My Favorite Olympic Memories

It's been way too long since I've gone full-on Olympic geek on this here blog. So it's about time I get around to changing that! The timing's kind of funny, since I'm sure everyone else linking up with Fan Friday will be talking about football... but variety is the spice of life, amirite?

Earlier this week, the Twitter account for the potential Boston 2024 Olympic bid tweeted asking about everyone's favorite Olympic memories. Well, their first tweet on the subject actually said "moment," not "memory," so obviously my answer was the Miracle on Ice. And let's be real, the Miracle on Ice is never the wrong answer, to any question in any situation. But when Boston 2024 started asking about memories instead of moments, it got me thinking. What ARE my favorite Olympic memories? I certainly have a ton of them. So I thought it'd be fun to go through each Games that I remember and pick my favorite from each one. :)

The ladies' figure skating long program was on the night of my 11th birthday. When I was a kid I was the BIGGEST figure skating nut, so my cousin Molly slept over and we stayed up late to watch it. Because of the Utah/New York time difference, the final programs weren't on until close to midnight (which was a big deal to a couple of fifth graders!). Sarah Hughes was my girl -- she was from Long Island just like me! -- and Molly and I got so intense rooting for her. She was fourth going into the long program, absolutely knocked her skate out of the park, and we were absolutely dying as the rest of the skaters performed. When she won, we shrieked and jumped around and threw our pillows in jubilation. (I know, we were ridiculous. And adorable. And it was awesome.)

I have surprisingly sketchy memories from Athens. I think I was actually on my first-ever trip to London, which might explain why my recollections are fuzzy and/or nonexistent! I do, however, remember when the Olympic flame was put out during the closing ceremony. The cauldron was on top of the stadium, and a little girl on the ground blew it out as if it was a candle on a birthday cake. I'm not sure why that stuck with me, but it's still one of my favorite closing moments!

Yet another Games I have precious few memories of. Man, where was my brain? This was when I first fell in love with my man Apolo Ohno, and discovered Shaun White (il Pomodoro Volante, the Flying Tomato!)... and I know I watched the U.S. men's curling team win bronze, and was utterly perplexed by Johnny Weir, and was thrilled about Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto... but I don't have that one standout moment. Let's pretend I remember watching Apolo's perfect race, shall we? I know exactly how it would've gone, too: screaming my throat raw, digging my fingernails into my face, you know the drill.

I spent most of these Games in Italy (with Molly, again! Are we noticing a pattern here?), so I watched very little of it. However, I'll never forget watching the opening ceremony with my mom. I wasn't really sure what to expect from it, but within about 15 seconds we'd fallen completely silent and were just flat-out dumbstruck. We seriously didn't say a word, and just sat there in slack-jawed awe for the entire first segment. I still don't have words for it. I think we glanced at each other during the first commercial break and had a "hahaha, okay, holy crap?" moment.

I have so many phenomenal memories from Vancouver, because it was the only Games I got to watch while I was at college. So I literally watched Olympic coverage all day, every day, and did so surrounded by some amazing people. I could make a whole list just from Vancouver memories, but my favorite is a no-contest: the men's hockey gold medal game. I watched in a friend's dorm room with a group of people. It was freshman year, and in freshman dorms all doors are open at all times, so you could hear all the TVs on the floor were playing the game as well, each a second or two off from each other. My friends and I were yelling at the TV the entire game, on the edge of our seats, watching the clock tick down to a U.S. loss... until, at the last possible second, we heard frantic yelling and cheering from down the hall. A split second later, our TV caught up, and we watched Zach Parise score the tying goal. So we were screaming and celebrating, and suddenly some guys from the room next door stampeded in to see what happened -- their TV was even more delayed than ours was! They were so anxious to see the goal that they ended up completely missing it! It was the craziest celebratory moment, coupled with the hilarity of dorm life, and I'll honestly never forget it. :)

I had spent four months as a London 2012 Ceremonies volunteer from February-June, so by the time July 27th rolled around I was jumping out of my skin with excitement. I avoided all social media on opening ceremony day to avoid "spoilers" before it aired in primetime... even though I literally knew the entire ceremony from all the rehearsals I'd gone to. I spent the whole ceremony wrapped in a blanket on my couch, fighting back tears. I was a part of this ceremony. It was being run by people I knew and loved. I'd watched those performances come together, been there when those groups convened for the very first time and learned those first beats of choreography. This was quite possibly the coolest experience of my life. (And it didn't hurt that earlier in the day, a fellow volunteer sent me a picture of my name in the program!)

