The Magic of the Olympics!!!

As I am starting to type this right now the Closing Ceremonies of the XXX Olympiad in London, UK is on right now. One of the many reasons I haven’t been blogging for awhile is that I’ve been getting into watching the games. Some nights it’s has cost me a little bit of sleep but I’ve been able to watch some highlights from www.nbcolympics.com  I love the Olympics. They come only every 4 years but they are great to watch. I love the events that go on, not only the Track & Field and the Swimming but all sorts of sports that you don’t see on Television that often. In fact the best sport I got into was of course synchronized diving. When it was introduced as a sport years ago I thought it would look very dumb. But, I kept watching and thought the technique, timing, and teamwork of each partners’ form was very important to their dive as a whole and that was cool. The US even broke our drought in medaling in the driving by 2 of our ladies getting the silver. First diving medal since 2000 since China has been dominating. One of our guys’ duos got a bronze and Dave Boudia got our first diving gold in the 10m platform since Greg Louganis did in 92.

Also, speaking of China after getting less gold medals than China in 2008 in Beijing, mostly I think the Chinese are cheats and have a ton of people; however we were able to beat them in gold medal count 46-38 and in the overall medal count 104-87, GO USA!!!

It was hard not to look at the spoilers because there is the 5 hour differential between Eastern Time and London time though in the afternoon on weekdays the last 2 weeks and on the weekend they showed some events live as they happened. The big stuff NBC was able to show in primetime instead of showing on their lesser networks (NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC, etc) it’s hard to watch the primetime stuff if you don’t want to wait to know what happened. You can’t script emotion, especially when it came to watching the Men’s 10000 Meter Final on Saturday Afternoon.

Now that was a great moment for Mo Farah and Galen Rupp. Training partners coached by Alberto Salazar, both getting gold and silver beating the reigning world record holder in the 10000 Meters and defending gold medalist Kenensia Bekele from Ethiopia who finished 4^th. Farah had his home country cheering him on and Rupp was the first US male to win a medal in the Olympic 10,000 meters in 48 years, the last medal being Billy Mills's gold in the 1964 Olympics.

Farah would do it again in the 5000 Meters.

 

Yet, I know he’s from Jamaica but Usain Bolt is the man. The Lighting Bolt strikes 3 times in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and the 4 x100 Meter Relay in London just like he did in Beijing!!

 http://universalsports.com/video/2012-london-olympic-games-jamaica-wins-mens-4x100-relay-with-world-record/

I got home before my Monday group run to watch the US women’s soccer team in extra period against Canada for a chance to be in the Gold Medal Final. It looked like it would come down to penalty kicks but Alex Morgan thought otherwise with this goal and the US won and went on to beat Japan to win Gold.

There were a lot of great moments as well. After a slow start Michael Phelps one again proved he was the king of the pool by winning 2 silvers (one relay and one individual) and 4 gold (two in relays, and 2 in individual events)

And our Men's Basketball Team won the gold. Well barely against Spain and they let Spain score 100 points on them. Still great but embrassing. The 1992 Dream Team would have crushed these guys. I know it's become a different style of game since then and International Competition has gotten a little bit better but come on NBA Players Basketball is our sport and you should show the rest of the world so like Jordan, Bird, Barkley, Magic, Karl, Clyde and the rest did back in 92.

 However, I think what makes the Olympics special is that athletes come from all over the globe from different types of nations including nations that have developed and I never heard from (Micronesia for example, did Bill Gates buy land from Russia and make it a country??) O Wait here’s some info about Micronesia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_States_of_Micronesia

Anyway, Athletes from all over the globe have come to compete in their sport to prove they are best, or for pride for their countries, or as a personal victory to themselves and their families that they had made it here.


http://sports.yahoo.com/news/olympics--one-man-s-memories-of-a-memorable-london-games-20120812-193859.html

Good article, mentions a couple of other exciting things I forgot to mention. London did a great job of hosting these games. Hopefully the facilities and the Olympic Village won’t go to waste and they can still be used whenever they hold world championships for swimming, diving, track, or possible the World Cup. Look online for pictures currently at the Bird Nest Stadium in Beijing used in the last games.

The Olympics are great to watch every 4 years. It's something we should not be too spoiled upon. Be very hard for it to occur every 2 years or even every other year due to how much it cost cities and countries to be host. These are most sports we don't get to see on television that very often. Which I think is very cool to see rowing, mountain biking, the triathlon, fencing, diving, gymnastics etc. Yet, we tend to honor them after its over and forget all about them until another 4 years. I still try to keep up on these sports if they are on. Yet, I'm already looking forward to Rio in 2016 and like I said I'll try to keep track of who will be representing us in these sports either in the world championships or the olympics.

Though, I'm a College Football, College Basketball, Soccer, and Track & Field/Running type of a guy. After the Olympics are now over I'm already counting down till Buckeye Season. 13 days 21 hours and 58 minutes by the time I finish this post.

Keep watching sports fans. That's my two cents.