Eight Reasons Why I Want To Be Julie Chu When I Grow Up

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with my boss, who's about as big an Olympics fan as I am, about some of our awesome Team USA athletes who were in D.C. for the Best of U.S. awards weekend extravaganza. When the topic of Julie Chu (hockey player extraordinaire) came up, the exact words that came out of my mouth (uh, keyboard) were, "Dude, I want to be Julie Chu when I grow up." (Yeah, I called my boss "dude." Don't worry about it.) And the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that that statement couldn't be more correct.

Basically, Julie is rapidly climbing my list of girl crushes, 'cause she's the total bomb dot com. So I give to you...

1. A little over a week ago, I had the whole of the USOC's archived Olympic footage at my fingertips. (And yes, it was as glorious as it sounds. I'll give you one guess as to which year I perused first.) I happened across some of Julie's highlights from Vancouver 2010, and I kid you not, I was watching them with my mouth hanging open. It was beautiful hockey. She's kind of epic. Just look at these goals! (And I couldn't even find my favorite example on YouTube. The struggle of being privy to exclusive footage.)

2. Girlfriend has four Olympic medals (three silvers and a bronze) and has been on four Olympic teams. I mean, I'm not the best at math, but I'm pretty sure that's like an A+ success rate. She's apparently tied for the second most decorated American female winter Olympian ever, right behind Bonnie Blair (who has six medals). Buuuutt, Bonnie Blair was a speed skater and had more events and therefore more chances to medal, whereas in hockey, you've got one medal opportunity in each Olympics. Bonnie also benefitted from the 1992/1994 quad switch, which gave her three Games in six years (1988, 1992, 1994). So the fact that Julie is up there with her is kiiiiind of a big deal.

3. When Julie was on her first Olympic team, I was in fifth grade. I watched her compete in Sochi while almost a year removed from graduating college. W H A T. I can only dream of being that good at something for that long!

4. Julie saw fairly limited ice time in Sochi, which is a pretty significant change from previous years in her career. But it was well publicized that she fully embraced her new role as a team veteran, and she was on the ice for penalty kills (aka SUPER IMPORTANT TIME). And she was the one rallying her teammates after they lost gold. While receiving the silver medal in Vancouver, Julie was one of the players wiping tears away during the ceremony. But immediately after the team lost the gold medal game in Sochi, Julie was the person everyone gathered around for a keep-your-head-up talk. If life was a novel, this would be called fantastic character development.

5. She was Team USA's flag bearer during the Sochi closing ceremony. Flag bearers are voted on by their fellow athletes and are chosen based on their story and the amount of respect others have for them. For instance, past flag bearers include Dan Jansen, Eric Heiden, Bonnie Blair, Gary Hall... kind of a big deal.

And I TOTALLY CALLED IT, the second I saw her at the center of that post-game huddle. No biggie. I'll make sure not to break my arm patting myself on the back.

6. She went to Harvard. So, that's pretty self-explanatory. (But in case that doesn't speak for itself, listen to her do an interview. Girl has the eloquence to prove it.)

7. BUT, she's not relying on her hockey nor her Harvard to get her through the rest of her life. She was one of the athletes that attended the recent Olympic & Paralympic Athlete Summit, which provided "professional development tools" and "covered topics: careers, financial management, personal development and education." And she spoke on a couple of panels there too.

8. This:

Is this when you know you've made it in life? Casually standing on stage with the President as he gives a speech?

In conclusion, if you're not living a Julie Chu appreciation life, you're doing it wrong. :)

Images: 1 - 2 - 3 - GIFs made by me, video footage here

The 6 Best Surprise Discoveries of Sochi 2014

So, I definitely didn't mean to go this long between posts. Oops? I'd forgotten how hard it is to blog regularly while working full-time in an office like a normal person! As much of a struggle as working at 3 a.m. during the Olympics was, those shifts were worked from my uber comfy couch and left me free as a bird after around 10 a.m. This "real life" thing is going to take some getting used to! (More on my Olympics-life to come in a future post. Stay tuned for those shenanigans.)