Due to the time difference and my craaaazy work hours because of it (ah, the perks of working for the USOC during Games time!), I watched copious amounts of coverage during Sochi but did it all alone. While my friends went about their normal lives in the land of the living, I was peeling myself from my bed at 3 a.m. and gluing myself to the TV hours before the sun even thought about rising. And honestly? It was the coolest thing ever. I'll never forget watching the USA vs. Russia men's hockey game (two words: T.J. Oshie!), but I'm pretty sure my favorite has to be when Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the first ice dancing gold medal for the U.S. My heart was racing, I was sweating like crazy... I was literally a nervous wreck. And then they won, and I cried. (LISTEN, Sochi was a long, emotional two weeks!)

Wow, I just noticed that all of my favorite summer Olympic memories are from the ceremonies, and all of my winter Olympic memories are from competition. Whoops? I foresee that changing in Rio 2016, though. I'm preparing myself to be seriously emotionally compromised by volleyball and expecting our teams to bring home a gold medal or two (or three? or four?)! ;)

It's kind of cool to look back at my life and notice all these Olympic road marks. But that, really, is another post entirely!

9 Awesome Olympic Stadiums

Stadiums. I like 'em.

I toured the Denver Broncos' stadium several weeks ago and it reminded me how great they are. There's something incredibly cool about being in a massive space like that when it's empty, and something even cooler about being free to roam around in it. I'm also kind of a sucker for interesting design and architecture. And history. And, y'know, sports.

I've been lucky enough to tour several stadiums, wander freely through several others, and then there was that chunk of time I could see the London 2012 Olympic Stadium from my bedroom window. And with several of my favorite Olympic stadiums being in the news recently I figured, hey, perfect time to make a list! (Side note: How come there's no comprehensive list of every Olympic stadium? Googling every stadium back to the '40s is freakishly tedious, let me tell you. I limited this list to traditional "Olympic stadiums" only because, if I widened the net to include all venues, I'd still be slogging through search results.)

I was lucky enough to go to Munich with two friends who indulged my desire to visit Olympic Park (which happened to be a great way to cheer up after visiting the Dachau concentration camp, incidentally). I didn't know much about the stadium before we went, but at first glimpse I fell head-over-heels in love. Look at that architecture! Hello, gorgeous! *drools*

Munich was contemplating bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but that motion was just voted down. I'm a little bit depressed. The whole of Munich's Olympic Park is an A+ example of legacy done right, and between 1972's crazy awesome stadium and the crazy awesome design scheme... so much potential for 2022. Alas.

If I could only visit one stadium ever in my life, it would be the Bird's Nest in Beijing. Look at that sucker! It's BEAUTIFUL! Apparently it's not being used much anymore, which is awful because I will be devastated if it falls into total disrepair. But thankfully there's going to be an aerial ski jumping competition there (HELP, I want to go see that so badly!), so fingers crossed this means good things for its future.

This Games may have been put on by the Nazis, but if there's one sort of positive thing that can be said about the Nazis it's that they dressed to impress (so to speak). All Nazi architecture remaining in Berlin is absolutely monstrous and jaw-dropping (and mildly terrifying), and this stadium all but forces you stop and stare. It's very classically Olympic, aside from the modern renovations inside, and you can tell just by looking at it that something important happened there.

It was also just really cool to be in the stadium in which Jesse Owens did his thing... even though at this point my tailbone hurt so badly I could hardly sit down. But that was a story for another post.

Okay, so, this stadium is something of a joke. It wasn't finished until 1988, and it wasn't fully paid for until 2006. Keep in mind, the Montreal Olympics were held in 1976. Its nickname was "The Big O," which people then changed to "The Big Owe" for obvious reasons. Heh. That being said, there's something about it that I like. It's very weird and futuristic, but it gets major points for originality. It's one of those stadiums that really sticks out in my mind.

