The World Comes Together....and I Wager.
By from August 12, 2004
The Olympics game officially begin tomorrow in Athens, the birthplace of the Modern Olympics. With much more focus on terror threats, doping scandals, and Athens deep struggles in getting things prepared in time, I'm trying to get really excited about how special the Olympics are, even in these times of sponsors being able to control what people eat, drink, wear at the games and when there have been scandals about payouts and fixing the determining the cities for the last few Olympics. The Olympics really are special, so many sports that rarely get coverage, so many countries, and most of the athletes are there for the love of it and competition instead of money.
So, I thought, what is the best way I can honor the specialness of the Olympics and get myself excited about the games....WAGERING, of course! Some good old fashion betting always makes something more special. I have bet Josh Berezin a solid 20 bucks that the good ole USA will take the gold in basketabll, which should be interesting considering the NBA all star laden Americans underachieving in the last few years (including a dismal 6th place finish in the 2002 World Basketball Championships). Needing even more excitement I turned to ESPN.com for some good old fashioned Fantasy Olympics!!! Fantasy Olympics, dudes. How deep is that?
The Olympics soccer competition actually started yesterday (because it takes a long time to play a soccer tournament) with the US women taking out the host Greeks, but the big news was today when the Iraqi soccer team pulled off a huge upset and beat the Portuguese 4-2. Iraq who was not expected to even be in the Olympic competition were huge underdogs to the Euro 2004 runner-up Portuguese, who had maybe the biggest young soccer star in the world on the pitch in Manchester United's Christiano Ronaldo. Finally something to celebrate for the Iraqi people. Iraq becomes my sentimental favorites to win the soccer competition in Athens. I mean, how amazing is it that they even were able to send a team.
Go Olympics!