Wow! Those were quite the Olympics. The past two nights I've just kind of stared at my blank TV wondering where all the volleyball highlights were. Thankfully, American's who thought they couldn't get enough of Misty May-Treanor will get to see her chasse on the new season of Dancing With the Stars!
Since Sunday's Closing Ceremonies, a few questions have been on my mind (other than what the point of interviewing Michael Phelps in London was. Did anyone get anything out of that other than to confirm that there is in fact a British equivalent to Ryan Seacrest? Lucky them...). Looking forward to London in 2012...
1) How can London top Beijing's Opening Ceremonies? Aside from raising King Arthur from the dead and having him pull Excalibur out of a stone before using it to light the torch, I'm not sure we're going to see an Opening Ceremony like that again. If London's bit during the Closing Ceremonies was any indication, they're going to rely on a theme of "China's show may have been exotic, incredibly choreographed and awesomely inventive, but we have celebrities you recognize." Although Beijing did have Jackie Chan singing on Sunday!
2) What will the featured events be for the Brits? After 2004, China made a concentrated effort to focus on gymnastics, diving, table tennis and badminton...and it paid off in a huge gold medal haul. But the UK cleaned up in track cycling, they're definitely going to want to do well in soccer, and I'm sure they'll be a factor in rowing. If you go to the London venue page, they are hyping the velodrome and its 6,000 seats. Great news for cycling fans.
3) Will there be any new events? BMX and open water swimming had pretty exciting debuts. I've heard rumblings that golf and squash are on the list. Anybody know of anything else? I imagine darts would be a great sport to debut in London.
4) Speaking of open water swimming, I wonder where it will be held. The Thames? Maybe 10K out from the city in the English Channel and just have the athletes swim in? OK, probably not.
5) Will the pool be as fast as Beijing's? A majority of swimming races at these past games saw world records set. A majority of those had more than one person or relay team surpass the existing w.r. Sure the LZR suits helped, but there was no doubt that Beijing built a fast pool. I imagine London will look to do something similar.
6) Can the U.S. track team get back on track? Granted, on paper they did pretty well. But to track aficionados (and NBC studio hosts) we could have done a little bit better. How will USA Track & Field respond? Maybe Jerry Colangelo is available...
7) And finally, going beyond 2012, does Russia deserve to host the 2014 Winter Games? They blatantly broke the Olympic truce on the night of the Opening Ceremonies by invading Georgia. Sochi, the site of the 2014 Olympics, lies just several miles from the Georgian border. Yet IOC president Jacques Rogge felt content to save his criticisms during these past Games for Usain Bolt's post-race "antics." Please. What will it take between Georgia and Russia to affect the 2014 Winter Olympics? Let's hope something is worked out and aren't raising eyebrows in a few years as we can watch Vancouver hand over the flag to Sochi.
But until the next Games, I'll be rooting hard for Chicago's 2016 bid and keeping my eye on that Taylor Phinney kid. I hear he's got potential.
Active.com 2008 Olympics
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It is all about the numbers. Just ask any athlete in Beijing. Whether it is the final score in a tennis match, the winning time in a triathlon or the perfect 10 on the balance beam the smallest units of measurement separate athletes from the joy of victory and the agony of defeat.
AFG is committed to supporting athletes by taking the financial numbers game out of the equation and allowing athletes to focus on physically preparing to represent our nation in international competition.
"We are going to apply the same determined focus and energy you will see on the field of play this summer to helping athletes succeed," said Montford.
To support AFG, one-time or monthly contributions are accepted. Donations can be made online, by phone at (877) 477-4488 or by U.S. mail. To learn more about America for Gold or to make a donation, please visit www.AmericaForGold.org .
BMX makes its Olympic debut this week in Beijing. Here are the four U.S. riders who hope to make history by winning the first BMX Olympic gold medal.
Mike Day Day earned his nomination to the Olympics at the Olympic Trials event in Chula Vista, California. He took first place in three out of the four events and second place in the remaining race.
Because he is so tall (6'3") Day uses a unique handlebar style with an upsweep on it. The handlebar, named after Day, is called The Fly Racing Mike Day BMX Handlbar.
- Read more about Mike Day
Donny Robinson Currently ranked number one in world ranking points, Robinson “credits his drive and determination for his success on the dirt.”
