The Doppler Effect

The Olympics are finally here. Always one of my favorite events, this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China was one of the most hyped ever. As someone who has always been wary of the Chinese, still found myself thoroughly impressed with the opening ceremony. The artistic performance was highly creative and melded clockwork precision with 15,000 performers; the Chinese have seriously set the bar high for future hosts as well as shown the world how far China has come in the last decade. Aside from one tragic story, the games are well run so far.

As of today, China leads not only the overall medal count, but the gold medal count as well (China 9, U.S. 3). While i don’t expect the discrepancy to last for long (espescially once track and field gets under way), I strongly believe that China will give the United States a strong run for it’s money in terms of overall medals.

So far we’ve seen some epic performances, most notably in swimming, fencing and basketball but there are stil nearly two weeks of competition. I typically find myself watching two TV channels at once and stream another event on my computer. You might call me some sort of Olympics addict. Derek posted some stunning photos over on Markfive, and Gizmodo has an interesting read about the opening ceremony here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have 3 screens worth of Olympics to watch!