Today's Topic: Rediscovering the Summer Olympics

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I’m told the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics are going on today in London.

Full disclosure, I haven’t been the most enthusiastic Summer Games viewer the past three decades.

Oh, I’ve always been into the Winter Games, thanks largely to hockey, downhill skiing and curling. (OK, some sweeping humor there. I watch curling to laugh -- but at least I watch.)

The USA hockey team’s Miracle On Ice in 1980 remains the greatest sports achievement I’ve witnessed.

But the Summer Games? Let's just say I joined the U.S. boycott for the 1980 Moscow Games and really never went back.

Sure, it was hard to ignore completely the ’84 Games in Los Angeles. But with the Soviet Union boycotting, the competition was between all of the world’s best athletes.

I worked at United Press International during the ‘88 Seoul Games and was among the staff on the desk in NYC.  Other than 100-meters winner Ben Johnson failing a drug test, I don’t recall much about the two weeks.

The Dream Team’s participation in basketball at the ‘92 Barcelona Games excited many Americans and NBA fans, though I didn’t really care to watch a dominant team live up to expectations.

I certainly recall Muhammad Ali lighting the torch at Atlanta in ’96, when the Games were overshadowed by the Centennial Park bombing that killed  two people.

I’m sure the Summer Games of 2000 in Sydney, 2004 in Greece and 2008 in Beijing had their thrilling moments, but I missed them.

This time around, however, I’m going to give the London Games a chance.

Yeah, NBC doesn’t make it easy with its schedule, but I’ll watch anyway.

It’s not like controversies that jaded me during the past 30 years began in 1980. Most notably there were Adolph Hitler’s treatment of Jesse Owens in 1936 and the kidnapping and massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972.

But the ’72 Games also had swimmer Mark Spitz and his seven gold medals.

There was Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon in ’76 at Montreal.

Gymnasts Olga Korbut (’72) and Nadia Comaneci (’76), from the Soviet Union and Romania, respectively, provided memorable moments.

I also really enjoyed watching boxing, especially when Cuba’s Teofilo Stevenson was winning two of his three gold medals in the heavyweight class. (His third came in Moscow.)

Yeah, I ready to give the Summer Games another try. Besides, my girlfriend enjoys them. Who am I to argue? J