Was that a leg cramp she was suffering, or the makings of new Olympic swimming sport?

All I have to say is thank God football is starting soon because it’s going to be my soft landing after my high of watching the Olympics. I’m going to say that this has been the best Olympics in my 60-plus years on Earth.

I’m awarding a gold in such categories as showmanship and to intriguing personalities. I’m now totally obsessed with U.S. women’s rugby player Ilona Maher. Furthermore, who knew there was women’s rugby? Count me in as a super fan. Metals should also go to riveting backstories and, of course, the competition.

But honestly, the actual competition/medal count took a backseat because there was so much else going on. I’m still laughing over Turkish pistol shooter Yusuf Dikec, who won a silver medal while looking like he ambled over to the competition after making a Costco run.

As much as people have disdain for social media, I think it elevated the Olympic experience. The memes alone of Dikec were hysterical. In fact, it was the memes that had me watching a “mixed team 10-meter air pistol shooting” competition.

I can guarantee you without social media there’s no way I would ever voluntarily watch air pistol shooting. But there I was, not just watching it but howling. This guy’s been competing at the Olympics since 2008, but thanks to the power of memes he’s now a superstar.

Another thing that increased my Olympic fever is being able to follow the athletes on social media. Many of the TikTok videos coming out of the Olympic Village were delightful. You had athletes like Simone Biles killing it on X and Instagram. I don’t know what was fiercer: her social media game or her signature vault.

But the best thing about the Olympics, at least for me, was that it made me delusional. The two areas where most of my “delulu” was focused was pretending to be an Olympic judge and an athlete.

I know I wasn’t the only one watching gymnastics and then questioning some of the scores and degrees of difficulty. Do I know anything about the “element group/compositional requirements” for the vault or uneven bars?

Of course not, but when I watch I’ve deluded myself into thinking I have a wide breadth of knowledge about things like balance beam dismounts.

The most embarrassing of my delusions was pretending to be an athlete. The good news was that this pretending happened in a pool so it was hard to tell what I was doing.

The top four choices to anyone watching me would be:

a. Am I swimming laps?

b. Am I doing my version of artistic swimming?

c. Do I have a really bad leg cramp?

d. Have I invented a new Olympic sport called artistic lap swimming?

The correct answer is d. I came up with this “sport” while thinking about harnessing the swimming power of 14-time Olympic medal winner Katie Ledecky with the dance moves of the artistic swimmer.

This epiphany occurred to me while I was pretending to be Ledecky while “racing” what looked to be an 8-year-old girl in the next lane.

After losing to the child I was emboldened to give “artistic lap swimming” a try by adding a “ballet leg” while doing the backstroke.

I thought I looked great until the child swimming next to me (yes, still the 8-year-old) asked me if I was “drowning.”

I smiled and said no while my ballet leg now hovered at half mast. I realized I most certainly could have explained what I was doing but hey, I’m a future Olympian in training. So, I don’t really have that kind of time.

Reach Sherry Kuehl at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com, on Facebook at Snarky in the Suburbs, on Twitter at @snarkynsuburbs on Instagram @snarky.in.the.suburbs, and snarkyinthesuburbs.com.