Ready or not, the Summer Olympics are finally coming!

Still branded as the 2020 Games, the 29th installment of the summer athletic spectacle is set to begin this weekend in Tokyo after being postponed from last year due to the circumstances of the pandemic. As to whether or not the Games SHOULD be going forward, well … that’s a complicated question. But, from where we sit as I write this introduction, mere days before the opening ceremonies, it certainly seems that they are going forward.

Now, as someone who is a fairly well-informed general sports fan, I possess a certain degree of Olympic awareness – more than most, I’d wager. However, that awareness is hardly enough for me to be able to give you any sort of reasoned analysis about the Games. I certainly won’t be able to give you an accurate prediction with regard to who might medal.

So I thought instead, why not share a collection of fun tidbits and trivia about assorted Olympic sports as a way to look forward to the next couple of weeks of athletic excellence? There’s stuff here from the distant and not-so-distant past, as well as some talk about what’s happening this time around.

I also dug around and found a few Maine connections to the Summer Games – there aren’t quite as many as we find in the Winter edition, for obvious reasons, but you might be surprised at some of the fun connections to the Pine Tree State.

And really, while this is the culmination of a lifetime for these competitors, for us – the people at home – the fun is what it’s all about.

I love the Olympics.

There’s something so captivating about watching someone at the peak of their performance do what it is that they do best. This notion of being recognized as the literal best in the world at something – fascinating.

And that’s what the Olympics do. They celebrate the glory of athletic achievement (as well as nationalistic jingoism and bureaucratic graft, but still).

There’s more to the Olympics than the winners, however. For every famous gold medalist’s face gracing a Wheaties box, there are scores of stories of those who were just as excellent, yet now linter in obscurity. Not to mention those who, for whatever reason, never quite reached the same iconic pinnacle. And just like anything that has been around for more than a century (or centuries, if you start counting from its Greek origins), a lot has changed – both good and bad.

These are the sorts of stories that you’ll find in Jeremy Fuchs’s new book “Total Olympics: Every Obscure, Hilarious, Dramatic and Inspiring Tale Worth Knowing” (Workman Publishing, $22.95). Yes, you’ll get stories of the giants of various eras – Jim Thorpe, Jesse Owens, Mark Spitz, Mary Lou Retton, Michael Phelps – but you’ll also be reminded of (or learn for the first time) names of exceptional athletes with less longstanding cultural resonance.

In addition, Fuchs has brought forward numerous tales of Olympic history, digging into some of the behind-the-scenes chicanery that came with hosting the event and revisiting some of the wild and weird competitions that were once part of the proceedings.

It’s a compact and fun trip through the history of the Games, a catch-all of trivia, biographical sketches and fascinating forgotten moments. Anyone with affection for the Olympics will find plenty to enjoy in these pages.

Every four years, the world watches as its greatest athletes compete on the global stage. Elite performers from all over converge on a single place in an effort to excel in the name of Olympic gold.

But what happens to these athletes after the cheering stops? Is the price paid to reach the pinnacle too high?

That’s the fundamental question behind “The Weight of Gold,” a new documentary from HBO Sports. In it, filmmaker Brett Rapkin speaks to a number of American Olympians – both Summer and Winter – about the toll their respective quests for excellence took on them. Even the most successful among them had their share of struggles … and for too many, the tale took a tragic turn.

The film – narrated by legendary swimmer Michael Phelps (a featured interviewee and an executive producer on the project as well) – brings together new interviews and archival footage to offer a look into the sacrifices these athletes make to reach the top and the aftermath through which they must navigate after the spotlight fades.

It's too easy to take potshots at this year's incarnation of the Olympics Games. The Zika, the air and water pollution, the body parts washing up on shore - the punchlines are there to be had for even the worst late-night staff writer. And I have long held the opinion that the Olympics are the longest running and most boring reality television series in the history.