Thursday, August 2, 2012

Olympic Thoughts Day Five

These updates will probably occur less frequently as we get into next week as I will unfortunately be returning to work.  However, there was still a fifth day of competition and I watched so here it goes.


1.  Best sport to watch on this day goes to Women's Canoe.  That looked real tough.  Especially getting through the upstream gates.  I've done this event before on the XBox Kinect but I am guessing it is a little more difficult doing the real thing.

2.  Walsh and May-Treanor finally dropped a SET in Olympic play.  That is just an incredible run.  More impressive was their response, a 21-8 smashing in the second set and a victory in the third set as well to stay undefeated in Olympic matches.  I really want to see them play some more day time matches if you catch my drift.

3.  The USA had a successful night in the pool winning a few individual events, a relay and qualifying several for prime spots to medal tonight.  Last night set up another Lochte-Phelps matchup for this evening, one that will have everyone tuned in.  I will be pulling for Phelps to pull it off.  I will also be rooting for Clary to get whooped.  Who calls out the best Olympian of all time for their training regime? 

4.  I watched a little bit of the men's all-around gymnastics competition.  I was happy to see the US claim an bronze and seem so excited about it.  Men's gymnastics however is not my favorite to watch.  The dues are clearly stronger and more flexible than myself but the females clearly have more finesse and look much more impressive.

5.  I heard some Olympic talk on the radio yesterday and they were debating whether to have American football in the Olympics.  What is there to debate?  The clear answer is NO.  What is the point?  Who would play?  You are telling me the Broncos are going to be cool with Peyton Manning missing training camp and a few preseason games to play in the Olympics?  You are telling me these professional players are going to risk getting hurt right before their season?  Yes you could have a D-III team compete and probably win gold but what other countries are going to furnish a team?  How many make it?  They can't play that many games in the Olympics if they play once a week.  If they don't play that many games, WHAT IS THE POINT?  Some boneheaded people want the Olympics to add football to show the rest of the world how dominate the US is.  This just in: the already know.  There are even the logistics involving having an extra 50 some Olympians for each team in the city.  Contraction is the answer for the Olympics, not expansion.  They got rid of baseball and softball.  Next should be soccer, tennis and basketball.  Let the "Olympic sports" have their time in the sun.  I want to see people that train four years for one chance, not people that compete just for another event.  Its incredible to hear the stories of these water polo players taking a year off from professional play with the sole purpose of training as a team for the Olympics.  Lets bump some water polo, canoe and archery in prime time.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Olympic Thoughts Day Four

The fourth day of competition involved more male sports including male volleyball and men's basketball.  However, the highlight of the day was the team competition in women's gymnastics.  An event I was surprisingly looking forward to.

1.  I watched most of the men's volleyball match against Germany during the day.  Although impressive I couldn't help but think that it was more exciting to watch the women's match just a day earlier.  To those of you thinking so, yes, wardrobe may have played a small part but mainly I felt the style of play was simply more entertaining a day earlier watching Destinee Hooker and company.

2.  After the volleyball match was the men's water polo team.  This may be the most difficult sport to play in the Olympics.  Anyone that says it isn't a sport, well they are naive.  It takes extreme conditioning, strength and toughness.  One burning question remains.  How does someone get started playing water polo?

3.  I watched the 4th quarter of the USA/Tunisia basketball game while many had justifiably switched the channel.  I watched with one number in mind.  55.  That was the point spread on the game.  Just a day earlier the odds makers set the women's line at 54.  It ended up 52.  Although Tunisia covered the spread by about ten points, the odds makers set the USA total for points at 110.5.  Their total?  110.  These people know what they are doing.  Almost like they get paid for it.  Yet, we still feel we know when a line is way off. 

4.  Congratulations to Phelps on setting the record for the most medals in Olympic history.  What an achievement.  I, along with everyone else, felt he had that 200 M Fly in the bag.  That was quite the finish, however it reminds me how good Phelps really is.  He struggled through every turn and mishandled the end of the race yet somehow was "upset" in an extremely close finish.  I'm glad they let Phelps anchor the relay later.  It was really smart coaching as it allowed Phelps to have a lead and not test the amount of energy left in his tank.  Look for Phelps to take down Lochte Thursday night in a race they share the 10 fastest times in history.

5.  How about that gymnastics showing by USA?  I knew the result yet, was thrilled watching it.  Really--I can say I enjoyed watching gymnastics.  Why?  They are good, real good.  I thought it was great that Wieber performed well, but its clear Douglas has the most talent on the team, all-around.  For only competing in one event for the entire Olympics McKayla Maroney may have the "Play of the Olympics".  That event was the most impressive thing I have seen thus far.  She is like the left-handed specialist out of the bullpen in baseball.  She has one task, yet her performance last night was the equivalent of striking out Pujols on three 105 mph pitches in the 9th inning of the World Series.  In case you missed it you can check it out here.  Worth watching probably even a couple of times if not hundreds more.