More Reflections on the London Olympics

*Michael Phelps ended up with 22 medals with 18 of them gold medals.  That is ridiculous.  He medaled in 22 of 24 Olympic finals.  That is a pretty good percentage right there.  Some compared his finish to that of Michael Jordan retiring (the 1998 retirement).  The crazy thing is that Ryan Lochte is older than Phelps and will be at the Rio Olympics in 2016.  So honestly, if Phelps wanted to, he could add to that total.  But given his comments, I don't think he'll go back on saying he's retiring.  There are Olympic athletes that dominate a generation.  Phelps is definitely one of those athletes.

*Usain Bolt is fast.  Anyone who watched the final of the 100m race can attest to that.  And that final had some big time names in it:  besides Bolt, there was his teammate and fellow countryman Yohan Blake, who beat Bolt at the Jamaican Olympic qualifiers and also is the reigning World Champion at 100m, Justin Gatlin, USA runner who won the gold back 2004 & was coming off of suspension, Tyson Gay another USA runner who won the World Championships in 2007.  So it was a big time race.  And Bolt came through with an Olympic record time & 2nd fastest time in the world only to himself.  It was one of those blink and you'll miss it.

A cool side story.  After the race, Bolt was being interviewed by a Spanish network.  The reporter was trying to ask questions just as the national anthem was being played for the medal ceremony for the winner of the women's 400m, American Sanya Richards-Ross.  Bolt politely stopped the interview and pointed to the medal podium and paused while the American anthem was played.  Afterwards, he finished the interview with the reporter.  Classy move and one that deserves props.

*On the flip side of that, the USA women's soccer team.  This tournament has seen them win every match so far (though there were some scares against France & recently in their semifinal matchup against Canada).  Along with that, there has been some antics they've done which has been disappointing.  After some of their goals (particularly against New Zealand) there were over the top in their celebrations.  Now I'm all for celebrations, in the heat of the moment, excited spontaneous celebrations are great.  But if you're choreographing them (especially the worm one) that's a bit too much, especially in the Olympics.  I haven't seen the women's basketball team do things like that (and they're the best in the world), neither has the women's volleyball team either (and they're undefeated so far in these games as well).  I think the soccer team should take a page from those teams and win without losing respect of other teams.

*Speaking of the USA volleyball teams (both men's and women's) both sides look dominating.  They both won their groups and are in line for a chance to both get gold.  Beach volleyball could have a USA gold medal final on the women's side with Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh Jennings vs. Jen Kessy & April Ross.  Unfortunately, on the men's side both US teams got bounced so no medals there.  That'll have to be rectified in 4 years in Rio.

*Hopefully in 4 years as well, NBC will have better coverage of the games.  This has been a bad summer games for the network as they have gotten a lot of things wrong.  Part of it I think is not updating with the times & part of it is having London be a 5 hour time difference from the East Coast.  Next summer games, it will be in Rio, which is only a 1 hour time difference.  So hopefully more live prime time events will help out.  They can get a jump start on this in 2 years with the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, which is an 8 hour time difference.

Reflections on Opening Weekend of London Olympics

The Olympics are back.  The 30th Summer Olympic games have started and I'm watching as much as possible.  There were several things that stood out after this first weekend of games:

*It is one of those times where I wished I had cable or dish.  Many of the events are on live on the various networks of NBC (CNBC, MSNBC, NBC Sports Network, Bravo) and you can't see them unless you have cable.  And even in 2012 when a lot of sports events are streamed online or app, you have to have cable/dish accounts to access them.  Fail.

*For Michael Phelps, this is not Bejing.  Four years ago, he had a record medal haul.  So far, he's gotten a 4th place finish and a silver medal in relay.  It is a good reminder that one can't rest on history but have to focus on today.

*Another NBC gripe, still using tape delay when everyone can know the results through twitter or online.  No matter if you try or not, you find out.  It's 2012, you can show stuff live and still replay it later.

I'll probably blog some more about the games as they go along.  I'm enjoying watching when I can and what I can so far. 

Reflections on the Winter Olympics (Opening Weekend)

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love the Olympics. This is even more so the case of the Winter Olympics. I was born on February 29, 1980, five days after the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid (FYI, my due date was originally the 22nd, which was the day the "Miracle on Ice" took place). I was still too young to remember the 1984 Olympics but in 1988 I remember watching the Winter Olympics that were in Calgary and really fell in love with it. It was awesome to watch both Olympics in the same year. I was disappointed when they separated the two and moved the Winter Olympics to a non-Leap Year after the 1992 Olympics.

I've had some great memories watching the Winter Olympics. One of my best memories is in 2002 when I was a senior at Union and watching the Men's Hockey Finals in the upstairs of Hurt Commons with friends. It was cool watching the U.S. and Canada play each other.

This year, the Olympics are in Vancouver. It is a beautiful city. I was there for a week back in 2005 on a mission trip. If I still lived in Seattle, I would make the trip up to go to the Olympics. If I wasn't in seminary right now, I'd definitely have done it. By the way, if you've never been to Vancouver, you should visit.

Aside from the tragedy of Friday with the death of the luger from Georgia, it has been a good start. The U.S. team has gotten 4 medals after yesterday and will hopefully add to the total. I was very happy that Poland got a silver in Ski Jumping (Normal Hill), which is one of my favorite sports in the Olympics.

I'm excited for the next two weeks to watch some Olympics. I think there will be some memorable moments and hopefully I'll have time to blog about it.

Reflecting on The Olympics (Opening Weekend)

The 2008 Summer Olympics started this weekend. I love the Olympics, partly because of the world competition and partly because it falls on Leap Year (well the Summer ones do). It's one of those times I wish I had cable but at least during the weekends there's a lot on regular TV.

I love how the Olympics help to promote stories as well as events. It's so interesting to learn about the background of the athletes both of the favorites and the underdogs.

It's during the Olympics that events such as swimming, track and field, gymnastics get the main attention. It's the only time I'll root for a team with Kobe Bryant on it. It's the time when there are compelling stories about people that transcend nation and race. In some ways, it's a reflection in some way of how the church is supposed to be. The church made up of people of every nation, people group, language all coming together to celebrate and worship.

So, if you want to know what I'll be watching the next few weeks, this is it :)