7 Reasons Why You Love The Olympics (And Why You're Voldemort If You Don't)

There are a lot of things that I enjoy about having my summers off. Having random beach days, watching the Today show, getting a part-time job to make some extra cash, reading as many books as I can afford to buy, seeing family and friends that I can't seem to get to during the school year, and taking a break from the students to totally rejuvenate myself.

But this does not cover my most favorite reason for having my summers off:

BEING ABLE TO WATCH THE SUMMER OLYMPICS ALL. DAY. LONG.

Like every other human being in the world, I am currently obsessed with the Olympics. I can't stop watching them or bringing them up in conversation with whomever I come into contact with. 

If social media has taught me anything, it is that I am not alone. Everyone is swept up with Olympic fever. Watching live stream on their laptops, constantly checking standings online, and settling down every night to watch the highlights. We're following Olympic athletes on their twitter, and reading personal pieces about their journeys on NBC.com. 

We're all totally consumed and can not stop. We don't want to stop, I mean why would we when our swim team isn't?

The big question might be why? Why do we all stop and obsess over this international sporting event that occurs every two years? (Yes we have to wait two years for the winter olympics.)

Do not fret, here for you today, I have the answers. I can explain to you why you will not be able to focus on your day to day life for the next week and a half, and why businesses will be losing about $650 million in productivity while their workers watch the hammer throw instead of creating an excel sheet.

Why You Love The Olympics

1. When America Wins, You Win.

So maybe you've had a rough day at work. Maybe you spilled coffee all over yourself in the car. Maybe you're going through a rough break-up. Maybe your pet snail has gone missing. Maybe nothing seems to be going right for you lately Charlie Brown. 

But, while watching the fab four win the team gold, or Michael Phelps become the most decorated Olympian ever, you have a chance to forget. 

You might not ever get that coffee stain out of that white-silk shirt, but you had 1 minute watching a bulky man swim through a pool while you yelled at the TV forgetting all about it. You were in the pool with him, you were hugging his mom after the win.

These athletes worked hard enough than thousands of Americans put together ever will in their entire lives to win that gold, so I we can ride that coat tail for a little longer. 

Go ahead and feel like you had a part of winning that medal by throwing popcorn in the air during the finish,  because hey,  that's your flag up there too. 

 You should at least feel like you're in the stadium with them as they flub up those National Anthem lyrics and choke up a little at the same time.

Which brings me to my next point.

2. You Love A Good Happy Cry (It's The American Thing To Do)

Like most people who aren't Cruella Deville, I am not a huge fan of crying. Especially when it's a 17-year-old whose dreams have been smashed and reporters just can't leave her alone.

But, there are some happy tears that happen in the Olympics. And happy tears of Olympians will often beget happy tears of us mere mortals. At least they do if you aren't Voldemort.

Say all you want, but I have a hard time not sobbing and hugging my TV  when America's latest swimming sweetheart, 17-year-old Missy Franklin, cried at the top of the olympic podium.

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And her parents? How proud and adorable are they as they cry a little bit over their only child? They make me want to have a baby and bring it to the pool at 5AM every morning for the rest of my life so I can happy cry that adorably when they make it to the Space Olympics on the moon in 18 years.

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Speaking of parents, who can keep it together when Mama Phelps is wiping away tears of joy as her son becomes the most decorated Olympian ever. God she's fabulous.

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What about when our Marti Malloy won her Judo match for the bronze? I totally got teary.

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And you can go ahead and call me un-american, but I choked up a little when South Africa's Chad Le Clos ruined Michael Phelp's day by winning the gold and then proceeded to ugly cry on the podium. 

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Not to mention his father who was so excited he hid under a flag ugly crying 3 gold medals better than his son.

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If you watch clips of any of those moments and don't get a little verklempt, then you should  probably just haunt little British children in hospitals with these guys because it sounds like Mary Poppins needs to take care of your attitude:

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One last thing while we're on the topic of getting overemotional over the Olympics:

 Even the commercials get me all weepy. 

First, any of the P&G commercials featuring the moms. Hands down they will get your tear ducts aflowin in all sorts of happy ways right before you call your mom. 

Here's my favorite:

Second, I think this Nike commercial could probably make a robot human with emotion.

So how is happy crying the American thing to do?

My question for you is, do you think Francis Scott Key had dry eyes as he composed the Start Spangled banner? Do you think someone could write about a "twilight's last gleaming" without letting the waterworks happen? 

That guy was totally crying. Therefore, it's now an American tradition to happy cry when things get real patriotic. 

And if you don't every once and a while, you should probably pack your bags and move to Canada because with all of my happy tears there's no room for you here.

3. You Are Officially Now An Expert In Everything.

This goes two ways.

a. You Are A Wealth Of Useless Facts

The beauty of 24/7 coverage of the Olympics means that when our NBC broadcasters run out of useful information about the match, they just start blabbering on about whatever they want to fill the time with.  

And when broadcasters fill time, useless information for you to gobble up and insert into casual cocktail conversation/talks with strangers ensues. 

You might hate some of the comments that they make, but I don't care who you are, you like having information other people don't. Your conversations for the next few weeks will have comments spattered throughout (by you or some other competing Olympic enthusiast) like the following.

"Have you heard about the Japanese Olympian in the equestrian events? He's 71 years old! He first competed in the 1964 Olympics! What an inspiration!"

"Did you know that U.S. beach volleyball players Misty May and Kerri Walsh have never lost an Olympic match?"

"Did you know the last time the women's gymnastic's team won a gold medal was before 15 year old gymnast Kyla Ross was born?"