But anyway... thought you'd seen the last of the Sochi posts, hadn't you? Well, the LOLz are on you! Not only am I suffering from Post-Olympics Depression (the struggle is real, my friends), but the Sochi 2014 Paralympics are rapidly approaching, i.e. they start on FRIDAY! So we all get to live in the Sochi bubble for another couple of weeks. :)

The big athlete stories of the Games really aren't a secret to anyone, and these athletes headline all of NBC's primetime coverage; Shaun White, Gracie Gold, Lolo Jones, etc. etc. etc. But one of my favorite parts of the Olympics are the athletes in the background. Maybe they're not medal contenders, or maybe their sport isn't all that well-known, or maybe they're not American -- or heck, all of the above. But some of the best quirks and personalities remain largely hidden from the reaches of NBC, until... surprise! So here are some of my favorite Sochi discoveries!

Kate competes in luge, and therefore took a backseat to teammate (and bronze medalist) Erin Hamlin in the media department... until, that is, she started breakin' it down during warm-ups. The girl's got moves and, in case you've been living under a rock, they've totally gone viral! She told NBC in an interview that she jams to Beyonce, and Queen Bey herself posted "Go Kate!" on her Facebook page. Kate brought the party to the sliding center and "dance-blessed" Hamlin's medal and is basically the coolest.

In the anxiety-riddled world of snowboardcross, the only athlete I'd ever really been aware of was Lindsey Jacobellis. But Eva, who hails from the Czech Republic, won gold in Sochi. But the thing that jumps out immediately is... yes, that's a mustache. Every time she makes it to a final, she draws a mustache on her face for good luck. And I mean, now she's an Olympic gold medalist, so it doesn't appear to be hurting her performance!

Misha is a figure skater, and probably one that primetime totally skipped out on; after all, he's from Uzbekistan and was nowhere near the podium. However, dude put on a show. Misha came out and rocked the hell out of his long program on a night nobody else could stay on their feet. Not only did he skate well, he danced like a rockstar and skated to a song with lyrics. That's not allowed and meant an automatic point deduction, but did he care? NOPE! He was having the time of his frickin' life! How's that for a modern-day Surya Bonaly? #rebel

Oh, Gus here might just be my favorite. I don't think anyone in the general public knew his name three weeks ago. But then he was smack in the middle of the historic U.S. podium sweep in men's slopestyle skiing, and then he was adopting a whole litter of stray puppies, and suddenly the world has EXPLODED with Gus-love. I mean, seriously, it's a cute boy with a cute puppy and Olympic hardware. What more could you want?!

My apologies for making mustaches a pattern here, but dude. Dude. Look at that 'stache! I didn't think it was possible for a freestyle skier to look like he stepped out of an old photo from the '20s, but Filip nails it. And the helmet?!?! He may not've medaled in Sochi, but he officially wins everything. Between Filip and the blue and neon green uniforms, I'm starting to develop a soft spot for Slovenia!

Yet another freestyle skier. Sorry, but apparently those guys are awesome. Henrik is quite the character, as evidenced by his dreads and, uh, pants on the ground. He's not really the mental picture I have of a Swede. But why do I love him? His good luck charm is an uncooked egg, carried with him during his runs, as inspired by Cool Runnings. Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's slopestyle time!

Sigh. I'm going to miss these folks being in my life. But I can't wait to see what characters the Paras treat us to! :)

Who were your quirky favorites from Sochi?

If You Hate On the Winter Olympics, You're Wrong

I don't know if I've ever mentioned this here, but I'm totally a Winter Olympics girl. Summer is great and everything, but I am completely in my element every fourth February. I fell in love with figure skating when I was a kiddo and it only snowballed from there (pun totally intended).

So it completely boggles my mind when people hate on the Winter Olympics. I can understand if you simply prefer summer sports, or if you grew up somewhere that doesn't emphasize winter sports, or whatever the situation may be, and politely decide not to watch when winter rolls around. But the utter disdain that the Winter Olympics endure from so many people is just plain not okay.

