So Many Events, So Little Time

    So, you are going to the Olympics.  Now you just need tickets to some events, but not just any events.  There are 36 different sports in the modern games, over 60 if you consider men's and women's as different sports (thankfully, no women's Greco Roman wrestling or men's synchronized swimming or rhythmic gymnastics).  And of course, there are multiple events in many of the sports.  And everything occurs within 14 days.  Choosing the events to see proved a daunting task given the window of opportunity allotted to the U.S. market, the demand for the popular sports and the distances involved between venues (more on that in another post).
    Track and field (athletics) was the first priority.  Several days inside the new stadium watching the best athletics would make a great Olympics.  That was the plan until discovering that a 4-hour seat in the stadium cost $894, even for prelims (don't tell my wife).  So that was one ticket.  That will be on the evening of August 8 with some good events, men's 200 semis, women's 200 final, men's hurdles final, final events of thee decathalon and more.  Next up were swimming, gymnastics, equestrian, cycling and boxing.  Surprise, surprise, no tickets were available, probably scarfed up while figuring out which track and field event to select.  So it was on to other choices.  Fortunately, more tickets became available on subsequent dates, including as late as last week.
     In the end it's a pretty good selection of events, with track and field and a semi-final football (aka soccer) match in Wembley Stadium -- archery, men's basketball (prelim), volleyball, slalom canoe (white water), badminton, rowing, water polo, field hockey, beach volleyball, handball, football, wrestling, dressage and track and field.