The US swim team totally owned the 2012 Olympics

I really like Ryan Lochte. He such an easy-going guy, but he worked his butt off to win 5 medals at these Olympics. Though he didn't win as many golds as was expected, he did get one in the 400m IM, beating Phelps soundly, so he can add that to his list of accomplishments. Plus, he wore grills on his teeth during that gold medal ceremony--so silly, but hilarious!

Missy Franklin won gold in the 200m backstroke, smashing the world record by nearly a whole second. Then she went on to win her 5th medal with an all-star relay team for the 4x100m medley. Every leg of our team had the gold from their individual events, so it was no surprise that they easily won gold again together. Missy is only 17 years old, so we'll mostly likely see her, along with some of her teammates, at Rio in 4 years, and maybe even the Olympics after that, as well. I definitely look forward to watching them swim more in the future.

Phelps, the most decorated Olympian ever, has set the bar at 22 medals, 18 of those gold. There's no doubt that this record is going to last quite some time. Our whole swim team was just so damn good this year! The US medaled in 26 out of 32 swimming events, and in 4 of those we had 2 medalists! IN-freaking-CREDIBLE! A-freaking-MAZING!
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British athlete Jessica Ennis won gold in the heptathlon, one of my favorite events of the games. The heptathlon and decathlon are so fun to watch because it's amazing that these athletes can do all of those events so well. Strength, stamina, speed, and flexibility are all required at the highest level, making them the best overall athletes in the world. To me, that is seven times (for the heptathlon) or ten times (for the decathlon) more impressive than being the best in just one event.

Funniest thing I've seen in a while:

The discus officials use a remote-control car to return the discs from the field back to the ring. When I saw that I could NOT stop laughing. Ha! :P  (Perkovic of Croatia won gold with a distance of 226 ft.) Randomly, here's a video of the top 5 screams from women's discus.

Oscar Pistorius of South Africa ran in the 400m, making it to the semifinal race, but not the finals. That doesn't sound all that special... until you find out that he's a double amputee. Both of his legs were amputated below the knee, so to compete, he wears artificial limbs made especially for sprinting. It's the first time an amputee has ever qualified for the Summer Olympics, to compete against able-bodies athletes (that's not counting the Paralympics). It's a huge accomplishment and inspiration. Love it!

Getting into the Olympic spirit

I am having so much fun watching the ups and downs of world class competition! American Nathan Adrian winning the gold in the 100m freestyle by 1/100th of a second was so exciting! And the women pulled through again with another gold in the 4x200m free relay. But watching gymnasts Danell Leyva and and John Orozco compete in the men's all-around was absolutely engrossing. They both had a chance to medal, but they each screwed up pretty bad on the pommel horse, repeating their mistakes from the team competition. John's score was bad enough to take him out of the running, but Danell did well enough on his other events to still have a chance... and he did it! He came away with bronze! Such an impressive comeback--it must have had something to do with that lucky towel he carries around with him everywhere. Gymnastics sure has been all about bouncing back this year!
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Kayla Harrison became the first American ever to win a gold medal in judo, and if that's not impressive enough for you, she's a former victim of sexual abuse. When she was 16, she confessed that her coach had been abusing her for years, and her mother immediately pressed charges. They moved, found a new training group to help her recover emotionally and psychologically, and now she's an Olympic champion. In an article from TIME magazine, Kayla says, "This is proof that you're only a victim if you allow yourself to be. Nothing can stop you." She is definitely a strong woman worth looking up to.

Every time Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman do their gymnastics floor exercises, the crowd claps with the music, and tonight they really put on a show. As their last routine, it was the perfect way to end the night that would win them the gold and bronze, respectively. We've won gold in the women's all-around for the last 3 Olympics, which means the Russians are no longer the obvious favorites in the sport. We've never had an African American winner, though, so Gabby's definitely in the history books for that.

Rebecca Soni also won gold in the 200m breaststroke with a world record, becoming the first woman to win this event in back-to-back Olympics. Our women sure have set a lot of standards this year--I wonder if that correlates with the fact that the US has more female than male athletes at the Olympics for the first time ever...

Awe-inspiring team efforts for the US

I am sooooo glad our women's gymnastics team won the gold! It was so heartbreaking that Jordyn Wieber didn't make it to the individual all-round finals--her score was 4th out of everyone behind 2 teammates and a Russian, but only the top two athletes from each country are allowed to compete in that event. So sad! But she did her best to put it behind her to help the team win gold. Now THAT is a great competitor! So many talented athletes have a really hard time coming back from disappointment like that, but Jordyn did it. What a great team! Every single routine was great, and a few, like Jordyn's own floor routine and McKayla Maroney's vault, were basically flawless. It's always fun to watch an entire team succeed together.

The US swim team is doing awesome this year, too! Nearly every single swimmer we have has won a medal, including Allison Schmitt's exciting gold tonight in the 200m freestyle. The women, in particular have been really impressive. Phelps and the men have been great, too, but when you're expected to win and you get silver, it feels like a loss. Any medal at all is a big achievement, but there is definitely a difference between "winning" bronze and "losing" gold. Phelps "lost" gold tonight in the 200m butterfly because he had some iffy turns and a bad finish, but he did make history by becoming the most decorated Olympian EVER with his 19th medal (a gold) from the 4x200m freestyle relay. Very cool!

