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Tag: 2008 Olympics

I Drool Over the Olympics Like Homer Simpson Drools Over Donuts

The Olympics are, hands down, my favorite sporting event.  It started when I was two, and my mother, an Olympics junkie if you’ve ever seen one, pretty much forced me to watch the 1984 Summer and Winter Olympics instead of doing normal two-year-old things.  This caused me to mimic Mary Lou Retton by diving head first off my couch when my parents weren’t looking, which then resulted in my first of two childhood concussions when I went flying into the window.  (The other came while roller skating when I was four, back before helmets were all the rage.)  Since then, I drool over the Olympics like Homer Simpson drools over donuts.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to follow the Bejing Games as much as I would like.  I have been traveling for work, and haven’t been able to catch the games.  I have been trying to stay up for the late night replays, but have been passing out whenever I see a bed.  I have missed so much of the gymnastics, and I feel out of the loop.  However, here are the observations regarding the little bit I have seen:

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This, My Friends, Is Why You Pick an Olympic Team Ahead of Time

Everyday it seems that I am reminded of another reason why the selection process for the US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team is a comedy of errors. (See “How To Best Make Your Sport Irrelevant” for a full blown rant on the subject.) For the past few days, the Olympic Team alternates – Jana Bieger, Ivana Hong, and North Shore’s born and bred Corrie Lothrop – have been mired in a web of confusion about where exactly they are going to train while the Olympics are ongoing. (The alternates can be subbed in for designated team members up until a certain day prior to the actual start of competition for women’s gymnastics – and for the life of me, I can not find the exact date.) Because they were selected so close to the actual start of the games, these alternates, who would need a travel visa to get into China, have missed the deadline to secure such a visa. However, USA Gymnastics thought that maybe they could get the three alternates into Japan instead, have them train and wait there, and then if one of them was needed, get them into China on an Olympic credential (which acts as a visa.)

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2008 Visa US Championships – Seniors Overall Review

Alicia Sacramone on beam during Day 1 of the 2008 Visa US ChampionshipsI don’t have as great of notes for the seniors as I did for the juniors – for both senior sessions, I sat with friends, and didn’t have the time to take detailed notes. The seniors were amazing to watch, mostly due to the sheer excitement of the crowd – it’s rarely that loud even for hockey games. Hundreds of little girls watching their heroines will do that.

Again, I am not the world’s greatest gymnastics writer, but I was there and know just enough about the sport to understand what’s going on. To review the senior competition, I’ll borrow a device from one of my favorite sports writers, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, that I haven’t used in a while: Ten Things I Think I Think. Continue reading

The Closest I’ll Get to Covering the Olympics – This Week!

I have 6 posts in draft form that I’m working on. I need to drink more caffeine when I get home from work each evening in order to finish them all. But before I finish all of them, I have more important blogging to do!

Chellsie Memmel (aka Scrunchie Girl), who will compete in the Visa US Championships later this weekYes, your trusty wanna-be sports blogger will be attending the Visa U.S. Championships for women’s gymnastics this week at Agganis Arena in Boston, MA. This is the closest I have ever gotten to attending anything having to do with the Olympics, as this event is the first part of the three-prong Olympic team selection process for the women’s gymnastics team. I am not an official media member, so there will be no fancy live-blogging. But I will be taking notes and blogging after the junior preliminary round and the senior preliminary round on Thursday. Will I give you all the skill by skill breakdown? No, I think International Gymnast does a great job of that. But who else can comment on leotard colors (please, I hope no one breaks out lime green) and any standouts like when I picked out “Scrunchie Girl” (later World Champion Chellsie Memmel) during the 1999 U.S. Classic Child Elite competition. Take note, Junior competitors – if I find a reason to anoint you with a nickname during the competition, then this means only good things for your competitive future.

So I hope that you check back on Thursday for my blog entries about the Visa Championships! I promise to consume enough caffeine that day to finish them all!

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