We interrupt our regularly-schedule programming to tell you that our regularly-scheduled programming is not what we want it to be. Watching the Olympics in a foreign country is always a different experience. I remember watching them in Japan and being shocked to discover I actually missed some of the endless chatter and commentary of American coverage. On the other hand, sometimes it was nice just to see the routines and not have them dictacted to me by the sportscasters. Well, I would like to tell you what the coverage of Olympic gymnastics is like in France, but I can't, because they keep choosing to show only handball. And more handball. At least, whenever I'm looking.
Blast those Frenchwomen and their handball prowess! Today is the quarterfinals of women's handball -- France vs. Montenegro, a country I have basically never heard of competing in a sport I had basically never heard of before last week.
photo from: http://www.london2012.com/news/articles/draws-held-for-the-london-2012-handball-competitions.html
To be more precise, I thought I had heard of handball, because my parents, their siblings and cousins, who all grew up in New York City, have talked about playing handball when they were children. However, it turns out that that NYC handball is not the same game as Olympic handball, a revelation that stunned my mother who, since she lives in the US, has not been forced to watch any Olympic handball. If she had, she would realize that while NYC handball is like squash played against a wall with one's hands, Olympic handball is like soccer, played indoors with one's hands.
Who will ultimately win the London 2012 Olympic handball competition? Who knows? Who cares? I'll tell you who cares: the French people, or at least the French media. Oh, NBC, all you American sportscasters with your inane commentary and spotlights on the athletes, I actually miss you.
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