i take taekwondo. i’ve written more than a few entries about it. not just my own participation though, i’ve also written about the exploits of other students from my own school.

i know. taekwondo. it’s not exactly mainstream.

i don’t care. it’s fun. pretty to watch, especially since i’m somewhat ‘in the know’ as a redbelt.

yeah, i started to lose a little weight. i’ve had a bunch of other benefits though. made a bunch of friends. done some traveling. get to play dodgeball, and other sports with a bunch of little kids. the list goes on. camping. walk for life. there’s more.

but still. let’s face it, taekwondo is NOT mainstream.

as the olympics approach. i’d like to drawq the attention of some of my readers to a whole host of non mainstream sports. somebody loves each one. i like a lot of them, but only to watch. and have even tried a couple.

first. of course is taekwondo. it IS an olympic sport. those of you who have been over to my house have seen videos. those of you who would like to see one, drop me a line. i’ll have to find a way to get an mpeg to you.

soccer. the rest of the world calls it football. but soccer it is. yeah yeah. i’m the ugly american. it’s soccer. but there is a ferocious partisanship to this sport almost equal to oklahoma sooners football. (real football).

i sat in a bar in palau, italy watching the 94 world cup, and cheering for ireland very quietly. i’m almost half irish after all. but the irish were playing italy. and i was in italy.

we had to go to another bar.

and being that the other half of me is swiss, i’m especially fond of the picture of the fans at right.

but the brit soccer fans are the most psycho. we call them soccer hooligans. they do tend to get in a fight or two whenever they go to a game. the italian police waded into the stands a few years back in rome and took some batons to the hooligans. this was the prelude to their treatment of the wmf conference in rome. little practice i think. the english didn’t get into a ruckus after the match that day.

and by the way. why the hell does england and scotland get a team in the world cup? the uk is one country. they want to play that game? we should get 50!

yeah, they have all of the sports apparel going on over there as well. check out the shorts that one girl has.

i myself have an official team jersey from ajax. and for us non-dutch, that’s pronounced eye-yacks. i picked that team at random in 92 as my favorite soccer team when i first got to spain.

when i was on the bruinvis, a dutch submarine. i was immediately hurled into partisan football camps. seems the feynoord supporters have it especially bad for ajax.

i got along ok. although many dutch wanted to know how i even knew about ajax.

but there are even more sports. i usually only watch them during the olympics. some of them i’m a bit sexist about and only watch a specific gender. sue me.

here is a nice list
1. taekwondo, i’ll watch any tv coverage we get!
2. soccer. i’ll watch both sexes, and cheer for us, the swiss, and the irish. and well, maybe the swedish and australian girls.
3. gymnastics. i only watch the girls here. i saw the russian guys kissing each other once. no more for them! ah, but svetlana boginskaya…. she was a gymnast!
4. basketball. i know, mainstream. i’ll only watch the guys. and not much of that.
5. swimming. i’ll only watch the girls here. maybe some of the men’s relays, but that’s it.
6. track and field. don’t really think i’ll watch any of it, except for some of the long distance races. and maybe 8 and 9.
7. baseball. again, it’s mainstream. can’t imagine watching very much of this.
8. pentathalon. yep. i’ll watch.
9. decathalon. i’ll watch this too.
10. wrestling. nope.
11. boxing. nope.
12. trampoline. no shit, this was an exhibition in sydney and well, i may just watch the girls jumping on trampolines. 🙂

i’m sure there are a few more. it’s just too late, and well, my mind is elsewhere right now.

so this fall, when the summer olympics start in athens. watch those low frequency sports. some of them are very interesting.

i love sports!