Believe the hype, part II

If you haven't been following the 2008 Summer Olympics, you're missing out.

I'm actually surprised how much I've gotten into them -- especially the Michael Phelps milestone.

I've never seen anything like that in the Olympics in my lifetime. When Mark Spitz set his record of seven gold medals, I was only a few months old.

My co-workers have been suffering through my fixation not just on Phelps, but all of the Olympic events. It's like this: The Cleveland Cavaliers choked in the playoffs, the Cleveland Indians are in the toilet, my beloved Cleveland Browns have already lost their first preseason game and UNC Tar Heel men's basketball hasn't gotten cranked up yet.

For a sports fan like me, the Olympics are all I've got right now, and it was so easy to get sucked into the Phelps Phever. Sure, he's a Baltimore Ravens and Michigan Wolverines fan, but he was representing all of the USA in the Olympics and I, like so many others, couldn't be prouder.

It's also easy for me to relate to how excited Phelps' sisters are about his achievement. I've got a great kid brother, too, after all! Jim doesn't have any gold medals, but he holds some patents, and I think he worked just as hard to get them.

There are so many other great stories in these Olympics, too. Take Cullen Jones, for example, who shares a gold medal with Phelps. He's an N.C. State grad, like my brother. His father died when he was 16 and he seems to live to make his family proud. And, he's started an effort to take more people in the black community to learn how to swim to keep from drowning. According to his bio: "The fact that African-Americans are three times more likely to drown than any other race is a statistic that Jones wants to change."

Another swimming hero: Dara Torres. So much has been made of her age at this level of competition, but she truly is an inspiration. And she's been so gracious to her teammates and competitors alike.

Like Torres, 33-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Germany and 38-year-old Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania have moved me, too. They give me hope that it's not too late for me to get in shape.

I'm not gonna lie. Like the women in charge of the Web site GoFugYourself.com, I've also been gawking openly at the U.S. athletes' bodies. Phelps and all of his teammates have fabulous abs. Our gymnasts strike the perfect balance of being lithe and strong. Our track and field athletes have that explosive quad strength I can only dream of.

And if only I was pushing 7 feet tall instead of 5 feet, had some phenomenal skill and the discipline to get and remain in peak physical form, maybe I could be as buff as U.S. beach volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. Even if I got in the best shape in my life, though, I don't think I'll ever be as confident as they are to wear white bikinis in public.

Anyway, I encourage everyone to catch some of the Olympic games before they're over. Even if you don't think the sports themselves compelling, many of the athletes definitely are.

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