Monday, August 11, 2008

2008 Beijing Olympics - Gymnastics/Swimming

Heartbreaking and exciting, all rolled into one. I'm not talking about the faux excitement and sappy stories (not all are sappy though). Yesterday was truly enjoyable to watch.

We started out the evening with some lackluster excitement with women's gymnastics. They are quite explosive and talented, but the stupid announcers had to keep jinxing things with "This is so-and-so's best event" and "So-and-so has never stumbled here". Lo and behold, USA made mistakes. They were good enough to still qualify, but still. Perhaps we'll have to put the TV on mute later.

The swimming events were very nerve-wracking. Hoff, Phelps, and others were competing. Hoff was a surprise leader during her big race, only to lose it in the last few feet. Phelps led off the 400m freestyle relay, but the big story (real story) was the come from behind-stick-it-in-the-face-of-the-French win for the anchor Lezak(?). 3 time olympian, he pulled out what I'd call a miraculous win. And his team couldn't be happier. At home, I don't think we could have been more pumped either..

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