I’m not a big sports fan, but for some reason I love watching the Olympics.

Maybe it’s because of the prestige. Maybe it’s because the events are much shorter. Maybe it’s because gymnasts and swimmers are hot.

My favorite Olympic sport to watch is men’s gymnastics. Male gymnasts are short and built. Unfortunately, both Hamm brothers are injured and neither is competing this year. I miss them. But I like watching women’s gymnastics as well. A woman performing on the balance beam is the most astonishing thing. I don’t know how she can leap up off the beam, do a 360-degree backflip, and then land right back on the beam. Mesmerizing.

As for swimming — what an amazing men’s relay last night. It was the kind of moment that makes the Olympics worth watching. Those last few seconds, where Jason Lezak, the American swimmer, overtook French swimmer Alain Bernard in the very next lane to win the relay for the American team, after Bernard had trash-talked the Americans, were INCREDIBLE.

Even crazier was Michael Phelps’s reaction.

It both cracked me up and terrified me. He looked like a Greek warrior ready to rush into battle and kill someone. Testosterone overload! And the man has not an ounce of fat on his body.

(Here’s a great article about Phelps from a couple of weeks ago that begins, “Michael Phelps is not a fish.”)

Oh, and there’s this French swimmer, Laure Manaudou. Whenever they mention her name, I start singing “Manaudou” to the tune of “Xanadu.”

The best part of watching the Olympics is that everything looks incredible on the new HDTV we bought a couple of months ago. We can see the water droplets on the swimmers as they’re being interviewed, we can see panoramic shots of Beijing. It’s great.