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!
Showing posts with label Darra Torres. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Darra Torres. Show all posts
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
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.
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.
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