News flash: MPhelps alleged diet is hogwash?

Today my sports journalism class got to interview Olympic swimming gold medalist Garrett Weber-Gale. Here is his most famous moment, after the USA's upset win over the French in the 4 x 100 free relay, a celebration he doesn't really have recollection of:



He said he remembered checking the scoreboard and seeing a 1 next to the USA names, and wanting to check again to make sure. After that, he doesn't really remember the yelling or hugging euphoria.

He also recalled the Olympics as being "magical" on more than one occasion.

Weber-Gale is a former Longhorn swimmer who still trains in Austin with the likes of Brendan Hansen and Aaron Peirsol, both Texas Exes and Olympians in their own right.

Despite his success in the pool, GWG's looking to make waves in other parts of his life. He has dreams of starting a specialty food business and is contact with a New York literary agent about the possibility of making a cookbook.

For more info on GWG and his love for food, see his website.

But speaking of food, the big news was that GWG dispelled the Michael Phelps 12,000-calories-a-day myth.

"That's so embellished it's absurd," he said.

He's eaten enough meals with him to know it's untrue, he pointed out.

Too bad. Guess that means I'm going to have to cut out my 18-pancake and 12-omelet breakfasts if I have any hope of competing in the 2012 London Olympics. Crickey mate.

Like a moth to the flame, I am to the Games of Torch

So as usual my pre-planned night of paper-writing became write 3/4 of a page, watch 2 hours of Olympics, write another 3/4 of a page, more Olympics. Even the threat of 70% of my grade in a class relying on my usefulness this week isn't enough to beckon me away from the excitement.

Today Michael Phelps collected golds 4 & 5, as well as WRs (world records) 4 & 5 of the Games. What does a WR even mean these days if every single swim race seems to produce one (or multiple in many instances)? Well, I'll share some theories, but it will have to be another day.

How heartbreaking was it to see Alicia Sacramone's meltdown after falling off the beam in the team competition today? I could barely watch. China certainly gave the US plenty of opportunity to snag the gold, but they never fully capitalized on the host country's mistakes.

I guess the US getting the silver just makes that 1996 "Magnificent Seven" team win in Atlanta all the more special. Besides, how much of a team is it if only four competed? (Actually, don't answer that, I know the answer to that question.)


Actually now that I think about it, prime time tonight was just about the most perfect few hours of Olympic watching there could be. All swimming and gymnastics. I'm down for that!

This will probably be my last Olympic update for a few days, or at least the rational side (cell?) of my brain hopes so. Til then, I bid ya adieu.

PS, If they happened for the 2004 Athens games, I don't remember, but I'm loving the nightly Bela Karolyi-Bob Costas chats in NBC Primetime. And by chats I pretty much just mean listening to Karolyi. That guy is so enthusiastic and hilarious, it definitely keeps me watching! If you're wondering why you've heard his name, you probably remember him from this:

Cliff Notes version of a Sparks Note version of an Olympic Update

Despite my darndest efforts not to watch the Olympics this week in order to get through my wildest workload week in a long time, I have failed miserably. Though nowhere close to having seen all that I'd like to see, I still have yet to miss a swimming race. Due to the marvels of DVR I've caught every prelim, semifinal and final heat at the Water Cube. By the way, is this not the coolest building ever?


In case you missed it, just wanted to let you see the highlight of the entire Olympics thus far:



Truth be told, rewatching this race still gives me goosebumps.

While I miss the days when the USA got gold in just about every contest, it never gets old deflating rival smack talk. Before this race, a member of the heavily favored French 4x100 free relay team, Alain Bernard, told reporters, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here [The Olympics] for." As only one could dream, team captain Jason Lezak pulled past the French squad (and the smack-talking anchor Bernard in particular) in the last half meter of the race, in a race where the top five squads blasted through the world record. Awesome!!

And for the suddenly Michael Phelps-obsessed and just-born swimming fans, this gave Phelps a perfect 2 for 2 in gold medals to races thus far. He racked up another gold in his 200 free yesterday as well, with a world record to boot, and now is 3 for 3.

08-08-08

It's here, it's here! The (Summer) Olympics are here! I've only waited 4 exhausting years for this! (You'd think I was a world-class athlete with that proclamation.)

Too bad it's the most insanely busy week of my life (OK -- that's a little dramatic -- but it is extremely hectic right now). I just hope I don't miss all the action.

Go Team USA! I had a snowcone named after you last week in your honor.

My mini Olympic week consists of an agency-wide intern presentation at work, hour-long presentation for my class, and two papers, one being 18 pages. While much less exciting and exhilarating than platform diving or performing the iron cross on rings, it will be intense in its own "special" way.

I will definitely be squeezing in mini-watching sessions for swimming at the very least, and very likely gymnastics, diving, and track & field as well. Here's to hoping Michael Phelps gets mostly silvers (except relays) & that the other US Olympians take golds in all his individual events.

I'm such a jerk. But how can you not despise him when you see this picture? Ugggh.


If that wasn't bad enough, the free Olympic Preview Sports Illustrated delivered to my house (under someone else's name) had him "gracing" the cover. Fine, fine, he's a big story, again. And he's great for the sport. I get it. But did a full 9 (I got tired of counting after that) pages have to be dedicated to this guy? I guess it's only prep for all the "feel good" producers' storylines that will be raised again and again. But did we really need to know how many Facebook friends he has? The answer is 4,621 if you were wondering.*

Anyway, here's hoping that Team USA destroys the Land Down Under in all swimming relays (just a little friendly competition of course)! Though I'll admit, I'm still pretty sad that we won't see Gary Hall, Jr. in these Games.

In the back of my mind I'm on the semi-lookout for ambush marketing attempts too, but with recent IOC sanctions, I have a feeling I won't be seeing much of that.

OK, back to the insanity.


*This number has probably grown since I wrote this.