Olympic Follow-Up

We thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics in our house. All three kids watched as much as they could. Peter renewed his love of synchronized platform diving. John loved anything involving athletes from Kenya and Brazil (homes of many of his favorite animals). Catherine was fascinated by rowing. Go figure. Peter was actually fascinated by all of it -- he watched every even that was on when we were home.)

A few thoughts, now that the Olympics are over, for what they're worth.

**************************

First, as great as a certain American swimmer was (I refuse to name him because I want to be the only web site on the Internet that doesn't actually name him), for me, Usain Bolt was the most impressive athlete of the games. Swimmer Guy is obviously the best swimmer ever, but at least one of his races was really close. Bolt, on the other hand, went up against the best of the world in his events, and absolutely blew them away. Maybe it's because I'm a runner and not a swimmer, but I was stunned.

I mean, check out this video. Unbelievable.

Seriously, this guy earned whatever bragging and showboating he does.

**************************

What's the deal with Olympians biting their medals? I've seen a bunch of pictures of them doing this:

I actually looked it up online, to see if this was some kind of tradition. I found a few possible answers: there's the old tradition of biting a gold coin to see if it's real gold (seems a little disrespectful to the Olympic organizers); there's a symbolic "tasting victory" kind of thing going on; I also read that the European photographers kept shouting at the athletes "Kiss it! Bite it!" (I wish I was making that up.) Given the photos of Rafa Nadal biting his Wimbeldon trophy earlier this summer, I think the weird European photographer theory might hold.

*******************************************************

Finally, among the most important stories of the games that you might have missed:

Maarten van der Weijden of the Netherlands won the gold medal for the 10K (that's 6.2 miles) open water swim. He was treated for Leukemia 8 years ago.

Dick Fosbury, inventor of the "Fosbury Flop" method of getting over the bar in the high jump, was diagnosed with Lymphoma is March. He's doing well, and was in Beijing for the 40th anniversary of The Flop.

Eric Shanteau, an American swimmer, delayed treatment for testicular cancer until after the Olympics. He competed in the 200M breaststroke. He didn't medal, but he did finish in a personal best time.

Those are the best stories, aren't they?