Michael Phelps: Winning 8 gold medals in a single Olympics, 7 in world record time, was an incredible achievement. His hero should be Jason Lezak, who anchored two relays, once overtaking the world record holder from France and then holding off the new world record holder from Australia. But give Phelps his due, he won one gold medal by .01 seconds in what was possibly the most unlikely outcome of the Olympics...not even his mother thought he had won that race. Touch pads and overhead cameras could not lie...Phelps won the race.
Our many years of attending swimming meets taught us that reaching for the wall at the end of a race would be preferable to taking one last short stroke. So Phelps took a short stroke, slammed his hands on the wall and won by .01 seconds. He has probably rewritten the coaching books.
Kobe Bryant: I've never paid too much attention to Kobe Bryant the person...Kobe Bryant the basketball player overwhelmed the man. But during this Olympics, Kobe, the Dream Team member, showed another side.
Bryant is a super star, and he was the darling of the Chinese basketball fans...they called him "little lightning", or something similar. It was interesting to me that Kobe did not conduct himself like a spoiled super star; he conducted himself like one of the boys who was just glad to be at the Beijing Olympics...just glad to be part of the team. I was impressed that he speaks Spanish fluently...at least he was interviewed by the Spanish press and he was answering their questions in Spanish. What was most impressive was the way he handled his interview with NBC's roving reporter Chris Collinsworth....who asked "What does it mean to you to be part of the Dream Team?" Kobe made the typical reponse, but ended with..."It is an honor and privilege to play for the USA, which is the greatest country in the world." The reporter looked smug and said..."Don't you think that is a sort of outdated expression?" Kobe just looked at him and responded .."Not to me it isn't". So, thank you Kobe...you are a Patriot...Collinsworth was a Pinhead.
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