The Olympics review

Well, the Olympics are over and it was probably the greatest Olympics of my lifetime. The doubts I had about China did not come true. I had an uneasy feeling that something would happen, but thankfully noting did. The Chinese did clean up the air quality, and it did not affect the endurance events.

Michael Phelps broke Mark Sprilz’s Olympics record by winning 8 Gold Medals in a single Olympics. Seven of his races he finished in World Record time, one of the greatest performances in Olympic history, but is he is the greatest Olympic athlete of all time. The numbers say he is when you add his 6 Gold medals from the Athens Games four years ago. He has the most Gold’s in history. I think Michael is the greatest swimmer of all times, but not the greatest Olympic athlete.
Just think about the beach volleyball team of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. They have not been beaten in 108 matches but, because they don’t have the same number of opportunities for multiple medals in one Olympics, they can only win one Gold Medal at the Olympics every four years. So, why aren’t they in the conversation of being the greatest Olympic Athletes?
The BIG story of Track and Field was Usain Bolt of Jamaica. His performance in the 100 and 200 meter finals was just awesome. Both races were run in World Record time. In the 100 final Usain started to celebrate before the finish line. I shudder to think how fast he would have been if he did not pound his chest before the line, but he still broke the World Record. He then broke a 12-year World Record in the 200. This was just pure speed. I could not believe what I was seeing. The two best performances in Olympic Track and Field history. Just think this kid is only 22-years old. See you in London Mr. “Lightning Bolt."

Nastia Liukin won the Women’s Gymnastics all-round title. She joins Mary Lou Retton and Carly Paterson as the only three gymnasts from the US to win the Olympic all-round title. Shawn Johnson won the Sliver for the first ever 1-2 sweep for the US in this event. The ladies did win a Sliver in the team events. Between the ladies and Men’s team this was the best US Gymnastics preference in non-US games. Shawn’s Gold on the Balance Beam was one of the many highlights of the gymnastics competition. One stand out on the men’s side was Jonathan Horton. His Sliver on the Bar was just great.

The US men’s Basketball team did what it set out to do and won the Gold Medal. The redeem team did it with style and a will to win a Gold Medal for their country that was refreshing to see from high priced pro athletes. The women won Gold also; this was their fourth consecutive Olympic titles. Lisa Leslie has been on all four teams, what a remarkable achievement. Leslie should be on the list of greatest Olympic athletes.
The US women’s soccer team won the Gold after losing their first game of the tournament.

The BMX racing lived up to my expectations; it was awesome with a capital A. Just crazy and would like to see more of it. I hope someone will pick it up as a televised sport. It should be on the Dew Tour or X Games.

There were so many great stories in these Olympics, too many to write about here. One story is the US men’s volleyball team’s Gold Medal. On the first day of the games the father-in-law of the coach died after he was stabbed in an unfortunate act. Coach McCutcheon missed the team's first three games to be with his wife, former volleyball Olympian Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon, who was there when the attack occurred. For a team to rally around their coach like this team did and get the job done in a very tough Gold Medal game was just great to watch.

I think NBC did a great job covering the games. They focused on the athletes and not China and that was a good thing. One constructive criticism I have is a lot of time Tim Daggett and Elfi Schlegel on Gymnastics would talk over a performance, I wish sometimes they would just let the pictures tell the story. I loved Bela Karolyi. He was a breath of fresh air and I don’t care if his wife is the US Women’s Gymnastics team coach he was classic TV and I loved it. I also liked how NBC used its cable channel to show other events. It must have been tough for the announcers to call these sports off monitors in New York; they could not react to the crown and feed off of them. I know the soccer was tough to call because they could not see the whole field and see plays develop. I fell in love with Handball, it is a fast pace sport with a lot of action. It is kind of like basketball with a net and not a hoop. Table Tennis was another sport I enjoy every four years. I think Modern Pentathlon is great as well. It is five events in one day, shooting, fencing, swimming, show jumping, and running. The winner is truly the world’s greatest athlete.


One thing that I would like to see televised on US TV is the Paralympics Games next month from China. Last time I looked most other countries are in some way covering the Games. For the record, the Summer Paralympics have never been televised, why? The winter Paralympics was televised by A&E back at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. This was the case because the games were in the US. I don’t understand the networks reasoning or hesitancy to cover these events. Maybe the networks are hesitant because they think people will not watch or the competition is not exciting. For one, I would watch and I know a lot of my friends would watch. People with disabilities are one of the largest minority groups in the US; I think we would all watch. Paralympics athletes have trained all their lives just like the athletes at the Olympics; they should get the same respect as all other athletes! Just because an athlete may have a disability they, from my view, are over looked. You can catch the Paralympics on www.universalsports.com starting September 6. At least this is a start to something bigger I hope.