Go for the gold

If you saw it last night, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh officially announced to NBC that they were going to take some time off from competitive beach volleyball to finally begin families with their husbands now that they're two-time gold medalists.

Karch Kiraly, one of the commentators for television, mentioned that they had hinted at that fact in the few months preceding the Olympic Games.

However, I just wanted to put this out there: I called it first. (Check out the date at the top of that page, booyah!)

Phelps Phever?

Let me first point out that I have no problem with all the media coverage and exposure Michael Phelps is receiving. He's doing ridiculously well and deserves all the spoils he's receiving after working so hard to get to this level.

In fact, watching him is getting me extremely excited and pumped for my upcoming two years working with collegiate swim teams.

The problem is not with seeing Phelps, but hearing him.

Yeah, I said it. After Michael tied Mark Spitz's record of seven medals in a single Olympics, NBC aired an interview between the past and future of the sport. And I was blown away at how terrible an interview M.P. actually is.

I wish I could find that interview online, because at one point I lost track of how many times Phelps said "uhhh" or "you know." No actually, we don't know, Mike. Ninety-nine percent of the viewers in the States have never come anywhere close to even qualifying for the Olympic Games. And he kept butting into the interview wanting to talk, when questions were posed for Spitz to respond.

In his defense, he's just accomplished a mind-blowing feat and was probably out of breath after the 50M Fly. Oh wait, that was over an HOUR before the televised interview. And earlier that day NBC interviewed the swimmer, who never once took his eyes off his Blackberry, texting his heart out.

Michael Phelps clearly doesn't need much swimming guidance anymore. What he needs now is an interview coach.

If I could find his interview on YouTube, it would be one of the worst recorded sports moment since Mariah Carey threw out an opening pitch in Japan.

UPDATE: I found the link for the Spitz-Phelps interview on nbc.com, here it is in a separate window (requires download if you don't already have the latest video player)

Un peu de drame

(And now, a little bit of drama)

Watching the Olympics last night, I felt a bit of the tabloid backlash surrounding the French swimmers. Thinking about the prospect of the French standing on that podium playing La Marseillaise actually made me somewhat excited to see the races heat up.

Let me backtrack a little so you know what I'm talking about:

Laure Manaudou, defending gold medalist in the women's 400 Free at the Athens Olympics was facing off against her biggest rival and the current girlfriend of her ex-boyfriend, Federica Pellegrini of Italy. I heard a bit about Manaudou while living in France, especially during the extensive coverage of the European tournaments and championships this past winter. Long story short, she's a huge celebrity in the French athletic world and was touted to be arguably one of the greatest French athletes if she could repeat in the Olympics.


Long story short, both Manaudou and Pellegrini slipped off the radar during that event, in which all medalists came either from Great Britain or the United States. So apparently all that off-season drama got to the European athletes' heads.

Over on the men's side of the pool, the French men's relay team was being touted as the favorite to take gold in the 400 Freestyle Relay. Adding in a bit of color, Alain Bernard told reporters that the French came to Beijing to "smash" the Americans. And while they did end up shattering the previous world record in the event by nearly four seconds, it was the American squad anchored by Michael Phelps and Jason Lezak who took home the gold.


So much for "smashing" the Americans.

I am really proud for the French though. This really puts them on the map as a world contender. And I lived there twice!

Olympic Fever

Who knew a few years back that I would personally know a handful of American athletes competing in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games?!

It's crazy to think that I worked with all eight U.S. beach volleyball players and two indoor volleyball stars while being on tour with the AVP last summer. It's incredible to watch these intense matches and see errors/big plays and know exactly what is going through those players' heads in that exact moment. That's the nice thing about being a sports journalist -- we get commentary on almost every single play from the athletes themselves. I don't know, I can't explain it, there's just this really big feeling of pride watching everything take place on the world's stage in Beijing.

And now that I'm working on swimming at the collegiate level, the Olympic swimming events are even more exciting and engaging than previous years (since I, myself never really was a swimmer). Michael Phelps?!?

Amazing. Who else could continually break his own world record time after time???

In short, Go USA! I'll be rooting for the American athletes all the way over the course of the next 14 days.