The biggest appeal of the Olympics is that the gold medal is the top achievement in most of the sports. There are some exceptions, such as basketball, soccer and tennis, but many sports are watched because athletes train for years for a medal. Two sports that I never had interest in caught my eye this weekend. I would only watch both sports during the Olympics and they are much more entertaining than dreaded equestrian.

Archery: I watched the men’s team archery final on Saturday. It looks like an easy sport until you see how far they are standing from the target. Team archery was very interesting and was actually nervous when the USA took on Italy in the final. I was rooting for the USA of course, but give the overweight Italian credit for getting a bullseye to win a gold medal.

Fencing: An odd sport with a strategy I don’t understand. The competitors wear a lot of protective gear and their helmets light up so the crowd knows who made contact with their opponent first. The best part of the sport is when both athletes celebrate and try to sell to the referee that they should get the point. In the fencing I saw, the Italian women swept the medals.