The Olympics

[Ephchap]

Another huge Olympics fan and spectator here. I watch from the Opening Ceremonies to the closing ceremonies and lots and lots in between. The opening was amazing, I have to say.

The women's gymnastics team has been plagued by injuries and it's so heartbreaking for the athletes. One of our gymnasts missed the last Olympics due to an injury, built her strength and skills back up to make the team, only to injure her ankle right before leaving for Beijeng. Her Olympic dream once again shattered, although they still sent her to compete bars.

Another hurt her ankle at the very end of the practice just before heading into the larger gym for the competition yesterday. How heartbreaking to have trained your whole life for that moment, only to have it taken away by injury. The pain on the one gal's mom's face as they showed her in the stands was obvious - she couldn't figure out why her daughter wasn't heading out there, and knew something had to have happened. I'm sure she felt awful for her.

We have a local high school graduate from the school my kids went to that made the Olympic team. She will swim the 200 meter freestyle and 200 meter relay. The whole area is pulling for her.

I've watched the Olympics for as long as I can remember and still get goosebumps when I hear the Olympic music - as a young girl watching with my parents, as a mother with my children, and now as a grandmother (although the 6 month old baby didn't really seem that interested! lol).

Go USA !

Deb

 

[Marguerite]

Our Olympics coverage last night was talking about the friendly rivalry between the US mens swim relay team and the Aussies. Your blokes have beaten our blokes but only by a narrow margin each time, in past Olympics. And apparently coming up to t he Sydney Olympics the Aussies heard that the US fellas had said they would "smash the Aussies like guitars". So when the Aussies won in 2000 - they played air guitar on the podium.

From what I've seen this is very friendly. I gather there is a lot of respect between the two teams because they are so closely matched.

I was watching the news tonight and one of our male Olympic swimmers (might have been Grant Hackett) was being interviewed about Michael Phelps and his good progress so far. Our bloke was saying that only very occasionally, an athlete comes along who changes a sport utterly, because of how good he is. And he said Michael Phelps is one such swimmer. Mark Spitz (7 gold medals at Munich, 1972) was another.

I'm glad it's not considered unpatriotic or disloyal to praise athletes from other countries, especially where that praise is deserved. And who better than another athlete, to really understand the intense effort required to compete at this level?

I was thinking about this thread earlier today and I want to share a poem with you. You may already know it - it's by an Australian poet, Dame Mary Gilmore. I think it's a very good way to describe how we can still value our own country but without needing to undermine or attack others.

Nationality

I have grown past hate and bitterness,
I see the world as one;
But though I can no longer hate,
My son is still my son.

All men at God's round table sit,
and all men must be fed;
But this loaf in my hand,
This loaf is my son's bread.

Dame Mary Gilmore

 

[Fran]

I'm cheering for the 41 yr old mother and competitive swimmer. She won!!!! Yay for us women of a certain age. We still have it.

I guess I am tired of looking for reasons to dislike people or be at odds with people no matter what the government does and says. If nothing we should have learned that governments come and go but most people want a chance to raise their kids in a safe environment with opportunities to have a decent life. Be annoyed with the governments and protest them but punishing the people will come back and bite us on the butt. in my humble opinion. There are many,many nations and people who do not think too kindly about the US despite our people being good and generous as a whole. This because they think governing bodies define us or watch the media representation of the US.
I'm sick of war and the need to do the same murderous thing over and over with such horrid results to our own citizens and the innocent victims of other countries. I'm sick of death at our own hands or those of others forced to fight. None of this is political but a human's wish to see people be kinder and gentler to each and to find what we have in common as opposed to what we have that is different.

Lothlorian, if this is inappropriate for your forum, you are welcome to delete.

 

[Nancy]

I agree Fran. The olympics is one event that we should all be able to enjoy without looking for a reason to be mad at someone. The athletes seem to have gotten that and I couldn't be prouder of all of them, from all the countries. Pethaps I'm an optimist here but I'm hoping the goodwill from these games lasts a long time past the closing ceremonies.

Ephchap, who is the swimmer from your area? I enjoy watching the swimming and of course root for all the Americans. I too was heartbroken for the gymnast and her mom. The pain on her face when her daughter didn't step on the floor was palpable and for you and I it we relived our own pain. I can't wait to tell M (who is in Greece) about Alicia hurting her ankle right before they went out, just like M did in warmups for the conference meet. Our M's certainly understand that feeling.

