The only 'spectacular' Olympics in the last 20 years-Barcelona 1992; Lillehammer 1994; Sydney 2000. Sydney was obviously the best of the three, but Barcelona 'saved' the Olympics.
I only remember starting with Sydney, and my memories of that are very fond. It seemed like the Aussies really cared, and for the most part filled up the stands. Salt Lake was good as well, the last two Olympics have been lacking however.
I think the Athens Olympics had its moments: the shot put at the site of the ancient Olympics is one that comes to mind. It seemed to me like the Greeks were into the Games as well.
I just remember seeing lots of empty seats everywhere.
This Olympics will probably go down more in negative history for the USA, in terms of what could have been. Compared with the excitement of 2002, we bombed in figure skating. Hockey was nearly as bad as Nagano, no where near as good as Salt Lake. Bode will take a lot of heat for many months to come, much of it undeserved. Jacobellis will probably be remembered the most, and Leon Lett probably has a large check in the mail made out to her. The Hedrick-Davis feud won't last for very long, because there are Olympic feuds, and then there is Harding-Kerrigan, and if it's not Harding-Kerrigan, it's not going to be remembered. In terms of the marquee events, the Americans failed, but when it comes to Olympics, we don't really remember failure, we'd rather just reminisce about the USA-Soviet hockey game.
