White Men CAN Jump!

I'm very proud to still have a juvenile sense of humor during the most of the day. While I can appreciate sophisticated humor from time to time, when I was watching the men's trampoline competition a few days ago I laughed like an 8-year old when China's Dong Dong took his turn to try to win an Olympic medal.

Dong Dong...hehe

It did make me think about what names we use in our country that might have a different meaning in Chinese. For instance, could David mean, "Giant Butt" in Chinese?

South African double amputee, Oscar Pistorius made Olympic history as the first with his type of physical condition to compete in an Olympic track event. Competing in the 400-meter run Pistorius qualified for a quarterfinal run although he came in last in that run. Pistorius runs on specially designed "blades" which had track spikes on the bottom of them. He had to get special clearance to compete, of course, since there were some complaints that he had some sort of advantage.
I had a tendency to agree with that even if some engineers testified otherwise. Those blades are artificial and I thought the whole idea of competing in these events was to do so naturally. This is why there are drug tests and gender tests.

Preparing for the High Jump Competition in 2016

Serena Williams won two gold medals for the US in tennis one of which was the women's singles competition. She completely smoked Maria Sharapova in the gold-medal match 6-0, 6-1. It did truly seem as if Serena was legitimately happy to win these medals. She did say that competing as a member of a team for her country added to her experience and that it was fun to hang out with other athletes and root for the rest of her teammates when she wasn't competing.

Sprinter Justin Gatlin won me over as well with that same attitude in an interview following one of his qualifying races for the 100-meter dash. He said that he wasn't doing this for himself, or for his team, but for his country.

There is a country called Eritrea. It is located in the horn of Africa and they sent a couple of athletes to the Olympics. I was more fascinated with the fact that I had apparently discovered a new country than the athletes themselves.

Here in Delaware we have a track and country coach named Pat Castagno. He has established himself as one of the best coaches in his sport in at least this state there has ever been. He coaches for a small private school called the Tatnall School and churns out state champions at an amazing pace. Because of his knowledge and ability he can attract motivated athletes to his program which then can strengthen his program.
So think about what Alberto Salazar's coaching camp will look like in the next couple of years. Salazar, a member of the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, coached Great Britain's Mo Farah and Galen Rupp from the US to a 1-2 finish in the men's 10,000 meter run. Farah became the first Brit to win gold in this event and Rupp was just the third American to win a medal in Olympic history.

Whenever anyone from Ghana competes I root vigorously against them. Ghana is home to a plethora of internet con men who try all of those online scams to try to rip off people in this country. You have probably heard of many of these con jobs which include subscribing to online dating sites to try to lure older people into sending money overseas to "bring them to the US for love."

Another of these scams include the one in which you get an email saying that you can earn millions of dollars by simply opening up an account so that some royal person from there can clear money that is rightfully his, or something to that effect.

I am in love with GB's Jessica Ennis now. She was the winner of the heptathlon this year and is simply smokin sexy. She lived up to the hype placed on her and didn't succumb to the pressure placed on her shoulders. In fact, in the final event of her competition, the 800 meters, which wasn't her strongest race, she won it to the excitement of the packed house at Olympic Stadium and her countrymen.

Jessica Ennis

Step aside Jessica Alba, I have a new Jessica in my life

The Brit's have committed a series of flagrant flag violations that I have seen so far. I've seen flags landing on the ground and even Ennis was carrying one that was adorned with accolades for Ennis, which here in America is a technical foul.

Who says white men can’t jump? Great Britain’s Greg Rutherford won the men’s long jump gold medal with a leap of over 27 feet! An Australian, who also happened to be white, won the bronze.

Greg Rutherford (NOT Photoshopped!)

NBC’s Andrea Kremer has been the poolside reporter at the aquatic center. How many questions did she ask which had athletes tilting their head as if to say, “Wow, that was a stupid question?”

