Michael Phelps is #1

Another banner day for Michael Phelps. He showed up tied for #1 all-time career gold medals. He walked out #1 all by himself.

Things started off in Phelps' top event the 200m Butterfly. This race was actually a lot closer than most people would have thought. We later found out that Phelps had a crack in his goggles and it caused them to continuously fill with water. (Hence the irritated toss of goggles and head gear at the end of the race) Phelps did not finish the race in the time he had hoped for, but he still broke the world record and still won gold.

Later in the morning (or evening, depending where you are) Phelps swam the lead leg in the 4x200m free relay. He gave his team a tremendous lead, almost a full body length. By the time the third leg started, the US team was almost a full two body lengths ahead. They crushed the old WR by 5 seconds. They became the first team to ever finish under 7 mins.

Phelps now has 11 career golds. Five golds in this Olympics. He has 3 more events to break Mark Spitz record of 7 golds in an individual Olympic. And he is winning his events in a Spitz like fashion.

5 events. 5 gold medals. 5 world records.

Should be an exciting week. Congratulation Michael.

Day 3 is AMAZING!!!

If you missed any of the pool action for day 3 of the 2008 Olympics games, you missed some of the best swimming in history.

To start things off, there was some really good swimming on the women's side. Christine Magnusson had a strong showing in the 100m butterfly snagging Silver in her first Olympics. Not longer after that Katie Hoff had a great race in the 400m Free. Hoff lead nearly the entire race, only to lose by 7 one-hundredths of a second. She grabbed the silver, but lost her grip on the gold by a fingertip.

Then later in the evening, we had the real fireworks! The men's 4x100m Free Relay!

All day long the French team had been talking smack. All day long they said they were going to "smash" Michael Phelps and the Americans. Well the French team did break the world record. They were one of 5 teams that broke the world record in this race. But the team that broke that record by the most?

You guessed it. Good ole' American boys "smashed" everyone and every record. The destroyed the old record by nearly 4 seconds. This race, which had 5 WR breaking runs, was probably the greatest relay race of all time. If you didn't see it, find someone who DVR'd it, rush to their home and immediately watch it.

Michael Phelps was the highlighter for this race, winning his 2nd Gold in these Olympics. He is still locked in and on pace to break Mark Spitz record of 7 Gold's in one Olympic. As great as Phelps is and was in this race, he wasn't the key for this team.

Jason Lezak, the oldest man on the swimming team, anchored this race and swam the fastest 100m split in history. The amazing thing is that the French were actually ahead by nearly half a body length in the last 50m. But Lezak finished his historic leg of 46.06 to beat France's Alain Bernard by a hand giving the U.S. a win by 8 one-hundredths of second. Lezak's teammates reactions is exactly the same as the reaction in my house, and hopefully millions of others.

After this day the U.S. is on top of the total medal standings with 11. We are behind in the total Gold's though. I think after seeing this though, there is no question that with swimming alone we are going to make major leaps on medal podium. Phelps, 200m, Monday night. Watch it, or you will hate yourself!

2008 Olympics

It's that time again. The Olympics are here. I tell you, I don't know how anyone cannot love the Olympics. It's just such a beautiful event when all that matters is peace, unity, winning, countries coming together, strangers becoming friends and well winning!

What I really love is that its the time when we get to see all those obscure sports that no one ever talks about except on an Olympic year. I love the talk that has been going on about this year's men's basketball team. All the talk about how they are going to win it all this year. No embarrassments like last time. You know what I have to say about that? WHO CARES!!!

Why would anyone give a damn about basketball when we have sports like swimming, gymnastics, track and field, volleyball and water polo. That's right Kobe I said gymnastics is more important than your sport. I mean come on people, this is when it really matters. This is a representation to the whole world. Who didn't cry in 96' when Kerri Strug landed that vault. I know I did.

I personally can't wait to watch gymnastics. I think we have a good chance this year. I can't wait to see Michael Phelps destroy every record again. I can't wait to watch Tyson Gay sprint to victory. Hell, I even watched a Cuba vs Norway volleyball match today just because it was on.

I love the Olympics!!!!! More to come!