Again, I understand if a certain sport just isn't your cup of tea. But if you're one of those people that flat out disrespects winter sports and their athletes, I'm glaring looking at you.

Imagine, if you will, that the Miami Heat is playing for the NBA championship and is down by a point in the final game with only seconds to go. LeBron James is dribbling down the court. He's about to go for a sweet dunk but, as he prepares to leap into the air, his foot slips out from under him. He lands on his butt, the buzzer sounds and the Heat has lost. Incomprehensible, right?! LeBron is the best! He'd never just slip!

Well, welcome to the world of winter sports, where everything is contested on snow or ice. You're the best at your sport? Aw, that's cute, but ice ain't about to care, and neither are the rules. If an athlete lands just ever so slightly wrong, the biggest moment of their athletic career goes up in smoke, even if they're the best in the world. No victories are guaranteed. It is impossible to predict the result of any of these events. Just ask Lindsey Jacobellis, the perennial snowboardcross gold medal favorite who only has one silver medal after three Olympics. With the extremely rare exception, every sport is always anybody's game!

Not only do sports take place on snow or ice, but many of these athletes compete with knives strapped to their feet. So not only is falling a very real possibility, blood is a very real possibility. Every time I watch short track, I'm convinced that someone is going to die. Just ask J.R. Celski, who had one of his thighs sliced down to the bone by a skate blade during a race back in 2009. You don't know stress until you've emotionally invested in a short track skater.

If you're bored while deadly injuries are constantly imminent, I'm a little bit concerned.

Sure, if you break it down, Winter Olympic sports sound kind of lame; pushing a giant rock on ice (and psh, sweeping it?!), sliding down an ice tube, twirling around on ice, etc. But let's talk about summer sports, which include throwing heavy balls, throwing pointy sticks, jumping over things, twirling around in water, doing flips off of various random equipment, etc. Let's be fair about this, folks. All sports are, essentially, pointless. But we love 'em anyway. Don't disrespect a sport just because you don't understand it, por favor!

Yes, winter sports are more expensive to take part in than many summer sports. I mean, it costs nothing to go for a run! But are you telling me that speed skater Emily Scott, who had a job but was so low on money after her NGB stipend was cut that she started a GoFundMe campaign and applied for food stamps, is rich? Or Kaitlyn Farrington, the snowboard halfpipe gold medalist, whose parents paid for her snowboarding by selling one of the family's cows each week? Or the countless families that had to take out a second mortgage on their houses, or the athletes that hold down multiple jobs at once so they can afford equipment, etc. etc.?

Seriously, the fact that people think that Winter Olympians are upper-class snobs makes my blood boil and my heart hurt. The amount of dedication and sacrifice that goes into these sports is unreal because they're so expensive.

Uh, dude, do the Summer Olympics have anything to do with Ancient Greece anymore? The only sport that does is the marathon. No sports are kept on the program because they were on the ancient program (hey there, wrestling). They're not limited to Greek citizens, mythology has absolutely nothing to do with anything, women are allowed to participate, and the only competitors that compete naked are NONE OF THEM. The modern Olympics may have been inspired by the Ancient Olympics, but if this is your standard... it probably shouldn't be. That's not really the point anymore.

"Winter Olympics are only for white people!" you exclaim. "They're whitewashed and elitist and RACIST!"

Yes, look at all of those white people.

The Winter Olympics may not have the diversity of the Summer Olympics, but it's improving by leaps and bounds and more countries are represented than ever before. And to be fair, there's no snow or ice in Africa. You can't really fault the blonde-haired, blue-eyed folks of Scandinavia (aka a very very cold place) for being good at cross-country skiing any more than you can fault Ethiopians for being good at the marathon. Heck, the Dutch are basically born on speed skates, but you don't see them sweeping the podium at the Summer Olympics, do you?

So I hope you've learned something today. Even if you don't personally enjoy watching the Winter Olympics, you should at least be able to objectively acknowledge that they're pretty awesome. If not...

