The Olympics

I've been watching the Olympics. Thursday night, I stayed up until past midnight to watch the American women take gold and silver in the gymnastics "all around". I figured I wouldn't sleep if I tried to wait until the next day.

How about Michael Phelps?! What a great swimmer, what a great team that helped with the relay races! It was wonderful to see 41 year old Daria win a silver too. I watched the men swimming the 1500 meter. That's 30 laps of the length of the pool in around 15 minutes. I used to swim laps, for exercise, not speed. I would do 20 or25 laps in around 30 minutes, but I was swimming the width of the pool!

I watched the Romanian woman surge out of the pack in the women's marathon about half way into the race and never looked back. She finished way ahead of the second and third winners. I'm pretty impressed with anyone who even finishes a marathon. One woman,who lives in Salt Lake City, but runs for her native country, Slovakia, finished the marathon in 67th place. She had to stop twice toward the end because of hamstring cramps in her legs, but she kept going until the end. I think that takes as much courage as the winners. They were running to win and will have thier medals. The other woman was running for her country and really probably to finish, maybe as a point of honor to herself, though I'm only speculating.

The Jamacian, "Lightening" Bolt really put on a show. I watched him on Friday night during his trials, and he was almost dancing, he was so hyped. When he ran for the gold on Saturday,he broke a world's record, but I think he could have gone even faster, but just before the end, he looked around at the others and realised he'd make the gold, then he just glided into the finish, and he even kept running. Of course he orignally started running the 200 meter, not the 100.

On the whole, so far, the Olympics have been very nice.I always enjoy watching these people, who have devoted much time and effort get the chance to compete with others like themselves from around the world. It's very exciting to see them strive no matter what country they are from. I do enjoy seeing Americans win, but I get a kick out of seeing someone from a small country that doesn't win much, kick butt and win over the odds and bring a medal home.