"Well you must know that the last event to occur in this year's Olympics will be the woman's pentathlon."

"Did you know the Olympic gymnast  John Orozco put his first paycheck as a teenager towards his parent's mortgage?"

People may not like a know it all, but you sure do like to know it all. So watch, take notes, and start chatting it up with a random stranger at the bus-stop. 

You are an informant of Olympic proportions.  It's time to talk up America, and some other countries on occasion too.

b. You Are An Expert Olympic Judge In Every Sport

One only needs to watch a quarter of Women's water polo to be an expert. With your underwater cameras and enthusiastic commentators gasping about every block and penalty, you have all of the tools to be flown out to London right now and referee the gold medal match. 

And it only takes 5 minutes of watching Men's Canoe double to know when a time penalty needs to be given from a mile away. You've seen about 3 races and already skimmed the rules on the official Wikipedia page.

It's a tough job, watching and becoming an expert of every Olympic event. But you can do it.

 Invite your friends over to watch some archery and show them that you're the expert by yelling at the judges for a call that was clearly unfair, and referring to the athletes as bowmen. Because that's the official name for them, and you are the expert after all.

4. It's (Somewhat) Socially Acceptable To Sit Around All Day And Watch The Olympics

It's happened to many of us. 

It's your day off, so as you begin your day you sit down with your cereal deciding what you'd like to do with all of your free time and you notice USA is having a Law and Order-SVU marathon. 

Suddenly, it's 2 PM and your mom calls asking you what you've done all day. 

You look at Detective Elliot Stabler for an answer but he's too busy beating up some perp during interrogation so you panic and make something up about walking the dog and solving that whole world peace debacle.

Now, fastforward to tomorrow when you're watching Track, Sailing and Table Tennis.

Your mom calls and asks you about what you're up to.

"I supported the United States and watched the Olympics all day. And I wrote a super informative blog post about it. Oh, then I was inspired to go for a run and do some pushups because Kerri Walsh has two babies and puts my body to shame."

Watching a TV marathon is a guilty pleasure that I feel many of us share. Whether you're sick and Monk re-runs are the only medicine, or it's a rainy day and The Big Bank Theory is the answer to occupy your time; TV marathons happen and they're hard to talk about.

But there's nothing hard to talk about when it comes to having a front seat in your living room to horses jumping over well trimmed shrubbery. 

Just make sure you get up and take some stretch breaks, maybe even do some sit-ups or vacuum during tv breaks. That way you're not only being patriotic, but productive.

5. It's A Great Time To Admire The Human Body.

For this section I'm mostly going to show you some photos and captions.

It's nice every once and a while to admire how rockin' someone can get their body if they dedicated all of their time and effort towards a physical goal.
The Olympics is probably the best time to do that.

Here are a few of the hundreds of Olympians with whom I would trade bodies with for a day and whom you should admire.
Yes there are guys on this list too. Their six-18 pack abs are just to awesome not to.

(But only for a day because I think I'd ruin it after a week of stress eating and sitting around watching the Olympics.)

Kerri Walsh or Misty May

The one on the right has had 2 kids in the last 3 years. I thought you should know just in case you wanted to feel a little worse about yourself. (via)

The Entire Men's and Women's Swim Team

Negative percent body fat, 100 percent muscle. If you asked me to swim their races, I would probably drown. (via)

Serena and Venus Williams

I wouldn't be able to chose between whose body I'd like to have. Just surprise me with either super toned arms or the best butt on earth.  I'd be happy with either. (via)

Tom Daley, British Diver

So I mean he has average abdominal muscles right? I would do sit-ups all day if I were him. Just for fun. (via)

6. There's Something About An Underdog

I love nothing more than to see someone overcome crushing odds to compete in the Olympics.

We'd all like to think that we have some great underdog stories here in the US with some of our professional athletes. And yes, there are NFL teams with players who have overcome great adversity. There are some great stories about professional baseball teams coming back from major losses to win it all in the end. 

But those are not the underdogs that I am writing about. I have a hard time referring to people as underdogs when they're going home to a mansion with 4 bathrooms and 2 soda machines.

I'm writing here about the real underdogs. I'm talking about the people who not only have to do to do the "normal" work it takes to be athletically capable enough to join the Olympics, but also had to overcome huge challenges that I could never imagine in order to just live their life.

For instance, there's South African runner Oscar Pistorious.

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His legs from a little bleow the knee are actually carbon fiber. He had to have an amputation at 11 months old. He's now running for South Africa on their track team in their 400 relay.

 Read more about him here.

Or how about our own Lopez Lomong.

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He came to the U.S. in 2001 from Sudan, where he was one of the 200,000 "Lost Boys". He was abducted and assumed dead by his family at the age of 6. He escaped his captors but had to run for 3 days with 4 other boys until he got to the border of Kenya. 

He will now be running the 5000m race for the United States of America. 

 Ummm....He makes me proud to be an American.

These are just two of many stories featuring extraordinary people overcoming the odds and becoming the best in their field. These stories give us hope for human kind and inspire us to do our best in our day to day lives. Because that's what an underdog is all about. 

7. Because They're The Olympics!

Let's face it, you don't need a reason to love the Olympics, you just do. You might have other deep seated reasons you can't stay away from the Olympics, matter how hard you try. There's just something about watching human beings coming together, no matter their country, political party, religion, race, or ethnicity and competing for a common goal.

Have you been watching the Olympics? Avoiding them at all costs? Do you have any other reasons you love the Olympics or ones you think I missed? I'm in the Olympic spirit so share your thoughts in the comments. 

Have an fabulous Thursday full of Gold medals! :)