The 2012 games have begun

I loved London's Opening Ceremonies. It really showed off how much great stuff Britain has produced for the world over the centuries. The progression of time was a cool framework for the show, starting out with quaint agrarian life (reminiscent of Hobbiton), transitioning to the Industrial Revolution (towering silos coming out of the ground reminded me of the intro to "Game of Thrones"), and then on to the digital age (feature texting and modern music). The musical ride from the 50s to today was very neat and well-done. I'm glad they saved Pink Floyed for the fireworks finale--so fitting!

The short film featuring the Queen and James Bond (Daniel Craig) getting into a helicopter was fun, then seeing "them" jump out of it into the stadium right before Her Majesty's declaration of opening the games was very clever! Roan Atkinson "playing" the Chariots of Fire theme was HILARIOUS! I could not stop laughing through that entire song. I also greatly enjoyed watching top-hatted Kenneth Branagh wander around hordes of people whilst chomping on a cigar and posing with fists on hips.

The idea of having one copper pedal for each country come together to form one Olympic flame was ingenious. And Paul McCartney was a great closer, leading the crowd in singing "Hey Jude." My favorite part, however, was the children's literature segment. JK Rowling read a passage from Peter Pan, kids jumped and flipped on movable beds, costumed nightmare creatures danced around sleeping children, and a giant Voldemort was defeated by many Mary Poppinses!

Danny Boyle's production turned out to be incredibly creative, visually interesting, and intensely entertaining. China's awesome ceremony in Beijing was impressively big, but I liked this one better. I do hope to see the good Doctor somewhere in the closing ceremonies, though.
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I noticed that some of the cyclers in the men's road race were chatting it up during the first part of their ride, when everyone was still in a big clump. What a great example of the Olympic spirit! Seeing athletes from different countries being friendly and nice to each other, especially during competition, is one of the main reasons why I love to watch them. It's always see great sportsmanship at the Olympic level--makes me wish it was more common in US pro and college sports. Another thing I enjoy: seeing older athletes and underdogs win! 38-year-old Vinokourov of Kazakhstan surprised everyone and took home the gold for this race.

There was an Irishman named Kieran Behan competing in men's gymnastics with an inspiring backstory. He's had quite a few bad injuries that had doctors thinking he wouldn't walk again, let alone compete in the Olympics! But he recovered from them all to become the second man from Ireland ever to qualify for the Games. He didn't get to the finals, but he sure had the time of his life. How cool is that?

Ryan Lochte won the gold by a longshot in the men's 400 IM (individual medley). His extra hard work over the last four years has really paid off, and as he said, he's "ready to rock" for the other events. Michael Phelps got 4th. Just goes to show that busting one's ass can really make a difference.

A fruitful Olympics this has been, indeed

Well, I'm glad that Michael Phelps did it. That medley relay team was the best you anyone could possible have, so after he got his 7th, he was pretty much guaranteed an 8th. I'm going to enjoy watching all the interviews he's gonna do in the near future.

Dara Torres got the silver in the 50m, by 1/100 of a second--the margin by which Phelps won the 100m butterfly! She is so awesome. All other 41-year-old swimmers wouldn't even make the Olympic team, let alone win silver in a sprint! This has been such an awesome Olympic year for swimming--tons of records broken, lots of extremely close races.

Speaking of cool old athletes, and 38-year-old from Romania won the women's marathon, and she did it by a landslide! She pulled away early and stayed far ahead of the others for the rest of the race. It's reasons like this that make me love the Olympics so much.

Side note: Michael Phelps looks like my friend Adam Bruce, and best all-around gymnast Shawn Johnson looks kinda like my friend Brooke Ward. Crazy!

Michael Phelps, household name

Wow. Just wow. Phelps matched Spitz's record in the most exciting way possible! 1/100 of a second! The smallest margin there is. Gotta love it. His mom's reaction was pretty hilarious, but I also got a kick out of the faces on the people sitting in front of her. Later, Costas did an interview with him and Spitz, and Spitz really laid on the compliments. It was pretty cool. Phelps really is a great role model for the young 'uns. Side note: while NBC showed the clip of him winning again before ending the coverage session, they played "In Your Eyes" as the background music. Woo! Go Peter Gabriel!

In other news...

Kobe Bryant really moved up in my book after I watching an interview with him. He's been more of team player recently and he's not afraid to be patriotic. He's multilingual, doing interviews with people from other countries, and he seems like an all-around cool guy. I previously had the impression that he was kind of a jerk, and from watching him play with the Lakers he seemed somewhat of a ball hog. He's all right, though.

I can't wait to see Dara Torres in the 50m freestyle final tomorrow. She won her semi tonight, and it's so funny that she's twice as old as most of the others. She showed some great sportsmanship before the race when a Swedish girl had trouble with her suit, so she let the people in charge know so they could wait on her. So she kind of IS like a mom to all of 'em! It'd be really awesome for her to get her first individual gold, after 10 career medals, at 41 years old.

