5 Olympic Events No One is Watching (But Should Be)

We'll admit that we get a tear in our eye every time the TV cuts to a commercial and our screen lights up with the faces of U.S. Olympic athletes. We don't care that they're trying to sell us a cheeseburger or a bank account -- we feel automatic pride in anyone trying to bring home the gold for the U.S.

After a little research though, we realized that there are so many U.S. athletes not getting our support. We're talking about the trampolining or Pentathlon athletes that we have never even heard of, and that's just not fair. Here are five Summer Olympics sports that you'll have a hard time finding on TV.

1. Trampolining. This sport is a member of the gymnastics club, and it is exactly what it sounds like: A gymnast gets on a trampoline, jumps and does tricks in the air. It may not be the most fascinating thing to watch, which is probably why they conveniently forget to mention it during any television coverage, but those guys and girls get up on the trampoline and give it their all, which is why you should start tweeting about the USA trampolining team until your friends start to complain.

2. Modern Pentathlon. Move over, Michael Phelps and Lolo Jones, this is one sport where the competitor doesn't do just one thing -- they do FIVE. Modern Pentathlon athletes (we don't know how to pronounce "Pentathlon" either) have to swim, run, horseback ride, shoot and fence their way to the gold. No wonder this isn't a popular sport; it puts all other athletes to shame!

3. Handball. At first we though handball was the sport with the pole, string and ball at the end. After further investigation, however, we realized that it's just a sport where a ball gets passed around until it's in the goal. It's like every other sport out there! We were slightly disappointed, but this has fueled us to start a campaign to get tetherball into the Olympics.

4. Kayaking. Believe it or not, but Team USA is not the leading gold medal holders in kayaking. In fact, we're not even in the top 10. But we think all that could change if everyone who reads this article (all five of you) started to spread the word on the [insert convincing adjective here] in London.

5. Table Tennis. Regular tennis is boring as all get-out to watch, but table tennis is a whole different ball game. It's fast-paced and keeps you on your toes the whole time you're watching. Its a nerd's sport because it requires very little movement farther then a 4-foot-wide table, and you should see the characters -- we mean Olympians --that play table tennis.

Contributed by Sara Johnson