Ever since the opening night, we have finished every evening watching the 2010 Winter Olympics. All of us have been so engrossed that even the expected whiny request to watch kid shows has been replaced with, “are the Olympics on tonight?”

Darling D pops some popcorn and we watch together as long as I dare to allow the children to stay up way past their 7pm bedtime. I push all fears aside and just hope for the best come the next morning that everyone will wake up with happy faces.

I actually like that the Olympics are being shown at a somewhat reasonable hour rather than the after 11pm replays that were done for the summer Olympics. The kids are getting a chance to see different sports performed and have become fans of a few of the athletes. River runs around the house shouting “USA,” and stops quickly in front of the screen anytime Shaun White readies for competition. He watched an interview with him on 60 Minutes and was hooked. I’m not sure how snowboarding ever sneaked into the Olympics, but I will say that it is an exciting sport to watch.

I found myself watching the end of the men’s Cross-Country Skiing. Sweden’s Marcus Hellner crossed the finish line completing one hour 15min 11.4 seconds of which I caught the last ten minutes of and I was yelling at the screen. It was so close, but he held onto to win. I was tired just watching him. Yes, I routed for another country. You just have to appreciate the endurance, commitment, and ability of a good athlete.

This year, my usual enthusiasm with the figure skating competition has been replaced with my “can’t get enough of the speed skating” fever; short and long distance. I remember watching and being excited by the speed of Eric Heiden even though I wasn’t much of a fan then. In 2006, Apollo Ohno got me going and this year isn’t any different. He seems to be a little less cocky and a lot more humble, relaxed, and a more seasoned skater. It makes him more exciting to watch now.

The skating competition this weekend of the 1,000-Meter Short Track was just too much. The qualifying runs were nail biting because loosing the “trial” or qualifying race could ruin ones chance to compete in the final competition. Yes, I was still yelling at the screen. Although Ohno came in third winning a bronze, he becomes the most decorated US Winter Olympian ever. I will hand it to the Koreans because the way they came to the front of the pack to win was incredible.

The only thing that was causing me to scratch my head ever since I saw him do it was, “Why was Apollo Ohno yawning?” I mean, I know he’s good and everything, but it just didn’t look right yawning before such an important race. I wondered because he did it more than once and before more than one race.

So if you’ve ever seen him yawn right before a race and figured he was either bored, not serious, or created any other logic you could come up with, then here is the real reason. Supposedly “yawning lets extra oxygen into his lungs in the seconds before bursting across the ice.” In his own words, “It makes me feel better,” he said. “It gets the oxygen in and the nerves out.” Who would have thought? I think I’ll try that before my next morning run.

Have you been able to stick with the Olympics over the past week? Has any sport sparked a new interest in you?