill winning gold in women's figure skating. So why do I prefer re-runs of Man vs. Food instead of watching the Winter Olympics?

• I hate the cold. Yes, I know I'm watching the events on TV in the comfort of my own living, but seeing cold and ice in HD makes me uncomfortable.
  
• I never ice skated. Never. Not that I wouldn't try it, but it's hard to be interested in something I have no experience in (i.e. basketball, football, baseball, you get the idea).
  
• As long as curling remains an official Olympic sport, it's hard to take the Olympics seriously. I mean, participants use brooms to slide granite stones across the ice, come on now!
  
• I don't understand how judges score performances. Case in point: I'll watch different figure skaters perform and in my eyes, one is just as good as or better than another. However, the judges will score them differently which only adds to my confusion.
  

All that being said, I do appreciate the U.S. beating Canada in ice hockey or Lindsey Vonn darting down a slope in record time (ok, I didn't know who she was until she appeared in the S.I. swimsuit edition, but let's not pull hairs here). Even so, watching Adam Richman eat a six pound burrito in under 30 minutes never gets old, either.