The Games are wrought with thrills and spills,

With energy that transcends the athletes with mad skills.

This witnessing of greatness can give you the chills,

As crazy men and women hurdle down hills,

Looking for nothing less than gold, not looking to pay bills.

Ladies and gentleman, I am happy to say that the most wonderful time of the year begins Friday with the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. Into a stadium embraced by mountains will march over 2,500 athletes from over 80 different countries. A torch will be lit representing the force that drives humans to the limits of their physical abilities, and 16 days of the purest, most intense athletic competition in the world will commence.

In a perfect world the Olympic microcosm might serve as an example for how the rest of the world should act.

For 16 days athletes from countries involved in every single debacle in current geo-politics will live together, eat together, compete with each other and socialize with each other. And they will do all this peacefully.

They will understand the politics of the situation, but it won’t matter to them. An athlete is an athlete. Period. The end. What separates the winners from the losers is who has the most ability and has put in the most work. They respect that.

Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world, so instead of peace to all mankind, the Games will bring entertainment to all the minutes of my day, and the days of millions around the world. I will admit it, I am an Olympics junkie. I cannot get enough of the stuff, and thanks to NBC I will have the ability to overdose.

Like the 2004 summer Olympics, NBC and its affiliates will have 24 hour-a-day Olympic coverage. I can watch women’s moguls in the morning, Super G in the afternoon and even catch a little curling at night. And that is exactly what I plan on doing (I would like to take this time to apologize to all of my professors for my anticipated poor performance for the next two weeks).

I was a senior in high school during the 2002 winter Olympics, and had the Games lasted for four weeks instead of two, I may have spent 2003 in high school as well. I couldn’t resist the pull. I couldn’t resist watching Apollo Ohno tackle a South Korean and win his first Olympic gold, or staying up into the wee hours of the morning watching tape-delayed hockey games.

In 2004, the first Olympics that NBC covered the hell out of, I spent every second of my spare time watching the Games. At that time I was training for the Paralympics (a parallel Olympics for people with disabilities), and my daily routine went like this: train for Paralympics, watch Olympics, train some more for Paralympics, watch even more Olympics, sleep. The world was united in sport, all was good.

This year I took it a step further. I have actually marked events that I desperately have to see on my calendar. On the 12th, I must watch Shawn White shred in the pipe, and Ohno try his hand in the 1,500.

On the 16th, I have to catch some women’s skeleton, the 18th some men’s Super G (BODE-BODE-BODE), and, of course, the USA taking on Sweden in hockey on the 19th (I will be accompanied by some European friends who are bound to get on my nerves with their jibes about American hockey).

In my perfect world everybody would be as excited about the Olympics as I am. I’d have friends banging on my door every day wanting to chill and watch athletes do what they do best and rising above politics. In my imperfect world, I’m going to be watching a lot of TV. Adieu.

Josh George is a senior in communications. He can be reached at [email protected].