The Athens stadium makes me sad because it's basically gone to ruin. I guess that's what we get for giving the Olympics to a country that's broke. But like I said before, I'm a sucker for interesting architecture, and this is definitely one of the most unique I've seen. Now, to make it to Greece before the state of its venues rivals that of Sarajevo's...

It looks like a palace. I'm kind of confused, but hell if this isn't one of the more impressive sport venues I've ever seen. Very fitting for the home of the most important sporting event in the world!

This is cool in the same vein as the Barcelona stadium. It feels very impressive, like the Roman emperor should be sitting over there, looking out at a stadium full of tens of thousands of his citizens. But of course, it wouldn't be America in the '80s without some tacky neon colors! Oddly enough, I like that they incorporated the color & design scheme into the stadium itself. It made it their own and inseparable from the event it was built for.

As someone who generally likes things to by symmetrical, I find it strange that I like this stadium. Some of the other venues built for this Olympics were significantly cooler, but it's pretty neat that this one is simple yet very, very different. It's like someone tried to blow it over but only succeeded in shifting everything to one side. Can't wait to see it renovated for reuse in 2020!

Again, I'm not sure where my symmetrical preference went. But again, it's a very regular stadium with just a slight quirk to make it unique. Architects don't have to go all Bird's Nest to create something interesting!

Time to start (er, continue?) scraping together my pennies so I can eventually venture so see all of 'em! Caitlyn over at Olympic Wanderings has been to all but one on this list, plus a ton more. I have the biggest crush on her life.

What do you think of my picks? (Feel free to laugh at the Big Owe. I wouldn't blame you.)

Blogtober Day 27: Kim Rhode

I'm obnoxiously excited about this week, guys. Tuesday night I'm going to the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame induction, Thursday is Halloween and the USA Volleyball costume contest, and on Saturday the interns are getting a tour of the USOC archives (*internally screaming*). So after Blogtober ends, I'll get maybe one day off before I'm word-vomiting my excessive feelings all over the blog again.  Prepare yourselves!

Kim Rhode is a shooter, so I'm 99% sure that 99% of people reading this have never heard of her, which is unfortunate. But I'd like to draw your attention to the photo above and the collection of Olympic medals around her neck. There are five of them, and no two were won at the same Games. Five Olympics. True story.

Kim began sport hunting when she was really young, and won her first world championship in women's double trap shooting when she was 13. Thirteen years old! UMMM. Her first Olympic medal came in 1996, a gold in double trap, making her the youngest female gold medalist in the history of Olympic shooting. She won a bronze in the same event in 2000, and another gold in 2004. Double trap was them removed from the Olympics, so Kim turned her focus to skeet. Not missing a beat (hey, that rhymes!), she set a world record with 98 hits during 2007 world cup competition, and then won silver at the 2008 Olympics. At the 2012 Olympics, she set an Olympic record and tied the new world record score with 99 hits on her way to another gold medal.

She also studied veterinary medicine at Cal Poly. And, when the shotgun she'd used in competitions for 18 years was stolen in 2008, fans donated $13,000 buy her a new gun. Holy dedicated fan base, Batman!

Kim is one of 11 Americans in history to have competed in five consecutive Olympics (along with Danielle Scott). She's the only American athlete ever to win medals for an individual event in five consecutive Olympics.

 And she's only 34. The oldest Olympian ever was a 72-year-old shooter, so Kim might still be out there winning medals when my hypothetical future children are out of college.

Blogtober Day 26: Lloy Ball

Guess who returned to the OTC tonight after an epic day of Halloween costume-making to find that the USOC had shut off the Internet! This is the second time in several weeks that this has happened and I've had ZERO notice; everyone that works at USOC HQ got an email about it, but do they not realize that they have multiple interns that don't work at HQ but live at the OTC? No? Sigh.

