Olympic athletes/stories in the news.

[smokey the elder]

I think it's so neat how "older" athletes are excelling. Dara Torres, 41 years old, 3 silver medals... the 38 year old Rumanian marathoner...a 33 year old gymnast from Germany by way of the USSR, silver medal in the vault. There's a lady shooter who's 56, and a sailor who's around 60 years old.

[RICHARD]

In 2012 send an all women's team. Forget the men.

[Logan]

I've had so much fun watching everything I possibly can. I've truly loved it all. I think it has been one of the most popular olympics in a long time.

[RICHARD]

I've had so much fun watching everything I possibly can. I've truly loved it all. I think it has been one of the most popular olympics in a long time.

IF you get a chance, go.

I have been to rowing/canoeing, wrestling and baseball.

It's one of the most wonderful, exciting things to experience. It's magical and there is nothing like it on the planet. The host city shines and it sounds really stupid, but, you can feel the energy in the air.

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One of the NBC affiliates is doing an Olympic replay on 9/8/08
I didn't get to see some of the sports that I wanted, track cycling, shooting, archery, indoor volleyball and rowing/canoeing.

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I am not a huge futbol fan, but I watched the whole America/Brazil game.
Field Hockey? I watched! Team Handball? Loved it! Archery? missed it!
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One of the announcers was talking about the 'drive' that the athletes have to win a medal. One team -think it was the men's beach VB team- talked about how it was a failure to go home with nothing less than a gold medal.

That made me kinda sad because of the fact that out of the thousands of athletes that go, a very few will ever make it to the podium.

India won their first medal, ever, in air gun, I think it was Pakistan that won their first medal ever in wrestling. THe stories of how one athlete from a country that you only hear about on a game show as the answer to "Which Pacific island country is the chief exporter of Komodo Dragon dung?" wins a bronze medal in 10 meter air pistol and becomes a national hero.

He gets a nice parade, a state dinner and a postage stamp with his picture on it.

Mike Phelps gets 10 zillion dollars, a pic on a corn flake box and never has to buy dinner in a restaurant again.

What is more impressive? Some 'amateur' athlete that makes 5 million a year in
endorsements to swim? Or a guy that works in a gas station for 12 hours, goes home and trains next to the pig sty behind his house lifting buckets of slop so he can compete in weight lifting?

I love my country and will get all goose-bumpy when we win and the National Anthem plays.

But I have to admit, the guy with the wacky name that consists of more vowels than consonants, the flag that isn't color coordinated or comes from country that has a name that ends in a vowel, ends in "stan" or can only be found on a map - if you know where to look - really impresses me.

I like the underdog. I like the country with a Jamaican Bobsled team, Eddie the Eagle, a one legged swimmer?

I do remember the Swiss runner that stumbled into the Los Angeles Coliseum at the end of the of woman's marathon. I remember her name -Gabriela Scheiss- not because she won or placed. She wobbled onto the track and I thought she was going to die. She looked like she had a stroke. But, she kept on trucking. Joan Benoit won that race, the first woman's marathon ever, but the gal in the red running shorts and shirt was the real winner that day-she's probably living a nice life in Switzerland now and get's embarrassed every four years when the Games start again. But she left an impression on me-and a few other people-it wasn't a real elegant, athletic way to be remembered, but there were four letters that really didn't matter to her that day.

Q-U-I-T.

Beijing may have not been the best place to hold an event like the Games.
But I'll follow them no matter where they are held.

I'll go back one day.

I figure four years is enough to find out all about Togo.

[Grace]

I like so many of the events, some that are not on the front line. I really enjoy the 10 meter divers. That Chinese gal last night - her last dive was nearly perfect.

I enjoy the rowing events, especially the eights with coxswain. I would have liked to have seen some sailing.

Overall, I prefer the Winter Games - more personal, fewer competitors. Does anyone remember Lilliehammer in 1994 - perfection!

[RICHARD]

The Games have been great!

My only problems were with the announcers that were doing the events from NEW YORK!

What's up with that?


THere also is a gal doing the overnight hosting duties-Alex something. Her voice is pretty harsh.

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The last thing is why NBC had to include that no talent schmuck, Tiki Barber.

What a waste of airtime.

I was watching last week on the 12th when he got into an arguement with the two women and Brian Williams about the medal counts.

IT was a spirited discussion about what counts more-gold or total medals won.

One of the women said that it was the total medals that counted, than she asked BW what he thought about it. BW said that it was the total medal count.

Tiki (who thinks of these names, anyway?) who thinks that gold counts more, got ticked that the gals took BW's side. He then said something like
"Gold medal count" -without the 'o' in count- to both the women who were arguing their points.

The anchorwoman, who picked up on TB's remark, emphasized that it was GOLD MEDAL COUNT...

Barber has little talent and try to pass himself off as a somekind of cool dude.
You really can't help but see that he's nothing but a turd in host's clothing.

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Winter Olympics?

Short track speed skating, bobsled, biathalon, speedskating and cross country,
hockey and curling!

The 'extreme' sports are really stupid - dowhill halfpipe sledding and crashing? The new sports like BMX, snowboarding and such are just crash and burn sports. You fall, fracture a bone and say, 'gnarly, dude!' There are the X Games held every year for them. Keep the Games as original and sporting as possible!

[RICHARD]

ON September 8th the Paralympics will begin in Beijing.

Those athletes will not get the recognition of the able bodied Olympians but they deserve a look see.

During the Barcelona opening does anyone remember the ABSOLUTE BEST torch lighting?

I seem to remember that the archer who lit the torch had polio.

That a great honor....anyway, remember and give them a little of your time.
The do more with alot less-Gold bless them!