Lewis Johnson is the track and field interviewer and he has done far better trackside with his questions. He asks open-ended questions that also aren’t, “How do feel about winning the gold?” or “What does this mean to you?” But Johnson must be about 8 feet tall because no matter who is standing next to him it looks as if he should playing along side LaBron and Kobe on the basketball court.

I love the fact that every time a Brit wins a gold and they play their National Anthem that I can sing alternate lyrics to it that are truly America….LET FREEDOM RING!

We didn’t place anyone in the women’s marathon this year as our girls finished 9^th and 10^th this year. Returning bronze medalist Shalane Flanagan wasn’t able to medal in an event which teammate Kara Goucher called “more painful than giving birth.” Flanagan is the American record holder at 3k, 5k and 10k. I actually remember seeing her in the Penn Relays when she was at North Carolina running.

Since our men’s soccer development program is a failure in the US may I suggest that they all transition into Field Hockey? I was watching Great Britain stage a come-from-behind 3-3 tie with Australia recently and noticed how much different it is than the women’s version. Obviously the men are more athletic but the guys who play this sport in other countries really make the game much more interesting than one might think who has not had much exposure to this sport. It is clearly superior to soccer although I would like to see more contact allowed. We should Americanize that sport for men and attract more athletes to it so we can prepare to ban soccer in this country, which would be the greatest thing ever.

This is what happens when I get busy with other things and can’t post for a little while even though I have a lot of notes. It gets long.

Michael Phelps is now “officially retired” from competing in the Olympics. At 27 years old he pretty much has a charmed life for the rest of it. He has earned it putting in all of those years and achieving all that he did.
Still there were lingering questions about his performance in a couple of events to which he responded, “I got the results that I deserved.” I thought that such an honest and basically humble response that I can only agree with him.
Who am I to judge his level of preparedness anyway? I am basically a failure at life who could never, in my wildest imagination, do anything remotely close to what any of those athletes can do or did do.

But that still won’t stop me from commenting anyway.

Major disappointments for the women’s gymnastics team in the individual competitions so far. McKayla Maroney, the prohibitive favorite and reigning world champion, only managed to capture a silver medal in the vault. She was only on this team because of her vaulting capability but she landed on her ass on her second vault losing the silver to one of the Romanians.

I don’t know how anyone can fall on their ass and still medal but a few others of the 8 involved in the final did also so with her first vault providing an excellent score for her she was still able to medal.

I would be happy with a silver, myself. It really depends on which side of the balance beam you are standing to have an appreciation for whether earning a silver medal is a success or failure.
At least she didn’t land on her face like the Canadian girl did.

Felix Sanchez won the 400-meter hurdles for the Dominican Republic, but he was born in NYC, went to HS there and went to college at USC. That should be an American gold, not one for the DR.

Savannah Guthrie, from the Today Show, is the most useless tool in the Today Show tool shed. This morning I watched her take a tour of the Athletes Village in London with one of our athletes. Her first swing of her screwdriver of brilliance came when she walked up on an American high jumper talking on the phone with her mother. Guthrie gets on the phone and asks her mother, “How proud of your daughter are you?” Again, this is a question that should require an instant beating for its uselessness and automatic termination.
But, she outdid herself moments later. Going back live she was sitting near the Wrench King himself, Matt Lauer. Lauer asks her what Great Britain will do with the village once the Olympics are over. Guthrie compliments Lauer by saying, “That’s a great question, I often wondered that!” And that was all we are ever going to be able to do now that Guthrie displayed that amazing journalistic talent after that one.

"Journalist" Savannah Guthrie

Naturally I am not hot like Savannah Guthrie but here is some proof that I can do her job, or Matt Lauer’s for that matter since he was holding on to his King of Tools throne as hard as he possibly could

After the Game, the Olympic Village will be a lasting legacy of essential new housing for east London. It will be transformed into 2818 new homes, including 1379 affordable homes and houses for sale and rent, and will create a new residential quarter to be known as East Village.

NBC, you know how to find me.

Done.