Around the time I was beginning to understand the importance of the Olympic games, the great track star Carl Lewis was the biggest name on the block. I tuned in daily to the 1988 Olympics to see Lewis win his sixth career gold medal.

How sweet. How tear jerking. A young American inspired by one of his countrymen. It is the sort of story “Little House on the Prairie” and actor Michael London were great at. But hold on a second. Lewis’ epic run of glory ended rather bluntly. Let’s just say, like so many before and after him, Lewis thought he was more than just a track star. He attempted to belt the national anthem with sweet harmonies, but what occurred that night at a New Jersey Nets basketball game against Michael Jordan’s Bulls was downright deflating. The man was a miserable uneventful singer who gave Roseanne freaking Barr a solid run for her money.

I learned a good lesson that day: Do what you’re best at. If you don’t you look worse than a woman with the eyebrows of a broom.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kU9XwcOIfI

Or

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2BYd3c90w

?

And then I couldn’t leave this one out because it makes my point even more. Cuba Gooding Sr thinks he’s more than just the father of his famous son. Think again Sr.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoraafZyJmU

I tuned in last night to watch the gazelle of a sprinter, Usain Bolt, glide to his record breaking gold in the 100 – meter sprint. The Jamaican moved with the softness of a feather over the course; his body built by bricks; the man adorned with the physique of a Roman God. Here’s to hoping he sticks to running and not some makeshift rap or r&b career. With a rock star name like Usain Bolt anything is possible, and that’s what scares me.

In this ESPN.com piece, celebrated swimmer, Ryan Lochte helps unveil the truth about the abundance of salmon at the Olympic games.

“My last olympics, I had a girlfriend — big mistake,” Lochte said in the ESPN article. “Now I’m single. So London should be really good. I’m excited,” flirted the swimming star, who earlier this week blew America’s shot at gold in the 400 Freestyle relay. His counterpart, Phelps, put the team in cruise control for the win in the middle leg. Lochte looked flat, worn out and exhausted, losing a shot at gold in the final lap.

It seems there is more going on here than just locker room beef between Phelps and Lochte and we absolutely cannot blame the old Mary Jane for our downfall into a silver finishing swim team. What is happening here is an extracurricular exercise with the power to control minds and move mountains.

How do we reconcile sweet efforting athletes like gold winning female gymnast, Jordyn Wieber…..

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bJ7tYTB4-Y

…. with 2000 U.S rifle team member John Lakatos and his saucy stories about sex and debauchery?

“The next morning [After a drunken night],” Lakatos says, “swear to God the entire 4×100 team of some Scandanavian-looking country walks out of a house, followed by boys from our side. And I’m just going ‘Holy crap,’ we’d watched these girls run the night before.”

This all is beginning to make more sense. Current U.S basketball star Kobe Bryant is 34, a 16-year senior to most of the worlds competing game members.  He’s in a completely different generation and now, at 34, has kids, an ex-wife, hundreds of millions of dollars, mansions, pent houses, an entourage and a trademarked capital element to his name alone.

But Ryan Lochte, Michael Phelps and even sweet souls like Jordyn Wieber are kids with a ravenous river of hormones rushing through their bodies. While Bryant is figuring out how to pay off his beautiful wife half of his enormous estate, Phelps is smoking a doobie poolside at his parents house, playing a first person shooter and checking Facebook for updates. Wieber just got her license.

I would wager to say most of us as Americans define our Olympic experience by our most popular sports, making Kobe Bryant and 27 year old LeBron James the perceived prototype of our American athlete. Lending some from of understanding for kids making mistakes on the largest stage isn’t even in the back of our minds, it’s non-existant. If Bryant and James are focused solely on winning gold, shouldn’t everyone else be?

Well…do you remember when you were 16, 17 and 18 ? I couldn’t be at a beach without fantasizing. Shoot I couldn’t be in church without imaginations swirling through me. That was just the way it was. I would have pickled my left pinky toe and sold it to a Bolivian marketplace for a chance at exploitation. Just sayin’. So while we hope our team wins gold, might I remind you just how young these athletes really are: They’re winning gold in other less popular ways.