Like many others in the world I have watched the Olympics these last two weeks. Okay I will admit, I did a little bit more than just watch a few events. I was a bit obsessed with the entire thing. I dvr'd two channels to watch when I got home each night. In the morning I couldn't go to work until I finished watching the match or race. I watched a little of pretty much everything. I could not believe some were even sports. I mean seriously, doubles badminton? I am sure the players in these events trained extremely hard and were excited to make it to the Olympics, but at what point do you say to yourself "I want to go to the Olympics playing doubles table tennis"?
I loved watching each of the swimming events. I was so excited to see Phelps win each of his medals and the freestyle relay was intense. Dara Torres is such an amazing woman, her devotion to the sport is unbelievable. I was so impressed by her to have the courage and sportsmanship to approach the judges to have them delay the heat so a fellow athlete could have the chance to swim after her suit ripped.
My favorite by far was beach volleyball. I am a beach volleyball junkie to begin with, but this year was especially fun. I had only slightly paid attention to the sport the last few years. I knew Dalhausser and Rogers and loved watching them each event that I caught on TV. But coming into the Olympics there was an all new team for me to really cheer for. The first time I saw Gibb and Rosie was their opening match and thought wow, he looks so familiar. I couldn't figure out why until the announcers said that he was from UT and had 11 sibs and was a twin. At that moment I knew this was Jake of Jake and Cole. I had heard so much about the twins while Joy and Dale were living at her in-laws while they served a mission. Each time a camera would pan out over the audience I would search to see if I could see Joy. I never did, but Jake put a really good picture of Dale on his blog.
Then of course, there was the Professor and the Thin Beast. I absolutely loved watching them. Their matches were always late at night and I would try to stay up so I could watch them live. I am sure that my neighbors were annoyed each time I did because I was yelling and cheering for them the entire time. The one time that I didn't make it and fell asleep, I woke up the next morning and couldn't go to work until I saw the entire game. I kept yelling at "the boys" to hurry up and win because I needed to get to work!
Now that the 17 days are over I don't know what I will do with myself. :-) I guess I will just have to go back to having a good nights' sleep, cleaning my house, weeding my garden and I might even have enough energy to get back on my bike again. I look forward to the 2010 Vancouver games and the chance to people watch again and hope that I get just a glance of Myriam (works for the city organizing the games) and anticipate the announcement of the 2016 games and hope that they will be held in Chicagoland.