So, if we're getting all technical about things, Blogtober has been foiled by a giant first world problem. However, my definition of a day is the time from when I wake up in the morning to when I go to sleep at night. Therefore, since I'm still very much awake (even though it's after midnight), it's still today in my book. And I'm going to retroactively date this post, so it'll say it's published on the correct date. Take that, Goldnet! I win!

Lloy Ball looks more like a member of Hell's Angels than a volleyball player, amirite? I don't think I'd want to run into a dude that looks like that in a dark alley. But interestingly, he was the setter on the U.S. Men's National Volleyball team, not an attacker. (For those of you that don't know volleyball, the setter is like the quarterback; he runs the offense, but very rarely does he score himself. But when he does, it's pretty.)

Basically, Lloy is just as bad-ass as his tattoos make him look. He grew up in Indiana, where men's volleyball wasn't a sanctioned high school sport, so he played basketball during the school year and volleyball during the summer. When he was 15, he became the youngest volleyball player ever to compete at the U.S. Olympic Festival, and when he was 16 he became the youngest player ever to compete on the national team. He was recruited by THE Bobby Knight to play basketball for Indiana, but Lloy decided to play volleyball instead. He rejected Bobby Knight.

With the national team, Lloy went on to become a four-time Olympian (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008). His first two Olympics were pretty rough, but the team improved to fourth place in 2004. Lloy wasn't planning on returning for a fourth Games, but eventually decided that he wanted his young son to remember him playing in the Olympics... and then he led the team to the gold medal in Beijing.

(Oh, and in case you were wondering; his parents named him after his grandfather, Lloyd, but dropped the D from the end to make him unique. A+.)

Lloy is the first American men's volleyball player ever to compete in four Olympics. He'd been such a mainstay on the national team for so long that, when he retired in 2011, it created something of a vacuum at setter; what the heck do we do without Lloy running our offense?! Apparently that had something to do with the team's performance in London. "Before Lloy" and "After Lloy" is kind of a thing. They're still trying to regroup.

On an entirely unrelated note, since volleyball is so often thought of as a girls' sport, I love that there was this big, tattooed, tough-guy type in there to break the mold. But he also runs a volleyball clinic with his dad and got his daughter's name tattooed on him so, y'know, he fits into a grand total of zero stereotypes. And that's awesome.

Blogtober Day 24: Jennie Finch

Jennie is sort of like the Cy Young of softball. Have you ever seen her pitch? It's prettyyyy filthy.

Jennie originally followed her brothers onto the baseball diamond, but kept herself spread pretty thin athletically as a kid; in high school, she lettered four times in softball and two times each in basketball and volleyball, and was captain of all three as a senior. But she chose softball for college and became a dominating force. She was a three-time All-American and set the NCAA record for consecutive games won, with 60 (!!!!!) spanning nearly two whole seasons. This included three wins at the 2001 Women's College World Series; she led Arizona to the championship and won Most Outstanding Player. Jennie finished her collegiate career with 119 total wins, 12th most all time; 24 as a freshman, 29 as a sophomore, 32 as a junior and 34 as a senior. Jeez, talk about getting better with age!

She pitched on the 2004 Olympic team ('cause, hey, remember when softball was an Olympic sport?), finishing with a 2-0 record and 12 strikeouts, one hit, one walk and no runs in eight innings of work to lead the U.S. to the gold medal. In 2008, she pitched in three Olympic games (har har) going 11 shut-out innings, helping the U.S. win silver. And then softball was no longer an Olympic sport.

But what I didn't know is that there's also a National Pro Fastpitch softball league, and Jennie pitched there for a while as well (including several perfect games, because why not?). She retired in 2010 and was a huge advocate for softball's campaign to get re-added to the Olympics in 2016.

Oh, and Jennie can also strike out MLB All Stars.

While Jennie is sort of the Cy Young of softball, she's also the Mia Hamm of softball. Jennie revolutionized her sport the same way Mia revolutionized hers. She brought it into the spotlight and made it cool, gave girls the okay to be pretty and wear glitter headbands and play with hot pink bats. She has also never posed for Playboy or Maxim, kept her reputation spotless, stayed humble and is still committed to growing the game.

Sounds like an all-star to me!