Olympic Thoughts

Hi Everyone,

After taking an unexpected day off from posting on blog, I'm back.

I want to start off with an apology.  I was scheduled to be at Youth Group last night, but sadly, I was not able to make it.  I apologize to the Youth Group and to Ted Webster.  I'm sorry.  Please forgive me for not making it to the meeting as I had promised.

*** This post is an editorial.  These are my opinions and my opinions alone.  They do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the other Youth Group Leaders, Loving Grace Alliance Church, or the Christian & Missionary Alliance. ***

I hope everyone has been watching the Olympics the past couple of days.  I know Jessica and I try to watch some of the NBC highlights every night before bed.  A lot of the events, I only stand and watch in awe.  The athleticism on the Olympians is mind boggling.

I do enjoy watching Michael Phelps swim.  I think it's amazing that he won 19 medals and his medal count could increase.  His 15 gold medals is also mind boggling.  Plus as a swimmer, he had to do them in short order.  Sometime he had to swim events less than 30 minutes apart.  That's crazy.  I will be sad to see him leave the Olympic spotlight.  I don't remember watching him on TV in 2004.  I might have seen him, but I don't rightly remember.

I do remember watching him on TV at the 2008 Olympics.  That was amazing.  That was truly a once in a life time run.  I remember seeing him win gold after gold after gold.  I like the clip of him standing on the deck of the 4x100 relay where the United States beat France.  That is a picture of raw emotion.

On a related note, I am not a huge fan of Lochte.  He seems more arrogant than anything else.  I am saddened that Lochte might become the face of USA Olympic swimming.  But enough of that.

Womens' gymnastics in one word: painful.  It's painful in that women can do splits that make me hurt just watching them perform.  I really don't know if men have the same ligament structure as men, because I don't know if the male body can bend in some of those ways.  

It's painful to see Jordan Wieber breakdown as she didn't make the cut for women's all-around competition.  The amount of time and effort and sacrifice that goes into being the defending Olympic Gold medalist for Women's All-Around is astronomical.  To see her not make the cut because of a rule that only allows two competitors from one country to compete is painful.  I can understand that critics will say that those are the rules that everyone knew before going into the Olympics, but it's still painful to see our athletes come short.

I am looking forward to watching more of the Olympics.  I wish I could sit and watch all of the events all day.  One day I will go to an Olympics games and see everything first hand.

-Michael