Monday, August 11, 2008

Upon Closer Consideration

Upon closer consideration I have determined that my football analogy really doesn't do that race justice. There are far more chances for redemption in a football game than there are in a swimming race, just based on the time factor. While I was laying there trying to fall asleep I started thinking about the fact that if any of the first three swimmers had been just 1 tenth of a second slower the relay would have lost. 1 tenth of a second! That is hitting the turn at not the exact spot, or leaving the block at not the exact moment or starting your kick not quite soon enough. It's minuscule. And for anyone who has not swam competitively, you should watch how they leave the blocks between swimmers, that in itself is an artform. And a very hard one to perfect. So, needless to say I'm still quite excited about last night's swim. I tried to find a video of it, but my work computer blocks streaming videos. It even blocked the main Olympic page - which is actually really well set up. I think this might be a video of the swim however, so give it a try.

In other Olympics news, I was intrigued to hear that the US swept the women's saber fencing on Saturday. That is the kind of stuff I hate about only getting the main channels - you only get to see what they think will draw the biggest crowd, and fencing is likely not it. But anyway, I'm going to get to work now and attempt not to be distracted by what is happening 12 hours away in Beijing.

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