Last night's Phelps victory was a little bittersweet for me. You know I am Serbian and I graduated from Cal, so I was harboring hope that Milorad "Mike" Cavic would stand proud on the medal stand. And he did. The silver spot. But, the gold was so close. The length of a fingernail, the thickness of a piece of a paper...one more stroke instead of a glide and he would have beat out Phelps for the gold.What a photo finish. Simply incredible. Cavic had said that it would be good for Phelps to lose -
Phelps coach reminded him of Cavic's comment right before the race. Perhaps that was the fingernail difference. The difference to finish a quest as opposed to be a spoiler. Either way, it was incredible viewing and on a personal level, a little gut wrenching.“I think it’d be good for the sport, and it’d be good for him if he lost once. Just once. Let’s be honest about that. It’s true. It’s good to lose sometimes. I know because I’ve lost a lot. For him, what would it mean? I would hope that he would cut down his events for the next year and start training more for the 100 fly. There’s no doubt in my mind that’s he’s the best. Will he be the best here? I don’t know. He’s got a lot on his plate. Hopefully that will work out for me.”
Lots of pride for Milorad and for Michael. Milorad, you put Serbia ahead of Canada in the Medal Count. Thank you for that! Michael, you're just one incredible dude!
Now, if you haven't watched the Olympics, go in fact hurry, you're missing out on some incredible human drama...tune in tonight and lose sleep like we all did over here on the West Coast.
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2 comments:
I have so enjoyed it this year, which kind of surprised me. I ignored the hype leading up to it and then found myslef riveted when channel surfing. Haven't stopped watching since.
I agree with the Phelps stuff, but I always did like an underdog, so hoping someone else could snag a medal is typical of me. While folding laundry today I was bawling about that whole ping-pong-China-Diplomacy thing in 1971. What a story!! Wish I could find the clip on NBC...
I was little during the Ping-Pong era but I do have a vague recollection of the footage and the excitement my parents felt as another Communist country opened up, slightly, at least. Leaving Communist Yugoslavia was one of the hardest descisions my parents made and now I appreciate it more than ever.
The Olympics have been incredible so far - adjective defying in fact.
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