Saturday, August 16, 2008

Got Records?

I know, I know...everyone is tired of me writing about sprorts. What's a girl to do though when she has just witnessed history? I've mentioned before that I started swimming competetively when I was six years old. I also tried diving, gymnastics, track and field, softball, and basketball before I fell in love with swimming. It was not an uninformed decision for me. So, as an informed lover of the sport let me count the ways that this has been an unbelievable experience for me as a fan.

(1) Clearly Michael Phelps has held the news media attention this year. There has even been talk about how his presence this year has been bad for the sport, but come on people...he just won eight gold medals. Eight! I was two months old when Mark Spitz won his seven gold medals in Munich in 1972. As a ten year old, I had the opportunity to swim in the same pool that the Spitz did when he won seven gold and set seven world records. In fact, I got to swim there with my mom. It gave us both goose bumps. This evening I got to see Phelps break that long standing record.

(2) I do recall watching Janet Evans set a world record at the Olympics some nineteen years ago (the longest standing swimming world record) and last night I got to see that record fall in the 800 freestyle. It was a little sad for me to see that record fall since I did get to see it set, but records are meant to be broken.

(3) I grew up watching Dara Torres and tonight I got to watch a 41-year old heroine of mine win silver in the 50 freestyle (damn that 0.01 second out-touch...I thought she had it). And did you see the joy on Dara's face with that silver? It was so utterly joyous. Then she came right back in about twenty minutes for the women's 4 x 100 medley relay to win silver again. And every member of that team had the grace to say how Australia simply was the better team. Dara's comment after all of that was that she would want to tell her two year old daughter who probably wont remember the evening that you shouldn't put an age limit on your dreams.

(4) On top of it all, Natalie Coughlin just won six medals in one Olympics and that was also a record for a woman.

For me, it has been an amazing Olympics!

1 comment:

habladora said...

Hummm... I can think of another blog with a readership that might enjoy news about Dara Torres, Natalie Coughlin and some of the other incredible athletes who make a Maus's eyes glow with love...

Have you got another little post in ya?