I know I have like 0 interest in the olympics. Whenever it rolls around, I'll pay attention for maybe 20 minutes max.

Why? Several reasons:

1) Because its taped delayed and I know the results like 8 hours before I see it on TV.

2) Because like 90% of the events are of sports I've never heard of or they aren't sports that I follow anyways

3) Because I know nothing about the athletes that are competing; with the exception of which country they're from, and only because there will be a giant USA or something on their uniforms.

Who here has a geniune interest in the olympics and can't wait for it to start? And why?

I usually watch some of the opening ceremony but thats about it.

I watch it. I don't know the athletes but I like the general scope of this event. Besides, I was a volunteer and got to live the whole thing pretty well giving me even a greater enthousiasm about the Olympics.

I love the olympics.

The reason being is i am very athletic and i like to see how well the worlds best perform compared to me.
I just fnd it interesting and i love ut when my country brings the gold home

For summer Olympics, I have next to no interest. For the winter Olympics, I do tune in to Snowboarding events, alpine skiing events and speed skating. My interest is irrelevant to Canada's performance in those events.

I love the Winter Olympics, and I barely ever watch the summer Olympics.

The only thing, is they have such a bad schedule, so I miss half the events I want to watch. Figure Skating typically gets the prime tv spots, and I absolutely hate it.

Typically I watch (if I can)
all downhill skiing events
ski jumping
hockey
curling
ice skating (racing, not figure)
whatever the cross country ski/shoot competition is called.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biathlon

I will probably watch the opening and ending of the ceremony and I will be supporting over their for the young Belgian football/soccer team (It is quite special that you know one of the soccer players as a friend =p;)

 Yea... I couldn't remember if there was a 3rd component or not, and also if there was a specific name for it.

Of course I watch both events (winter&summer). Of course winter olympics are more interesting because we have more chances get medals.