Aside from dreaming about Olympic gold, Robinson is a singer/performer and hopes to one day star on Broadway.
- Read more about Donny Robinson
Kyle Bennett Bennet was the first American to secure a spot on the Olympic BMX team. He has two second place finishes at the X Games and he won the 2007 world championship in Vancouver after recovering from ACL surgery and only having three and a half months to prepare. He is often referred to as “butter” because of his smooth riding style.
- Read more about Kyle Bennett
Jill Kintner Kintner started her career in BMX at only 8 years old then jumped between successful runs in both BMX and mountain biking. She finally shifted her full attention to BMX when she decided to push for the Olympics.
In a journey that came down to the final race, Kintner out-biked friend, roommate and teammate Arielle Martin for the sole spot on the women’s U.S. BMX team. Martin returned home to Utah after loosing to Kintner only to return to the Chula Vista training center four days later on a decision to help Kintner get ready for the games.
- Read more about Jill Kintner
The Track The U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Cycling built a replica of the Beijing course in Chula Vista, California at the Olympic Training center where the U.S. athletes have been riding for the last several months. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
The Event
Seeding starts on Wednesday August 20 with both men’s and women’s semifinals and finals taking place on Thursday August 21 in Beijing. Event coverage will be on NBC from 6 to 9 pm on Wednesday the 20th East Coast Time.
The seemingly unbeatable Croatian men's water polo team, who steamrolled every team they had played thus far in the Beijing Games, was served up a bitter loss by 9th ranked Team USA.
Team USA demonstrated suffocating defense, which frustrated the Croatian team throughout the match. Croatia capitalized on its "power plays", scoring four of their six goals during 6-on-5 situations. The US was led by scoring prodigy Tony Azevedo (the team's captain) who racked up 3 goals; rounding off the scoring was Ryan Bailey, Peter Varellas, Adam Wright and Tim Hutten with one goal apiece.
Against the best scoring team in the entire world, goalie Merrill Moses had an exceptional game with 11 saves.
After defeating Croatia, Team USA went on to win Group B after beating Germany 8-7 in an another hard-fought match. The miraculous wins send Team USA to the semifinals to play the winner of a Serbia/Spain quarterfinal matchup. Reaching the semifinals guarantees Team USA a shot at a medal for the first time since 1992.
Watch for Team USA's next match on August 22nd at 7:40pm (check your local listings).
With Michael Phelps mania sweeping the nation, I find myself pulling more for Ryan Lochte in tonight's 200 Individual Medley.
Granted it's a huge long shot. He's got the 200 Back finals against Aaron Peirsol 39 minutes beforehand -- a race either man can win. And the IM field includes, oh yeah, Michael Phelps. But for Lochte to win would take an amazing swim, perhaps leading to a race more exciting than the recent 4x100 free relay.
Not to mention that Lochte, a talented IM swimmer, must sort of resign himself to finishing behind Phelps for the rest of his life.
I like Michael Phelps. I have nothing against him. I love watching him swim. But him breaking Mark Spitz's single-Games gold medal record isn't really that important to me and how much I enjoy watching Olympic swimming.
Frankly, I'm kind of turned off the Speedo LZR. It's a little too technological for swimming, I think. Now if Phelps stepped up on the block without a cap or goggles, sporting a mustache and wearing just a tiny Speedo, a la Spitz -- that would be amazing.
Phelps' toughest test is going to come against Ian Crocker in the 100 fly. Both men are probably going to be incredibly amped up for it. Crocker swam a slow 51.95 in the qualifying heat (compared with Phelps' 50.87), about a second and a half off his own world record. Maybe he's just conserving energy.
But I can't help but think, "How amazing would it be to see Ryan Lochte pull off an upset in a race that Phelps seemingly owns?"
Besides, maybe he's waiting for just that kind of swim to break out the grillz he sported at the 2007 Worlds in Melbourne:
AP Photo/Mark Baker
Can you say DREAM TEAM II?
Yes I know it is still early, but the 2008 USA Basketball team improved to 4-0 today with a Win over Angola. This is Angola's fifth consecutive Olympic appearance as the African champion. The Redeem Team stretched its muscles, got in a good conditioning run and left a chalk outline of Angola with a 97-76 thumping on Tuesday. While the Americans are fielding a smallish lineup with only Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh taller than 6-9, the Angolans were still overwhelmingly undersized with just one player as tall as 6-8. How easy was it? LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony were a combined perfect 18-for-18 shooting in the first half.
