Monday, August 25, 2008

2008 Olympics

Well, the 2008 Olympics have officially come to a close and, as always, Brad and I managed to get sucked into the events and spent the last 2 weeks glued to the TV!

I love watching the Olympics ... I love the sense of patriotism it brings out in me. I love the excitement of close medal races (the amazing come-from-behind win by Jason Lezak in the 4x100 relay? or Michael Phelps I-seriously-still-can't-believe-it win in the 100 butterfly!?) And yes, I love all the random sob stories about the athletes (it's not a secret that I am SUCH a sucker and I do admit to having shed a tear or two during cheezy NBC background stories about the trials and tribulations of various athletes)

I also love Bela Karoli - I seriously couldn't understand half the words that came out of his mouth but you gotta love his unbridled passion for the sport of gymnastics. And even though the Olympics are over, I think NBC should retain him and let him announce anything - NFL games, college basketball, whatever - that man cracks me up!

Here's my favorite article from the Olympics, aptly named "Obscure-Sports Diary: You go, trampoliners!". I had been pondering the point of indoor track cycling and marveling at the fact that trampoline is an Olympic sport when I ran across this article. Hysterical. One of my favorite quotes:

My favorite personality of the trampoline competition was eighteen-year-old American Erin Blanchard, who, the announcers said, had been “burned out” on competitive trampoline, but then returned to appear in the Olympics. Eighteen years old, and she's already had time for a burnout and a comeback in the sport of competitive trampoline. I don't think she will have any trouble figuring out what to write her college essay about.

Haha! Anyway, some interesting factoids about the final medal count - click here. Go US for winning 110 medals - see you in Vancouver!

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