We're about halfway through the 2008 Summer Olympics, and I wanted to share a little bit about that with you. I'm assuming you've been watching here and there, or have at least caught some headlines. At the time of this writing, here is the top 5 in the overall medal count:
As you can see, our athletes are performing admirably! Some of the more notable victories are in the women's all-around gymnastics competition, where Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson packed a one-two punch with gold and silver performances. The men's gymnastics team, too, outdid themselves by winning a bronze medal with no former Olympians (the two leaders of the team both withdrew due to injury) on a squad of rookies. Way to go! Of course, unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of Michael Phelps, the human dolphin. This guy is a one-man world record wrecking crew in swimming, and has raked in six gold medals so far, all of which accompanied broken records. He has tied Mark Spitz for the most gold medals in a single Olympics, and has become the most medaled Olympian in history...and he still has two events in which he can (and probably will) win gold. I have no particular appreciation for swimming as a sport, but I freely admit that it is immensely fun to watch Phelps perform! He embodies excellence, and it's always a treat to watch that. Check him out - he's living history, and will go down as a legendary Olympian.
There are too many others to name, both medal winners and those who simply achieved the nearly impossible feat of making their respective Olympic teams. Stop and think about it - this is one of the very few things in which the entire world has the chance to participate. Even if you're 24th out of 24 in an Olympic event, that means you've actually placed 24th out of 6,700,000,000! Not too shabby in those terms, is it? It's truly incredible to even make the team, and a tribute to years of hard work, sacrifice, and dedication on the part of these athletes and their families.
For more information on U.S. medals, go here. If you've missed anything, NBC has posted just about all of it online, so you can pull up video of any event here. I like that - since China is literally a 12-hour time difference, many of these events occur overnight for us, but these videos still give us a chance to see our athletes perform.
I have just a couple of observations to make about the Olympics. I haven't heard anyone say that the opening ceremony wasn't tremendously impressive. At the same time, I've heard several people comment about how thrilling it was to watch thousands of Chinese people who have been drilling and practicing for months to perfect the event...and how chilling it would be if this same dedication and precision were displayed on a military battlefield. An interesting thing to think about, given current world circumstances. Also, I have to say -- and I can do this, now that the U.S. took gold and silver in the women's competition mentioned above -- that the Chinese sure seemed to get some preferential judging on the gymnastics competitions. I realize I'm totally ignorant when it comes to gymnastic technical prowess, but even the announcers made some comments to that effect. I'm not saying the judges were outright favoring the host country, but it sure looked a little suspicious when you compared the severity of deductions with the magnitude of the mistakes.
Anyway, what's done is done, and the bottom line is the our American athletes are once again showing they are some of the best in the world. While the general consensus going into the Olympics was that China would probably edge us out for the total medal count in the end, we're still looking good. Regardless of the politics of China being the host, I believe we should never fail to support our own athletes striving to be the best in the world. Not only is it good for America and good for them, but it's an awful lot of fun to watch.
Go USA!!!
There's my two cents.
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | Overall | |
| U.S. | 14 | 12 | 18 | 44 |
| China | 25 | 9 | 6 | 40 |
| Australia | 5 | 7 | 8 | 20 |
| Russia | 3 | 8 | 8 | 19 |
| France | 3 | 8 | 7 | 18 |
As you can see, our athletes are performing admirably! Some of the more notable victories are in the women's all-around gymnastics competition, where Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson packed a one-two punch with gold and silver performances. The men's gymnastics team, too, outdid themselves by winning a bronze medal with no former Olympians (the two leaders of the team both withdrew due to injury) on a squad of rookies. Way to go! Of course, unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard of Michael Phelps, the human dolphin. This guy is a one-man world record wrecking crew in swimming, and has raked in six gold medals so far, all of which accompanied broken records. He has tied Mark Spitz for the most gold medals in a single Olympics, and has become the most medaled Olympian in history...and he still has two events in which he can (and probably will) win gold. I have no particular appreciation for swimming as a sport, but I freely admit that it is immensely fun to watch Phelps perform! He embodies excellence, and it's always a treat to watch that. Check him out - he's living history, and will go down as a legendary Olympian.
There are too many others to name, both medal winners and those who simply achieved the nearly impossible feat of making their respective Olympic teams. Stop and think about it - this is one of the very few things in which the entire world has the chance to participate. Even if you're 24th out of 24 in an Olympic event, that means you've actually placed 24th out of 6,700,000,000! Not too shabby in those terms, is it? It's truly incredible to even make the team, and a tribute to years of hard work, sacrifice, and dedication on the part of these athletes and their families.
For more information on U.S. medals, go here. If you've missed anything, NBC has posted just about all of it online, so you can pull up video of any event here. I like that - since China is literally a 12-hour time difference, many of these events occur overnight for us, but these videos still give us a chance to see our athletes perform.
I have just a couple of observations to make about the Olympics. I haven't heard anyone say that the opening ceremony wasn't tremendously impressive. At the same time, I've heard several people comment about how thrilling it was to watch thousands of Chinese people who have been drilling and practicing for months to perfect the event...and how chilling it would be if this same dedication and precision were displayed on a military battlefield. An interesting thing to think about, given current world circumstances. Also, I have to say -- and I can do this, now that the U.S. took gold and silver in the women's competition mentioned above -- that the Chinese sure seemed to get some preferential judging on the gymnastics competitions. I realize I'm totally ignorant when it comes to gymnastic technical prowess, but even the announcers made some comments to that effect. I'm not saying the judges were outright favoring the host country, but it sure looked a little suspicious when you compared the severity of deductions with the magnitude of the mistakes.
Anyway, what's done is done, and the bottom line is the our American athletes are once again showing they are some of the best in the world. While the general consensus going into the Olympics was that China would probably edge us out for the total medal count in the end, we're still looking good. Regardless of the politics of China being the host, I believe we should never fail to support our own athletes striving to be the best in the world. Not only is it good for America and good for them, but it's an awful lot of fun to watch.
Go USA!!!
There's my two cents.
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