perpetual memory loss

This is what 1/100th of a second looks like (via SI):

Close-up of Cavic's non touch.

Ummm that shit is amazing.  I still can’t believe that he was able to pull that off.

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night.

Today marked the end of the 29th Olympiad, and I have to say I’m sad to see it go.  I really enjoyed this year’s Olympics probably more so than in the past.  There were so many good stories, records broken, and all around great competition this year that it was rare for me to be watching TV and to not be watching the Olympics.  I watched a lot of Olympics this year, and because there is a 12 hour difference I ended up staying up very late most nights (3 or 4 in the morning usually).  So I figured I would go through my favorite and not so favorite moments of the Olympics Sergio Leone style.

The Good

Can’t talk about this years Olympics without talking about Michael Phelps.  Wow what a performance he put on, one for the ages.  I saw 7 of the 8 gold medal swims live, the one I missed of course was the closest one, the 200M Butterfly, and damn was that some compelling TV.  The come from behind relay win against the French is about as good as it gets.  Seeing Phelps win the 8th Gold Medal with about 500 other drunks at the Astoria Beer Garden–with chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!” and “America fuck yeh!”–was one of the highlights of the Olympics for me.  Besides, Phelps the entire US swim team was ridiculously good on both the Men’s and Women’s side.  Some of the coolest stories to come out of the swimming cube were Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Cullen Jones, and Dara Torres.

Even though I am not that knowledgeable about fencing I do like to watch the swashbuckling.  The US women swept the medals in individual sabres–which I don’t think has ever happened.  Probably the best match I saw, however, was the Women’s Team Sabre Gold medal match between China and Ukraine.  I tuned in late and China was about 6 points from winning the Gold and about 8 points ahead of Ukraine, but the Ukraine pulled off a stunning comeback to tie it up at 44 all, with the winner of the next point getting the Gold.  Ukraine completed the comeback by scoring the final point and winning the Gold.  It was a crazy good match.

Another great moment that I stumbled upon was the Men’s +105kg weightlifting final.  This event was won by Mattias Steiner, who had lost his wife in a tragic car accident the year before, making him the sentimental favorite.  Steiner failed his first two attempts before he lifted, a personal best, 568.8 pounds to clinch the Gold.  From there Steiner went nuts jumping all over the stage, hugging his coaches, and crying as he realized both his and his wife’s Olympic dream.  A touching moment that really encapsulates why the Olympics are special.

Rohullah Nikpai won the first medal ever for Afghanistan.  He won the Bronze medal in 58kg Taekwondo.  Good for him and good for Afghanistan.  Hopefully there are more moments and achievements like this in the future for Afghani Olympians.

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RAAAAAAAAARRRWWWG

I have to say that I really love the Olympics.  I know a lot of people hate it, but not me, I really enjoy it, and I always watch as much as possible.  Sure there are some stinker sports in there, but most of the sports are fun to watch.  Of course if the USA is in an event I root for them, but I’m not so nationalistic that I get upset when the US doesn’t win.  One of the coolest things about the Olympics is all the foreign athletes that NBC does stories on.  You get to find out about all the obstacles that many of these athletes have had to overcome to get to the Olympics, and it many times helps to personalize the athletes, and the Olympics.  Most times I find myself rooting for the athletes I see the back stories for because they have endured so much hardship.

Last night, however, was not one of those nonchalant nights.   Last night it was all about the red, white, and blue.  The frenchies have been talking smack about the US.  Olympic swimmer Alain Bernard told reporters:

“The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for,” Bernard said.

Reminds me of Ivan Drago saying “I must break you” right before Rocky threw him a beat down.  Good on the US team for not talking smack and getting into a war of words, but just going to the pool and taking care of business.  I have seen this race a few times and every time I go nuts.  It is one of the best races ever.  The USA smashed the old world record beating it by almost 4 seconds, and edging out the French by eight one-hundreths of a second.  (In fact the top five teams all beat the old world record.)  What made this race so exciting is that Jason Lezak, the anchor, made up a huge deficit on the last lap.  The announcer on TV had all but conceded victory when Lezak made his run.  He ended up swimming the lap in 46.06–which is the fastest split in history.  Just an absolutely amazing race, and one of the great Olympic moments.  Speaking of good stories Cullen Jones is one of the better stories on the US Olympic team this year.  One other point about swimming.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen China, Japan, and Korea ever do this good–which just adds to the excitement with more countries in the mix.  So in honor of the US winning, the French losing, and the fact that there is no video of the race I will leave you with this.  Thanks to Fernie for the pics.