Nancy

 

[Marguerite]

husband & I watched the last day of the three-day equestrian teams last night. We were there in person for Sydney 2000, saw Aussies ride to victory.
Not so last night - but the joy on the German team faces was well-deserved. They really did ride brilliantly. And the reaction of the horses - wonderful. There was also something about knowing that our friends in New Zealand that we met and stayed with last year, whose daughter rides dressage (I watched her from the window as she practised) would have been watching the same coverage at the same time.

Today we should see more medals going to Michael Phelps. We're getting good coverage of his efforts also, even though he's not an Aussie competitor. This is going way beyond nationalities. We're just amazed at this swimmer and his ability.

This is the stuff I like to focus on, every Olympics.

Marg

 

[Star*]

Witz,

I see what you are saying, and I see what everyone else is saying. I don't know how a world can begin to heal from the disasters, hatred, history, carelessness and greed that have gone on for centuries.

What I do know is that I have to be the change in the world that I want to see. Ghandi said it - I belive we could all try a little harder to accomplish that. And the olympics almost give me a sense of YES - I belong to something fantastic - And when the US wins or when I see a 41 year old 5 time olympian going for gold? I'm moved to do better.

The destinations (I'm sure you know) are chosen in advance - so I think it was pretty adventageous of the world to consider we (As a world) would be this far along in world relations and healing to choose China.

Can't explain it but when the girl from Zimbabwe got the new world record for back stroke? I cried......dumb - but I felt like I got to be a part of something - grand, I can say - to my grandkids - I watched HER on TV in the 2008 Olympics get that record. Maybe it's all wishy, but watching those dressage horses? I get to live a part of my life I never got to finish!

And track too - fassttttttttttt fast. WOW. You just sit there and think MY WORD - was I ever even a little bit like that? And it makes me feel young.

And gymnastics - I watch and I think - I WAS A GODDESS - I did those things.....(not that well ) But I did those - and now I can sit and just be amazed.

The only thing I'm trying to figure out - is that stadium. I watched the special about the new steel they had to formulate to build it - and it was just FASCINATING.....UGLY - but fascination beyond imagination.

 

[mstang67chic]

I almost cried when the guy from Togo (?) got a medal in kyaking. He didn't get a gold but it was the first Olympic medal EVER for his country.

 

[Ephchap]

Yes, Nancy, I'm sure we both could relate all too well with the look on that mom's face - waiting to see what had happened to her daughter that she wasn't taking her place as the other 4 girls marched out to the event. Ughh. It's so hard watching these girls work so hard and have their dreams snatched away in an instant.

The local gal didn't make the finals. Her name is Allison Schmitt, and she failed to reach the finals in the 200-meter freestyle by one-hundredth of a second. Talk about heartbreaking. She was to be in the relay yesterday though, and I haven't checked to see how they did. She was coached by Michael Phelps' coach to get ready for the Olympic trials, they said.

Speaking of Phelps, the guy is truly amazing. He defines swimming. I love the flap of his arms right before he takes the water. He's truly phenomenal.

I'm hopeful the USA's Johnson and Liukin do well tonight in the gymnastics all around. They are certainly two of the top, if not the top, gymnasts in the world. I would love to see them finish 1-2.

The whole iffy situation about the Chinese girls being underage has put a damper on the sport. Bella Karolyi, in his usual outspoken self, made no bones about the fact that there's no way to prove it, but there's no way they are 16. I have to say that I agree. Even their faces look like 10 and 12 year olds, not to mention their bodies. Who knows.

Deb

 

[Marguerite]

Australia won the women's relay in record time. It gives one of our female swimmers a third gold medal at one Olympics, which equals the Australian record for a single female competitor.

I didn't see the race or the actual results so I can't tell you who came in second or third.

We've all been amazed by Michael Phelps. The Aussie media and Aussie swimmers are all talking about him too. I gather he's a decent bloke as well.

If your local girl didn't make it - it's still no shame to her because the bar has been raised so high at these games, for male and female swimmers. Just being selected to go to the games is an honour. Someone was saying on Aussie TV tonight, about the swimming - the people who qualified for one of the finals ALL had to swim faster than the winning time at a recent race.

