For years, my interest in the Olympics has been tangential: I’ve been excited to hear about world records and great achievements, but haven’t actually been interested in watching the Games themselves.

This year, I’m completely entranced by the Olympics in Beijing.

I’m not quite sure what caused this shift, but rarely have I been so enthralled by a major sporting event that wasn’t the Super Bowl or the World Cup. Over the past few days, I’ve been looking at some of the things that really caught my eye at the Olympics in 2008.

Next up: Gymnastics.

If there’s one thing that is guaranteed to catch my attention, it’s controversy. This year, the gymnastics at the Olympics have been rife full of controversy, and it has been captivating.

By now, it’s pretty evident that some of the Chinese gymnasts are much younger than the minimum age of 16 years old. The Chinese attempt to hide it by deleting documents and forging passports is doing nothing but making it worse. Time to fess up, China.

I won’t even talk about the ridiculousness of the judging or the absurd tie-break procedures — or the fact that Nastia Liukin was robbed — but this year’s gymnastics has been rife with controversy, and because of that, the competition has been extremely compelling.

Oh, and the highlight of my Olympic viewing experience? Shawn Johnson’s huge smile as she won the gold medal on the beam. I’ve never seen someone that happy and truly appreciative of their experience. Awesome.

Does controversy make you more interested in an event, or is it bad for sports in general?