Olympic Gold

I have never watched an Olympic games with such enthusiasm before in my life. We stayed up late every night just to see Michael Phelps and his quest for all of those gold medals. He is an unbelievable athlete, but his mental stamina is what really impressed me. We always loved to see his last turn at the wall when he would suddenly come up a body length in front of everyone else. I'd look over and Allen would be doing the dolphin kick while sitting on the couch. He looked like he was having some sort of spasm!

Of course, we were drawn into the gymnastics events since they were aired with the swimming. I have to say that I think China faked all sorts of documents and let little girls compete. Are we really going to find anything? Um, NOO. The same government that helped break the rules is clearly going to cover their tracks. And, Nastia got robbed on the high bars. No doubt about it.

We loved seeing the men's volleyball team rally considering the tragedy that engulfed the team when the coach's family was murdered within the first few days of the games. Track was a bit of a let down, but that Bolt guy is amazing!

I was bummed that the equestrian events were held 5 hours away and only aired sporadically. The U.S. doesn't typically medal, but this time in the individual we got silver. A true amateur rider came in and had a beautiful ride in the show jumping. I expect professionals to ride like professionals and be extremely competitive. When you think of the financial commitment, time commitment, cost of the horse, cost of transporting the horse to China, etc., etc. seeing someone without a professional backing who is doing this as supplement to their regular life go in and ride with the big guys, it's really motivating and especially sweet.

Overall, I think the U.S. did a great job and made me very proud.