Olympic Touch Up

I dig the Olympics. I’m not wrapped up in them like many, not even as much as my wife, but I really do appreciate how great all these athletes are at what they do. The human interest angles are always interesting, as well. But I can’t help myself, I want to tinker. I also want the answers to questions that I don’t believe I can get from this set up. So I’ve dreamt up my own little Olympic set up. Not because I want to take away the opportunity to shine from someone like Michael Phelps, I’d still like all these sports to have their World Championships, and I think it’d be fantastic if they were watched by hundreds of millions of sport fans across the globe.

That said here’s what I want to see:

·         Each country gets 25 spots on their Olympic team.

·         Each member of the team must compete in 20 of 25 events. I know there are currently 26 events, but hey, this is my set up and 25 just works best.

·         Every athlete must participate in 15 sports.

·         The team members aren’t announced until the Opening Ceremonies.

You won’t get to see who the best in the world is at any specific sport. You may not even see Michael Phelps at all. But for me, what makes this such an intriguing idea is that if you see Phelps, you’ll really get to see what kind of athlete he is. He’ll swim, but he’ll also play some basketball, run track, maybe even gymnastics. LeBron James would lead the basketball team, but I’m sure he’d also be a beast in handball, but how would he do in fencing and synchronized swimming?

Without doing a ton of research, here are a few of the athletes I’d select for the US Men’s team:

LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Johnson, Michael Phelps, Larry Fitzgerald, Andy Roddick, Russell Westbrook, Tim Tebow (really), Mike Trout, Rajon Rando, Cam Newton, Ashton Eaton and Patrick Willis for starters.

The one thing we might actually learn from all this, is who the greatest athlete in the world is. This, oddly enough, is often talked about during the Olympics anyway.