Olympic bling from Beijing
- So, Michael Phelps... what are going to do for an encore? You could start by buying Jason Lezak a Porsche.
- Baseball and softball are no longer worthy to be called Olympic sports, but synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics — or, as KJ calls it, "that Cirque du Soleil thing" — stay? Well, plug my nose with a rubber clip and tie me up with a ribbon.
- Nothing against beach volleyball — and certainly nothing against our two gold medal-winning teams, Misty May-Treanor / Kerri Walsh and Phil Dalhausser / Todd Rogers — but... NBC sure aired a surfeit of beach volleyball, didn't they?
- There's a reason why the two Americans competing in the modern pentathlon finished 19th and 21st: They're the only two people in the United States who know what the modern pentathlon is.
- Congratulations to my former schoolmate — we were students at Pepperdine at the same time — Terry Schroeder for coaching the U.S. men's water polo team to a silver medal. I still think the game would be more fun with horses.
- Call me crazy, but I believe the members of the Chinese diving team possess the mutant power to separate water molecules telepathically. That's the only way I can figure that they can make so little splash.
- Speaking of diving, Laura Wilkinson reminds me of my friend Phil's wife. I don't know whether Jane dives, though.
- Most appropriately named athlete: Usain Bolt. It's absolutely usain how fast that guy is.
- I don't know what happens to rifleman Matthew Emmons during the Olympic three-positions rifle event, but he's gotta be seeking therapy after blowing a gold medal on his final shot in two consecutive Games.
- Probably no competitor in the Games overcame more painful and immediate personal tragedy than U.S. men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose father-in-law was killed, and his mother-in-law seriously wounded, in a random act of violence while touring Beijing. I'm sure that a gold medal is small consolation, but I'm glad Hugh got one anyway.
- Hey, Dara Torres: Way to represent for the over-40 crowd. Children of the '60s rule!
- I hope that decathlon gold medalist and unofficial "World's Greatest Athlete" Bryan Clay doesn't go all crazy with the plastic surgery in later life, like a certain predecessor who shall go nameless here. (***cough***BruceJenner***cough***)
- Needing a dose of graciousness: American speedster Jeremy Wariner. Who tinkled on your cornflakes, Jeremy?
- Two words for the French 4x100 meter freestyle relay team: Crush this.
- Happiest guy to win a bronze medal: David Neville, who dove across the finish line to place third in the men's 400 meters, and afterward beamed like a six-year-old at Christmas.
- It's amazing — and more than a trifle tragic — to realize that, 20 years after she set them (and nearly a decade after her death), the late Florence Griffith-Joyner still holds the women's world records at both 100 and 200 meters.
- Of course the Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate the distance races. Those guys run farther than that just to find breakfast.
- I thought the American gymnasts, women and men, showed beaucoup class throughout the competition. Shawn, Nastia, Alicia and the rest are welcome to come hang out with my daughter anytime.
- Way to go, Redeem Team, for living up to the hype.
- Our local hero, cyclist Levi Leipheimer, bagged a bronze medal in the men's time trial. You go, Levi!
- My daughter KM, ever the horsewoman, was thrilled when the U.S. equestrians (including KM's heroine, Beezie Madden) won the team-jumping gold. This bugs me, however: Why do the riders get the medals when the horses do all the work?
- Dunderhead of the Games: Cuban taekwondo competitor (I'm No) Angel Matos, who kicked a referee in the face after getting disqualified for overextending an injury timeout. Enjoy the lifetime ban, loser.
- And of course, the Chinese gymnasts are all 16. In dog years.
Labels: Aimless Riffing, Listology, Random Acts of Patriotism, Ripped From the Headlines, Sports Bar
2 insisted on sticking two cents in:
I'll try not to comment on every point you made, but here are my thoughts as I was reading your post:
About Michael Phelps/Jason Lezak: That's almost exactly what I was thinking.
About baseball and softball being dropped: You forgot about synchronized diving. I mean, WTF?
About the over coverage of beach volleyball: I love watching them. I think they are awesome. I would have liked watching a softball or baseball game even more. I only got to see clips, so if it was on somewhere, I couldn't find it.
About Hugh McCutcheon: That story was huge here in Minnesota because his inlaws are the owners of Bachmann's, which is a big name in florists here. Also they are/were very good people and big time philanthropists. My heart broke for him every time he was interviewed and yet, I'm sure that his father-in-law would have wanted to do exactly what he did in staying to finish out his dream at the Olympics.
About Dara Torres: Amen!
About the American gymnasts: They were absolutely the classiest and most gracious group of Olympians. Especially Nastia.
About the idiot taekwondo dude: What a freaking idiot. I hope he enjoys a life of sifting through other people's garbage because he isn't fit to deal with people.
Are you saying that you don't like watching statuesque woman jump around in bikinis? I mean if you are there's not anything wrong with that I suppose.
Call me crazy, but I believe the members of the Chinese diving team possess the mutant power to separate water molecules telepathically. That's the only way I can figure that they can make so little splash.
That and there just so dang tiny.
I read that athletes who win silver suffer from depression because they compare themselves to the golds whereas bronze medalists compare themselves to all the athletes that won nothing. Interesting.
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