Friday, August 15, 2008

Olympic Fever!

Yup, I have it! Lots of it! As in sacrificing precious sleep to see gold medals being won! And I'm actually learning some trivia, too- I had no idea that Mary Lou Retton was the first US woman ever to win a gold medal for gymnastics in 1984...and Team USA won the gold AND silver medals for this yesterday! Whoo-hoo! And Michael Phelps won a sixth gold medal for swimming - he's competing for his 7th tonight,which will tie him with Mark Spitz - who is still H-O-T, ladies!

Whatever channel I was watching last night 'deconstructed' Michael Phelps' body, and I had no idea his particular physique was an important factor of his amazing feats: he's 6'4", has a 'wingspan' of 6'7", legs proportionate to a man of 6', torso appropriate for his height, huge feet (size 14) and 'dinner plate' sized hands. And no butt. And a really, really pointy head. I'm not sure I needed to know all this, but there you go - sharing the wealth.

A woman from RI, Rebecca Soni, won a gold medal for some amazing swimming, too. I have to say I really enjoy watching the women's teams much more than the men's. Our volleyball team kicked the Belgians' substantial butts last night, too. I'm not a sports nut by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm really digging the Olympics this year.

As of this morning, we had more gold medals than any other country! China was in the lead yesterday, so it's really neck to neck....go Team USA!

(Oh, and Wendy? The US Women's Volleyball Team's coach's in-laws were attacked at the Olympics - different than the Chinese national stabbing & ingesting that dude on the bus in Canada. Thought you'd like to know...)

3 comments:

C. Margery Kempe said...

I'm really kind of surprised by your Olympic fever -- nothing wrong with it, mind you, just not something that I would have suspected to be lying dormant in your brain, awaiting that first spark of interest.

Yeah, wasn't that bus decapitation story a lulu? Wow -- don't want to get on no bus.

CL said...

The bus incident...like something out of a horror movie. The victim was a carnie worker. Joey asks, "Was he a clown? Maybe he tasted funny..."

:-)

The Queen said...

Oh, I'm surprised by my Olympic fever, too! But there are so many world records being broken, so many women's teams doing amazing things, it's pretty exciting. But it's not like I watch an an entire game or even spend time glued to the TV.

I think someone ought to kick Matt Lauer's ass - on the Today Show, he's talking to medalist Dara Torres (and needing to point out every 5 seconds she's 41 years old)and then turns to Natalie C. (who's won 6 medals this Olympics, more than any other women in history in one game)and says 'Wow, with all your accomplishments, it seems you're being sidelined by Michael Phelps, who has won 8 gold medals. How do you feel about that?" Well, how the fuck do you THINK she feels about that, Matt? At least she came back with a very gracious answer, and then he kept yammering on about Phelps. Meredith Vieira looked like she was going to slap him around a bit, too. Somebody should.

I'm loving the women's volleyball games and we won the gold in women's 8-person rowing.

The Chinese are again ahead of us in medals, but they seem SO pressured considering their country is wide open right now & the hometown pressures put on the athletes.

I'm going with conspiracy theory on the bus thing: Big Oil doesn't want to see an upsurge in public transportation, so they paid that guy to off someone on a bus...