My Olympics Wrapup

Now that my sleep cycles are all askew, it’s time to post my Olympics highlights:

• Best Tearjerker Moments: It’s a tossup between the Tearful Mums (Shawn Johnson’s when she won the gold on the balanace beam and Jonathan Horton’s just a short while later when he scored his silver for the high bar.
• Why I’m Proud to Be an American: Henry Cejudo’s tearful yet joyful gold medal victory lap in wrestling — Henry’s story is probably my favorite of the whole games.
• The Olympics as Melting Pot: My next favorite storyline involved our two favorite American female gymnasts. I loved that Nastia Liukin won all her medals 20 years after Dad Valeri won his and after he moved the family from Russia to Plano, Texas, and opened a gymnastics. Then there was Iowa’s golden girl Shawn and her Chinese coach, Liang Chow.
• You Gold, Girls: Oh, Misty and Kerri, whatever will you do for an encore (see above)? And you gotta love that women’s soccer team! And how about that women’s rowing team? Oh, and then there were Natalie, Rebecca, Dara, Nastia, Shawn, and those basketball girls.
• Water World: I miss swimming! You couldn’t beat those men’s relays for heat-stopping excitement. And I’m fascinated by Michael Phelps’s gazillion-calorie training regimen.
• My Favorite Obscure Sport: Uh, sleeping???

Oh, the Olympics!

I just finished screaming my lungs out over that final relay at ye aulde Water Cube! Michael Phelps lands his eighth gold medal and that Jason Lezak does it again. That was hot on the heels — er, fins — of the women’s 400 medley. Gotta love those Silver Girls, especially Dara Torres. She GOES, girl!

What a week it has been already. I’m going to miss swimming. Track and field just doesn’t do it for me, and I know there is more gymnastics, but really …

Unlike the Winter Olympics, which has my favorite obscure sport — curling — I just haven’t quite landed on a summer equivalent. Badminton? Rowing? Equestrian? Trampolining (I’m sorry, I just have to draw a line with that one)? Volleyball is quite fun (and those men’s teams — yowza!), as is soccer. Water polo? Well, today’s big upset in water polo caught my attention and had me cheering (and I can’t believe how those guys spring up Neptune-like out of the water). I’ll find something.

At any rate, I love having breakfast with the Olympics and falling asleep to softball or whatever is on MSNBC late night. I could happily do ‘Lympics 24/7! Thank God for the DVR!