In 1992 the Dream Team lit up Angola with a plethora of exciting baskets and ending up winning by 68 points. Today when a player from Angola received the ball in the low post memories of 92' were in the air. Felizardo Ambrosio took the feed in the post turned and intended to score over Carlos Boozer, but before Ambrosio could even get to the apex of his jump, LeBron James flashed in like a rolling ball of thunder and swatted down the shot like it was a fly on the wall.
Kobe Bryant was an eyeful in the second half, stepping into the passing lanes for steals, kissing the ball in off the glass and giving the worshipping Chinese crowd all that it wanted with a breakaway 360-spin for a dunk in the third quarter.
When Wade took a bounce pass from Deron Williams and climbed the ladder on the left baseline for a one-handed tomahawk slam, all it did was evoked more memories from '92. USA will win the Gold Medal this year, but will they play well enough to be finally dubbed Dream Team II?
The U.S. women's gymnastics team showed up to the National Indoor Stadium Sunday night ready to shine with a sure plan to qualify for the team final. Well, they qualified, but not with the same plan they had when they entered the stadium.
As team USA walked out onto the floor their was distress showing on their faces, but no one watching knew why. Next, Samantha Peszek, who was supposed to compete in all four events, never took off her warm-up suit. What was going on?
The announcers searched for answers, panning from coach, to Peszek, to her mother and back. As we later found out fifteen minutes into the competition, Peszek had sprained her ankle during warm up on the floor and did not seem to be competing at all.
The team was clearly stressed by the sudden change in plan, which was first obvious on their faces, but later even more evident when the first two U.S. gymnasts to compete, Bridget Sloan and Alicia Sacramone, stepped out of bounds during their floor routines.
Sacramone's performance on the floor, which is usually her specialty, cost her a chance at competing in the individual finals. The U.S. team seemed to be crumbling right before our eyes.
Peszek did compete in the uneven bars and cleanly landed her dismount despite the painful ankle sprain she endured just a couple hours before. However, Peszek's teammates, Chellsie Memmel and Nastia Liukin were not as lucky. Both had uncharacteristic falls in the event.
With Peszek out of three of the four events, the team was without a throwaway score on floor, vault and beam, which meant there was no room for mistakes if they wanted to go on to the team finals.
By the final rotation, the balance beam, team USA got it together and it might have been thanks to the pep talk Sacramone gave before her teammates took to the beam. They all nailed their routines.
In the end, team USA was in second place, despite an uncharacteristic performance by the defending champions. The girls huddled with their arms around each other and gave words of encouragement to one another and showing the fans watching on tv that team USA would be back, as the team to beat, in the finals. Watch out China!
SPOILER ALERT: the US won the 4x100 meter freestyle swimming event! Team USA out-touched its French counterpart by the slimmest of margins (.08 seconds to be exact)
I am fairly confident in saying that, even this early in the Beijing Olympics, the men's 4x100 freestyle relay will go down as the most memorable race of this olympics. Heck, maybe even in the entire history of the Olympics.
The French team was heavily favored to win behind their world-record holding anchor Alain Bernard. Australia was expected to snag the silver, with the US team following with the bronze. Alain Bernard, the French team's trash talking star, proclaimed, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." The humble US team brushed it off as friendly banter.
It seems that Team USA also took the French team's words, let them marinade overnight, grilled them up and feasted on them for a pre-race carbo-load.
As much as I'd love to go into the finite details of this race, the video speaks for itself (watch the race here). Don't worry if you missed it or don't have the right plug-in, it'll be replayed for decades to come.
My sole purpose in writing this post is not to dictate the race or analyze the details, but rather to give credit where credit is due. This was not Michael Phelps' race, despite his near record split time. This was not Garrett Weber-Gale's race, nor was it Cullen Jones' race, who became only the second African-American to win a gold in swimming (a grand accomplishment on its own!).
This race will forever belong to 32-year-old Jason Lezak, who picked the best possible time to swim faster than any human being has ever swam 100 meters. He did so head-to-head against the 100 meter freestyle world-record holder (at the time).
You tell me...was this the most exciting event you've seen in ANY Olympics? If not, what is?