Sunday, August 17, 2008

Olympics, post #2 - WOW!

We have been Olympic watching fiends the last few days. Our favorite events are gymnastics and swimming, and we have not been disappointed by the results. In swimming our team has been awesome particularly Phelps AND Torres. Yes, Torres. Everyone knows what a fabulous performance Michael Phelps has given in this Olympics (a record 8 gold in one Olympic meeting). However, Dara Torres has done the unbelievable. Here's the summary from NBC's bio of her:

Dara Torres won her 10th Olympic medal in Beijing when she anchored the 4x100m freestyle relay to a silver medal in the first session of finals. Torres now has five medals in that event alone: three gold, one silver and one bronze, and she is the only swimmer to win a medal in five Olympics. Her split on the relay was the second-fastest in history at 52.44, behind only Libby Trickett, whose 52.34 in the same race secured bronze for Australia. At age 41, she's oldest Olympic swimming medalist in history and the only swimmer to win a medal in five Olympics.


Over 40 does not mean over the hill. Congratulations Dara!




In gymnastics, both our teams won medals, even if they weren't gold. However, it was thrilling to see Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson win the all around gold and silver. The first time the US has taken two spots in the all around medals, I think. We're looking forward to both men and women's individual apparatus competitions now.

What a summer!

2 comments:

Summer said...

Yes, Dara is awesome and so nice too. I liked how she held up the race because another competitor's swim suit had ripped. Someone else may have just thought, "oh one less to compete against."

RaineS said...

How about Natalie Coughlin? The girl has won six medals in this Olympics. She hasn't gotten much attention from the media. Of course, we've been cheering our homeboy, Michael Phelps -- doesn't hurt that he just bought a house in Fells Point and his coming back home to live. And I can't help but root for Dara, kickin' a** at 41!!