Los Juegos Olímpicos - While the Adventure Lasts

We were finally able to watch some swimming live last night. Apparently, swimming is not something Spain excels in, and it has not been featured much on the two main stations carrying the Olympics here. But Spain hasn’t been excelling at any sports this year. When an Olympic news round-up came on, there was one word I heard over and over: perdido, perdido, perdido.

We did catch the end of the Spain-Honduras soccer match, and although I couldn’t understand the Spanish announcer (and I don’t understand soccer in general), it was painfully obvious that the team was furious at the officials. And after having won the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship, this was a big loss for the Spanish team (though not the exact same players). From an English summation of the local news coverage:

“El Pais daily said the Olympic team’s performance in London, and the players’ behavior towards the match officials, had damaged the image of Spanish soccer.

“‘Football has never gone well with the Olympics, but with the soccer brand that currently sets the country apart it was the right time to return the sport to the summit it scaled in 1992,’ the paper wrote, a reference to the gold medal triumph at the Barcelona Games.

“‘But it not only fell off a cliff, it did so verging on the ridiculous against opponents of little pedigree like Japan and Honduras. A total failure.'”

Yikes. And Team Spain hasn’t done well in other sports (and Rafael Nadal pulled out of the Olympics with an injury). No medals for Spain yet in the medal count. Spain’s basketball team is still in it, though (Pau Gasol—so that’s who that enormously tall guy was carrying the flag for Spain in the opening ceremonies). Maybe Spanish TV will let us watch some basketball now.