Mary Lou & Matt

During the 1984 Olympics I remember reading an article in Sports Illustrated about American gymnast Mary Lou Retton arriving in Los Angeles and driving through the city hoping to spot Matt Dillon.  I immediately liked her. I also was a huge fan of Matt Dillon & was jealous of the fact that she might actually catch a glimpse of him walking down the street in L.A.   Mary Lou went on to win the gold medal in the All-Around competition of women’s gymnastics.  She was the only American ever to accomplish this.  I hope that’s not a question in the trivia portion of our Shenanigan Olympics since I just gave away the answer.   Anyway, Mary Lou was so much fun to watch in those Olympics.  She was small, but very powerful, which I admired being a gymnast myself, although I was too tall and lanky to be any good.  My claim to fame came when I beat my older sister on the beam in a high school meet.   She was a way better gymnast than I was, but not on that day! Robin claims she fell off the beam a few times during her routine causing extra deductions to her score, but that’s not how I remember it!  Pretty sad that that one 90 second beam routine was my one moment of gymnastics glory, but they say gymnastics is the original extreme sport and I’m happy to have been a part of the “Gymnastics World “for most of my youth. (Shout out!) I’ll be looking for Mary Lou in London.  I need to ask her if she ever spotted Matt Dillon.

London through red, white, and blue tinted lenses

I have to agree with my sister that my first Olympic memory was our dad listening to radio broadcasts before the television broadcast that evening, and predicting that Debi Thomas fell, allowing Katarina Witt, from a communist country, to win in 1988. Although it bears noting that one of us must have stuck Sarajevo 1984 stickers all over our Electrolux vaccuum sweeper that was still rocking out with those stickers over 10 years later. We were clearly engaged that year, even if we don't remember. Lara omitted in her launch post that our favorite thing to do during the Olympics was to calculate scores (drop the high and low, average the rest). Mom and Dad would patiently encourage us to share the calculator, and if we fought too much, the machine would get confiscated. I know, I know, you're wishing you grew up in a nerd household, too. Thank God we both have our own calculators these days. That's one less thing for us to fight about at the games.

Our family loves the Olympics, if for no reason other than it gives us a reason to cheer for the USA unabashedly, without reserve, for a few short weeks every few years (not that the Christensons ever need a reason to be proud of our country!). I spent three days in 2004 after grad school glued to the TV during men's gymnastics. I was obsessed with Michael Phelps in 2008. I haven't decided yet who or what to be obsessed with for this summer games, but I am going to DVR enough human interest stories to make sure I find a good one. I love celebrating the exceptional achievements of my fellow men.

I was the "late add" to the Olympics-bound group, and I've already been to London three times before, so I'm planning to put on an entirely different set of glasses this trip. My Olympic glasses, which unsurprisingly, are red, white, and blue. I'm also bringing my Canon 60D with me, and I'm hoping to break my habit of avoiding photos of people at all costs (literally, I am the girl who will wait 15 minutes for people to get out of my way, and give them dirty looks to move them along to save time). I want to take pictures of fans from around the world. I want to look at London in a different way, and photograph in a different way. And I hope to put some of those results on this blog.

My cowboy hat has been brushed off. My Flag game face tattoos have been ordered. Fun Cups with American flags on them have been packed. I am not entirely certain that London is ready for the American invasion of two Christensons.

My Olympic Dream

My first real and specific memory of the Olympics was watching Debi Thomas whiff it in the 1988 Calgary Games versus the evil commie ice skating queen, Katarina Witt, as my father taunted me and my sister mercilessly, a memory I will cherish always.  I used to dream about competing in the Olympics, and then later, when I realized that I was a shit athlete, I gave up THAT dream, and instead focused my energy on one I COULD attain-simply attending the Olympics.  But I always thought that only rich people went to the Olympics, and it turns out...that is actually true.  Only rich people can go to the Olympics, stay in a marginally nice hotel, eat meals that don't involve the words "granola" or "bar" and run up high roller tabs in fabulously fun bars.  Instead, in this blog, we will be telling the story of 4 women who are NOT rich and whose Olympic adventure will no doubt be more entertaining and spellbinding than from someone who can actually afford the bottled water they're selling in the Olympic Village.

We'd love for you to follow us as we go on our bold journey of seeing as many events as possible for as little money as possible, shamelessly attempting to get Bob Costas' attention and convince him to take us to Sochi as social correspondents, and drinking our way through the finest ale London has to offer.

The 2012 London Olympics will be adding a new event-Shenanigans.  There are 5 events, and there will be medalists in each event, and one overall champion.  The events are:

-Olympic Trivia Challenge
-Drinking Points (number of drinks per day=number of points, double points for each drink before noon)
-Sprint Drinking (number of drinks in an allotted period of time)
-Costume
-Fun

Fun points are to be awarded randomly by each competitor throughout the Olympics.  The costume judge has yet to be determined, but we'd love if Bob Costas would do a guest judging stint, like Rachel Roy on Project Runway.  We'll post the results each day so that you can follow your favorite non-Olympian in this event and cheer them on to victory!