Monday, August 11, 2008

I Shed My First Olympic Tears

Last night I got misty eyed for the first time this Olympics. You can usually chalk me up for 3-5 teary-eyed moments per Olympics. There's just something about the competition and teamwork, and laying it all on the line, and performance under pressure that does me in- it's just intense.

I'm not a big swimming guy, but the men's 4x100 freestyle relay was unbelievable. It looked like Phelps' quest for 8 golds was over. The US was behind by a whole body length going in to the final leg - against the heavily favored team from France. France's best swimmer and relay anchor was the world record holder and the one who said they were going to "smash" the Americans in the finals. So when it came to him with a whole length lead - it looked impossible. The US anchor, Jason Lezak swam the fastest relay leg in history and came all the way back and beat him by a fingertip for the gold. The reaction of the rest of the team was priceless. You can read about it here.

If you read it and don't cry - don't think I'm a wuss - I mean....you really had to see it live.....and well....I've had a really long and stressful week.....plus I'm emotionally spent from preaching three times this weekend...I'm just saying....

2 comments:

Danielle said...

i completely lost my mind over it...i was flipping. it was on of the most incredible sporting moments ever on tv.

Larry Shallenberger said...

Derek's also cries during rebroadcasts of The Sound of Music, though...