And so, a week into the Olympics, I’m watching them. A lot.

Talk about being a hypocrite. I said I would not watch the Olympics, even if everyone starting swimming naked. (Actually, I didn’t say that exactly. But I thought it. Here’s what I actually said.)

Well, if the Olympics are good enough for Kate Middleton and Sir Paul, they must be good enough for little ol’ me.

Now I do have poverty cable, which means I have 2.5 channels to flick through. When the Olympics are airing, you can bet there’s not many options for my viewing pleasure.

But the funny thing is, this year I’m totally into the Olympics. I have not been in TV exile. I have been ooohing and aaahing over the athleticism of the world’s top competitors.

The South Shore definitely had one great reason for watching the Olympics this year: Jenna Martin. She’s a hometown athlete who got to the semi-finals in the 400 metre event. And she’s awesome enough she was even in the Globe and Mail. Wow. Go Jenna.

She’s the FIRST Olympian to ever come out of Bridgewater. That in itself is pretty awesome and inspiring. And for her to get to the semi-finals?

Well, that makes the Olympics awesome even in itself.

Some of the other Olympic highlights I’ve enjoyed thus far:

Paula Findlay. Even though she knew she was going to come in last thanks to an old injury that kept her from training 100% last year, she still finished. In a world that has to test athletes for drugs, the fierceness of Paula to finish makes her an inspiration. I can’t wait to see her at the next Olympics so she gets her moment. And considering a year ago she was a favourite to win gold, I’m sure, in four years’ time, we’ll see it happen.

Michael Phelps. The arms on this man are MAGNIFICENT. And why shouldn’t they be? He won 22 medals in his career, 18 of them gold. I know he’s American, but how can you not be amazed by his sheer athleticism! Wowsers.

Rosie MacLennan. She kicked butt in trampoline. Which sounds really simple (if I can think about my childhood trampoline). The reality is, once you start watching these gymnasts jump and twirl and twist and flip, you’ll be amazed.  Rosie’s flawless performance earned her Canada’s first gold medal. Not to be outdone, her team mate scored fourth.

Ryan Cochrane. I don’t know if you swim 1500 metres in about 15 minutes, but Ryan did for the silver medal in the 1500 metre freestyle. Apparently this is a very gruelling test of endurance because your lungs want to kill you for putting them through such torture.  Watch this competition and you’ll get tired just watching the athletes swim. Oy vey!

And so, I HAVE been watching the Olympics. Maybe even enjoying them.

Shh. Don’t tell anyone.

My self-imposed TV exile

Let me begin by saying I hold nothing against the Olympics. I think that having the world’s best athletes converge on one spot for a bunch of competitions is AWESOME.

But oh, to watch competition after competition on TV.

Maybe it’s my fault for only having two channels. When you have but two channels, your viewing options are busted when there’s an election or the Olympics are happening. If I had satellite, I’m sure it wouldn’t be so tragic.

However, I have Farmer Vision, TFC—whatever you want to call it.

That means I get Global and CTV.

And so, with CTV now airing the Olympics, I’m cut down to one channel if I want to avoid anything sports related. (Maybe I’m just jealous because I’m not that athletic.)

For the next few weeks, the TV is going to be shut off a lot more than usual. There will be more reading. More writing. More random visits to Facebook.

Again, I think the Olympics are great. I just don’t want to watch the same thing over and over again on TV. And to me, not being a sports fan, all the events start looking the same to me.

I’d like to have more spirit, especially since local Jenna Martin is competing in some event. I’m not sure which event. All I know is that she is fit and trim like she was born in Sparta. Wow. These athletes work so hard to be in the Olympics: you can tell just from looking at them! They are crazy fit. No matter how much I swim this summer, I won’t look like that.

I guess I’m just a sports grinch. My brother was born with all of the sports genes, I think, given his penchant for cards, football, and all other things sports-related.

So for the next few weeks, the TV is going to be black. And I’m going to be fostering other interests.

Let the exile begin.