I don't think I've mentioned on the site that I really miss televised golf. Not because I got all tense and anxious whenever Tiger Woods was trying to make a putt, but because watching golf always made for a great afternoon nap. You have a couple of guys whispering quietly about a golfer's chances on any given hole, and behind that the sounds of nature, or at least a golf course's version of nature. I could flip on golf, lay on the couch with a magazine, and if, at some point, I decided that the day had started getting too heavy, take a nap. Golf was always a great laziness aid.
Coming to Bulgaria, I had to find Sunday afternoon entertainment, and find it fast. Fortunately, there's Eurosport. Eurosport, while not huge on golf coverage, provides a wide range of sports perfect for afternoon naps. Yesterday, for example, there was coverage of the Olympic cycling time trials all afternoon. In the men's event alone there were about 40 racers taking off at minute-and-a-half intervals in a race that lasted about an hour for each rider. However, it was not perfect for naptime use since an American, Tyler Hamilton, was dominating and required a little attention here or there. In fact, I worked out during the race. Still, productive in its own way, I suppose.
But Eurosport's greatness doesn't stop at Olympic cycling, or cycling at all. They show every stage of the Tour de France every July, and during the Olympics, get this, they've been showing each and every match in the boxing preliminaries in the afternoon. Now this is legendary stuff. There are 32 fighters in each of the 11 divisions, and each fight lasts about twenty minutes. There are times when the announcer, placed perilously alone, stops talking for the course of an entire lightweight bout between, say, Albania and Slovenia. The judges behind the ring look they're about to fall out of their chairs. If you close your eyes and lay back on the couch, you only have the occasional chear from the Slovenians present and the odd comment from the announcer about how terrible the judging has been in this whole bloody tournament.
When it isn't boxing in the afternoons, I can count on whitewater preliminaries, equestrian, or even weightlifting. All great stuff, all making me love this last, lazy month of summer. And for those that say I'm not doing enough when I'm not killing myself here 24 hours a day, well, teaching in the fall will do enough killing for every season.
Cat pictures and comments about the US Basketball team tomorrow. Ciao.
Posted by Rob at August 19, 2004 04:08 PM