"I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus rollin' down highway 41."

I rode on a Greyhound bus Wednesday for the first time ever to see Dave Matthews Band in OKC (which was a great concert), and it was pretty interesting. It kinda reminded me of a band trip, riding in a charter bus, but this time I didn't know any of the passengers. The stations are kinda like mini airports, and they were pretty nice--not really what I was expecting. My favorite part about it, though, was that the television inside the OKC station was playing Olympics coverage, so waiting for the bus was not a drag at all.

None of our men won medals in the gymnastics all-around, but I was glad to see the Chinese guy win. I like him. Our girls, on the other hand, were amazing. Nastia Liukin won gold, Shawn Johnson silver. I almost teared up when Nastia and her dad, who's also her coach and who won gold for Russia way back when, hugged and cried together.

And then, of course, Phelps gets another gold. Tomorrow's 100m Butterfly race will be more interesting than what we've seen lately because he's not particularly favored to win. We'll see. (Special note: NBC had Blue Man Group music playing on a Phelps special about his perfect swimmer physical features.)

I'm really glad that American James Blake won against Roger Federer in Tennis. Now that is an accomplishment, especially after losing to him 8 times already in the past. I really hope he goes on the win the gold.

I still have yet to see any Archery, and I'd like to catch some badminton at some point. But I did get to see a bit of table tennis. It was INTENSE. The most intense ping pong I've ever seen.

Phelps and Costas continuing to meet expectations...

Phelps at 11 career golds...

Bob Costas continues to be corny and somewhat athletically illiterate while anchoring the coverage...

The Women's Gymnastics team looked for a while like they might get gold, but after Alicia Sacramone botched her beam routine, she wasn't able to put it past her and ended up having a bad floor routine, but they still came away with silver. I really like Shawn Johnson's floor routine--she uses music from August Rush.

I've also noticed a lot of interesting music choices throughout NBC's coverage. I keep hearing soundtracks being used on stories about athletes, including National Treasure and Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events. Pirates of the Caribbean music was fittingly used when they talked about the fencing medal sweep. I also randomly noticed "Ghostbusters" playing in the background during a beach volleyball match.

Shaky day for the gymnasts

The US Men's Gymnastics team barely squeaked by with a bronze medal. We really were no match for China, but for a while it looked like we would get silver. Jonathan Horton had a great day, sticking all of his landings, even after his super cool and super hard high bar dismount. Justin Spring's high bar routine was even more fun to watch. He was all over the place, with multiple releases and one-handed swings. I think he's my favorite team member. But then, Joey Hagerty had a bad floor routine and our first two pommel horse guys had trouble. Artemev, however, stepped in and kept us ahead of the Germans with a great routine. The most interesting part of that, though, was that he hadn't done anything the whole day and then had to go very last. Talk about pressure, mate.

Tonight was Aaron Peirsol's medal debut. I really like him. He's really laid back--doesn't even shave before prelim races--but he still gets it done when it really matters. Even in this race he had a not-too-great start, and then pulled ahead the last 25 meters. He's a cool dude. He's like the Bode Miller of swimming.

Phelps got his third gold in the 200 freestyle. He makes it looks so easy--he was a body length ahead for the whole second half of the race. It's no wonder he's interviewed so often, but the interviewers always ask him the same questions. "How did you do it?" "What were you thinking?" "How did you pull through?" He usually manages to give pretty interesting answers, though. I guess he's just used to it by now.

I can't go without mentioning any females... Natalie Coughlin won gold in the 100m backstroke, which was extra cool 'cause she was the first to ever defend the title, and subsequently the first to win it twice.

Starting off on the right track.

Not surprisingly, Michael Phelps won his first medal. He's never been beating in the 400m Individual Medley before, so why should he now? I really hope he wins gold in his 7 remaining events, giving him the record for the most golds won in a single Olympics. Michael just seems like a really nice guy, and I love his mom! NBC showed footage of her going crazy and cheering him on for his last 100 meters. Quite entertaining. Another thing I found amusing was that they showed all the photographers there. Tons of guys packed along the sidelines, all with HUMONGOUS lenses on their cameras.

Dara Torres has an interesting story. She's a 41-year-old swimmer, and this is her 5th Olympics! She's an old woman in athlete years, the oldest Olympic swimmer ever, in fact. That doesn't mean she's not good, though! In the 400m freestyle relay she had the fastest split time of anyone.

We ended up sweeping all three medals in Women's Fencing. That was cool. Those matches go by so fast! I can't say I was surprised to learn that all three girls are from Ivy League schools. :P Anyway, it was the first time any country has swept the event, and the US is usually well-known for fencing, so that's an accomplishment. Also, Zagunis, who won gold, won it last time, as well.

I also watched some Men's Gymnastics. Major feats of strength those events are. The most interesting thing about it to me, though, is comparing the different styles of different countries. China's team is better than the US team in terms of consistancy, but their routines are safer. The US has athletes that go for more difficult moves for high points, but they aren't a sure thing. Alexander Artemev, for example, has a pommel horse routine that was crazy awesome, WAY more interesting than anything the Chinese or Japanese did, but he's hit and miss on whether he can pull it off.