We've had a few stories about athletes doing extraordinary things. One of our cyclists, Cadel Evans, came to the Olympics from Tour de France. He got injured fairly spectacularly at the Tour, it was looking like he'd have to drop out of the Olympics but decided to push himself. Apparently he did the road race time trial or something, with a torn cruciate ligament or something nasty - it would have put a footballer out of action, but because he was pedalling a bike he was able to keep going. He was a fraction of a second outside medal-winning time. He reckoned he would have made better time if it wasn't for the torn ligament. Ya think?

And apparently our swimmer Grant Hackett (captain of the Aussie swim team) is aiming for a third Gold in the same event at consecutive Olympics. He won the event in Athens despite having been struggling with pneumonia - they found out afterwards, he had won despite having swum with a partially collapsed lung!

I reckon you could sole your boots on the guts of some of these competitors...

Australia doesn't have a monopoly on this, I'm sure there are similar stories from all other countries. It's just that these are the ones I heard on the Aussie media.

The next few days are going to be really exciting, to see how it all pans out in the swimming. Whoever wins, it is going to be a nailbiting time!

Marg

 

[Nancy]

Deb I hope Johnson and Liukin do well tonight too. I saw Karolyi's comment about the age of the Chinese girls and had to laugh, he doesn't hold anything back. Wonder if that's why he was at odds with the Olympic committee and his wife has taken over. Anyway I agree with him, they weigh like 70-80 lbs. It is too bad that they have to play those games. They couldn't go out of bounds if they tried, their bodies are too small and they don't have the power we do in tumbling to take them out of bounds. We wondered if they made the floor smaller for all out girls to go out of bounds LOL.

I do enjoy watching Phelps and hope he gets all his gold medals. I saw an interview with Mark Spitz today and he was very gracious about Phelps breaking his record and said it's about time and he is very good friends with Phelps and thinks he is the most talented swimmer ever. So all the talk about how Spitz was upset is wrong.

I love watching all the events. Beach volleyball has been fun to watch, May and Walsh are so talented.

Nancy

 

[Lothlorien]

I watched the girls and heard Karoli's comment too. China has been doing this for years and the Olympic Committee looks the other way. Ticks me off royally!

Phelps is an amazing guy! Hooray for him and his team. I'm glad he's back.....I kind of forgot about him until this year. He's an inspiration to young kids......the kind of thing that inspires kids to be involved in sports. Gotta love him....and that great smile!

 

[Star*]

I know the age thing is upsetting - but consider that THESE ARE 10 and 12 year olds IN THE WORLD OLYMPICS -

I think to be that good at ANY age is astounding......China has looked the other way for CENTURIES on lots of things -

 

[Nancy]

If I'm not wrong the age requirement for gymnastics is new. I don't believe it was in existence in any other Olympic year, except perhaps the last one in 04. I also think the new scoring system is not an improvement over the old ten point system and hopefully it will be revisited.

I'm not taking anything away from the Chinese gymnasts, it's obvious they are very talented. But their floor routines looked like a bunch of skills one after the other with nothing in between. To me it was not very inspiring and did not have the level of polish that the other teams had.

Nancy

 

[Ephchap]

What some don't realize is that younger gymnasts actually have an advantage. Without hips, height, weight and curves, it's easier to tumble and swing around the bars.

The biggest advantage, however, is that their young bodies haven't taken the years of pounding the older girls have. As Bella pointed out, a body only has so much pounding, and so many years of repetitious training. Many girls start having trouble around age 18 or so because their bodies are too beaten down from all the pounding gymnastics requires. At 13 years of age, the girls are also much more fearless.

It's an advantage to field a team of 13 year old girls for gymnastics which is very different than other sports. I don't understand why they can't officially document these girls ages with all the modern technology we have now. It would seem they could look up when the girls were just entering the arenas as competitors, and add the number of years since. In some cases, the girls were only 10, and if only 4 years have passed since they entered a competition at age 10, then obviously they are only 14, no matter what their "passport" says. It just doesn't make sense to me that no one has their true ages.

Woohooo. Our township's local swimmer won a bronze medal for the 200 meter freestyle relay! Congrats to Schmitt and the other team members!

Deb