…as if you could only choose 10 things!

Have you been watching? Perhaps you’ve missed the all-around Rhythmic Gymnastics Finals? You’re OFF the ball, catch them Sunday!

1. Jamaica will surely have the biggest post-Olympics party in the world after claiming 4 sprint Golds - Usain Bolt - 100m, 200m, Veronica Campbell 200m, and Shelly Ann Fraser 100m (the entire Island will be surely be invited as the population clocks in at 2.7million people).
2. Michael Phelps will hope he’s allowed extra baggage claims, as he brings home 8 gold medals and the possible title “Greatest Olympian Ever” (and possibly cutest)
3. Team Great Britain shows that living in a country surrounded by freezing cold water can actually be a good thing - among they’re 18 gold medals so far- Ben Ainslie took his 3rd sailing gold (which many believe gives HIM the title Greatest Olympian Ever), Rebecca Adlington took the 400m and 800m freestyle (world record) for GB’s first swimming medal in 48 years, and James, Williams, Reed and Hodge beat injury to win gold in rowing.
4. Coming from war-torn Afghanistan , Rohullah Nikpai wins the country’s first medal - Bronze in Taekwondo, and will be rewarded with a new house courtesy of the government.
5. The girls win China’s First Team Gold in Gymnastics, and the world realizes, yet-again, that people from China are small. (sorry, girls, I get this all the time too “how old are you? you’ve got to be kidding…but you’re so LITTLE.) Short people of the world, unite www.shortsupport.org !
6. Carli Lloyd scores for the US Women’s Soccer team and beats Brazil for Olympic Gold (yes, Brazil! I know! Crazy!)
7. With BBC’s “Little Red Button ” Britain’s BBC TV shows 24 hours a day of 7 different sports of Olympics, rankings, results, and special features at the same time with a push of a little button on your remote control. They win - Best Olympics Coverage for the Obsessive Olympics watcher (not it!).
8. Dutch swimmer, Maarten van der Weijden , survives Leukemia to win gold in the 10k Open Water in… the…RAIN. He squashes all future echoes of “i just caaaannn”’ttttt make it to the gym today, I’ve got this funny little pain in my arm - as does #9…
9. Amputee Natalie du Toit , 24 years old from South Africa - was the first amputee to compete in the Olympics, placing 16th in the 6.2 mile open swim. An athlete all of her life, she was destined for the Olympics when she had a motorcycling accident in 2001. She got back in the water only 6 months later and has not stopped competing in swimming since.
10. BMX is cool - gruesome and bloody but totally cool - Anne-Caroline Chausso of France becomes the first female gold medalist in the sport, and Maris Strombergs of Latvia takes the men’s gold.

Not only have the Olympics taught us that there are more than 200 countries in the world (damn, that’s a lot of flags to memorize) and that Chinese people are not all short, (but even if they are, it’s OK), they’ve also shown us just how fun the party can be when the world gets together in one little city.

Thanks for the entertainment!

What makes up your list of good things about the Olympics?

More Olympic news: BMX is the new sport this year!

That should make anyone that saw The Dirt Bike Kid movie from the 80s incredibly happy. And if you havent, check out this awesome description from IMDB.com:

“When his mother sends Jack off with money to buy groceries, he comes home with a magic supercharged dirt bike instead. His mother is furious, but when Jack uses the magic bike to save the local hot dog stand from the clutches of corrupt big business, he becomes the town hero.”

AWESOME.

And if you want to know more stuff about the sport:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMX

Other Olympic news, and then I will stop (for today): Today the IOC voted to eliminate Softball and Baseball from the games after Beijing. They could be back in 2016. Good News? Up to you.

Morgan Freeman (who is definitely not having a good week) lent his voice to an Olympic commercial for VISA: the tag line reminded us that all those athletes that accomplish incredible things are human, and we are human too.

Well, that’s just biology.

Natalie Du Toit may be human, but (and I don’t mean this to sound cheesy) she is a far superior human than the rest of us.

The South African swimmer is the first amputee to qualify for the regular Olympics. Seven years ago, a scooter accident caused her to lose her leg, above the knee. A year before that, she just missed qualifying for the Sydney Olympics. Clearly, the accident could not stop her. To get to Beijing, she finished fourth (!) at the 10K World Open-Water Swimming Championships. Since she swims without a prosthetic leg, her qualification caused no outcry.

I can barely swim in the ocean with both legs, both arms, and a couple of floatation devices; to make it 10K would require a jet ski.

Her event, the 10K Open-Water race is on August 20.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/swimming/2299269/Dreams-carry-Natalie-Du-Toit-to-Beijing.html

Good news - if you get kidnapped by terrorists at the Beijing Olympics, China has some possible solutions for you:

• Keep calm. Don’t resist. Believe the government
• Don’t make eye contact with or speak to the terrorists. Bend your body down to the ground slowly
• Try to keep and hide your telecommunication device. Put your mobile phone into silent mode at the appropriate moment and send messages to police or call 110. If you send a text message, the content should include your location, the number of hostages, and the number of terrorists
• Pay attention to the number of terrorists and remember who their leader is for subsequent investigations
• At the moment of the police action, try your best to bend down and leave under the police protection

My first thought was, “What kind of terrorists would not search hostages for cell phones!”

In the same manual, the Chinese government has put out a list to help people identify terrorists. It informs the public that terrorists will not be wearing stickers that proclaim themselves as terrorists; but they will exhibit abnormal behavior. Choice selections from the “identify terrorists” list include: those who appear frequently at big event venues and those refuse to do security checks and sound arrogant. Apparently the government is telling people to be wary of all tourists and members of the press.

For more on the goings-on in Beijing, check out James Reynolds’ blog – he is a BBC correspondent stationed there and has some great insight on how China is getting ready for the games.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/