Faster, Higher, Stronger

There is a temporary change in the name of this blog to Hypnolympics until the games of the XXX Olympiad in London are through on August 12^th.

And, no, the XXX stands for 30^th you freaks! Those are Roman numerals for those who have forgotten, or never learned them.

I am so much of a geek for the Olympics that back in 2000 I started my own amateur sports festival here in Delaware called the Diamond State Games. This one venture by itself is why I will never be able to retire from working in my life because of all of the money that I lost over its 9 year run. Sadly, I live in the state of Delaware where you can barely motivate a hungry person to eat let alone try to get them excited about anything.

There is a much longer story about that for another time but even though I have had many problems with that project and lost so much money I still am looking to keep pushing on running them again. That’s despite the fact that enough places in the state aren’t available for use at this time of the year. Again, that’s a longer story.

From what I can dig up so far Delaware has four Olympians headed to London. We actually have someone on the men’s swim team and while I have been alive I believe he is our state’s second to make an Olympic swim team. His name is Andrew Gemmell who attended the Charter School of Wilmington and he placed first in the 1500-meter freestyle qualifier.

Our area is a hotbed for Field Hockey and Delaware looks to have three women on its team and two from the same high school. Maren Ford and Carrie Lingo are from Lewes, DE and attended Cape Henlopen HS. Katelyn Falgowski actually lives across the line in PA but attended St. Marks HS around the corner from my house. Ford and Falgowski are in my sports video library from my sports videography business and old TV show called Delaware Sports. So its very cool to see people who have crossed my path in life achieve this kind of success.

But there is one very prominent name that can’t be found on any Olympic roster this year and I think it’s a damn shame. Elena DelleDonne, the nations leading scorer from women’s basketball is not on the US basketball roster. Here is a woman now who has been on national championship teams her whole life, was recently on the US team that won a gold medal in China last year, and actually brought the University of Delaware basketball team into the second round of the NCAA playoffs basically by herself, and she is nowhere to be found.
Ah, but could there be a specific reason why? Could it possibly be that the head coach of UCOnn, Geno Auriemma, is the head coach of the team? Could it possibly be that because Elena originally signed with UConn and then decided to come back home to Delaware that she didn’t make the roster?
I don’t even know for sure if she tried out for the team or not. So I could just be all pissy for absolutely no reason. But she belongs on that team.
To be fair I don’t see Brittney Griner, the 6’8” center from the National Champion Baylor Bears on there either, but she isn’t from Delaware so I don’t care as much.

DelleDonne is still young, however, so 2016 is going to be her prime year. But she brings so much more to the table than her amazing ability to take over a game. I figured that for sure she would be on this roster.

The swimming accomplishment of Gemmell is perhaps the biggest one here, though. Only TWO spots for each individual race are up for grabs. I know that there was some decision some time in the 80’s I believe that cut the number of swimmers that we can bring to a swimming event. That decision is horrible of course given our tremendous success in that event over the history of the Olympics. Our third place finishers are usually better than most country’s top qualifiers so some of them get absolutely robbed of a chance to be an Olympian.
But think about how difficult it is then to make one of these teams. There are hundredths of seconds that can separate first from fourth place in these races, particularly the shorter ones. Fourth place in the Olympics means that you go home with just your memories. For the US Trials, 3^rd place means you don’t even get the chance to make those memories nor have your dreams come true.
So much can happen from the time that someone knows that they are going to compete for a spot until the time the actual race takes place. A sudden cold or sickness, perhaps eating something bad that weakens you, a little slip off the starting block, etc., and you are out.
For younger women who are more likely to peak at these younger ages for swimming, a growth spurt can alter everything that an athlete has to do to maintain the necessary pace to win.
So many athletes yearn to become Olympians and yet even as gifted with athletic prowess as one might have there still is a certain amount of luck one has to have and a certain amount of political luck as well.

I am a fan of the TV show Big Brother and just saw the cast revealed for this upcoming season of the show. I sent in an audition tape to get on the show but naturally since I am writing this I wasn’t considered.
There are a couple of hot girls on there which really makes it rougher to not get the good news. But it looks like a couple of hot dudes on there too so I would have only been able to live vicariously through those guys lives that they would have in the BB house had I been able to go.

I did also submit an audition tape to the TV show Survivor this year. I have threatened to do it for years but finally did it this year. I can’t stand the heat, hate bugs, hate rodents and love modern conveniences which is why I never submitted a tape for all of these years. But I’m not getting any younger and have a desire to do something extreme like this so I figured that I would let the producers know that if they wanted to see a grown man cry in the wilderness like a little lost girl, they should pick me.
I have been tempted to start a Facebook page that is titled, “Pick Marshal Manlove for Survivor!” to try to get some publicity or support for the effort. But I wouldn’t want to risk the possibility that only 4 people supported the cause and just bury my chances instead.

After all, it is difficult to get Delawareans excited about anything, as I already sadly know.

Done.