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.

Last up (fittingly): Last-Place Finishes.

Canada kept it close, but once again, the host nation China has outclassed every single country — in last-place finishes. There’s a fantastic blog called DFL that keeps track of last-place finishes at the Olympics, and Canada came up big this year with eight dead-lasts. China finished with fourteen.

You can laugh all you want, but finishing in last place is no laughing matter. The fact is, not only are these athletes representing their country on the biggest stage — and you’re sitting in your underwear watching them on TV — but they also finish what they started. The DFL listings do not include athletes who do not complete their events. From the FAQ:

“Better DFL than DNF,” someone once told me — the implication being that it’s better to finish last, so long as you finish. Those that came last were at least able to put a mark on the board — a mark that we can compare ourselves (and the gold-medal winner’s results) against. We’re celebrating the last-place finish, not searching for the athlete most deserving of our derision.

Again, it may seem ridiculous, but celebrating last-place finishes is important because we’re celebrating the worst of the best, which is always better than celebrating the best of the worst. Like the blog says, “they’re there, and you’re not.”