And if you need more guidance, I'd be happy to explain the rules of curling to you. :)

Jeremy Abbott Is More Awesome Than All Of Us

Now that the Olympic men's figure skating short program has aired both live and in primetime yesterday, I'm assuming that everyone that wanted to see it has seen it. And if you haven't seen it... well, you missed something out of the Twilight Zone. I swear, it was incredibly fitting that I made popcorn right as it was starting. (Yes, that was at around 8 a.m. MT, but when you have breakfast at 5 a.m., three hours later is definitely snack time. Don't judge.)

The craziness began right at the start of the second group of skaters, as four-time Olympic medalist Evgeni Plushenko landed a jump awkwardly in his warm-up and immediately grabbed his back. He was the first skater in that group set to perform and, instead of skating out to center ice, he skated over to the judges. Next thing you knew, he'd withdrawn due to injury and was taking a goodbye bow, his Olympic (and skating) career officially done. What?! He'd been having some issues since the team event long program, but I still felt like I'd been clubbed over the head with a frying pan. Complete and utter shock. In all my years of Olympics-watching, nothing like that has ever happened.

via

But anyway. This post is not being written so I can talk about Plushenko, but just... I'm still shocked. Moving on.

After that, we were all lulled into a false sense of security, assuming that there's no way anything else shocking could happen. I mean, one shocker like that is rare enough, but two? Nah. No way.

And then Jeremy Abbott took the ice.

If you haven't been following U.S. or Olympic figure skating, here's the dealio: Jeremy won U.S. nationals in 2010 (ahead of future Olympic gold medalist Evan Lysacek, no less) to make the Olympic team, but had a disaster of a short program and finished ninth overall. He finished second at nationals to make the Olympic team for 2014 and, in the team event, had another bad short program to finish seventh out of 10. The hope going into the individual event was that he'd gotten his nerves out and could now skate cleanly. In his own words, he'd now already gotten his Olympic disaster out of the way.

Well, homeboy fell on his first jumping pass in his individual short program. And not just any run-of-the-mill fall, either. I'm talking total wipe-out, right on his hip, careening into the boards, and not immediately getting up. He was down, and he was clearly very badly hurt.

via Yahoo images

I was, first of all, very afraid for him, and I also assumed that was it. Can you medically withdraw in the middle of your program? I don't even know, but that's what I thought would happen. He'd hobble over to the judges and tearfully bow out.

But no. Oh, no. After an agonizing 10 or 15 seconds that felt like it took an hour, Jeremy collected himself, stood up and continued his program. According to good ol' commentators Johnny Weir (literally just typed "Weird" instead of Weir, hahaha. #freudianslip) and Tara Lipinski informed us that, despite his significant time down on the ice, he hadn't missed any of his program's required elements (i.e. jumps, spins, etc.), just some choreography. So he caught up with his music and kept going. I was so nervous as he approached his second jumping pass, I was about ready to vomit... but lo and behold, he landed it. And he landed every other jump he executed.

He was like a different person! Before his program, he was taking deep breaths and visibly trying to get himself mentally ready. But after his fall, you could see in his eyes that he was pissed and determined and ready to raise some hell. And he did.

And guys, I cannot even tell you how completely overwhelmed I was. The amount of respect I have for this guy is unreal. It was so inspiring to see him fight back from what could've (or, really, should've) been utter devastation. This is his last Olympics and he wasn't going to just let it end like that.

It should be a lesson to us all: our flops should never be death knells. Jeremy Abbott went hip-first into the ice and face-first into the boards at the Olympics and got up and finished with his head held high. Didn't accomplish what you wanted to? Well, bummer. Brush the snow off your pants and hit that triple lutz-triple toe combination because, damnit, you can!

As Jeremy was waiting for his scores, I think it was Tara that said, "It may not've been the Olympic moment he'd been hoping for, but he inadvertently created an Olympic moment." Heck yes, he did.

(And then he returned for his long program today and delivered like a CHAMP. Ended his final Olympics on the most positive of notes. I may or may not have gotten a little misty-eyed. You go, Jeremy.)

"This Is So Sick"

At work these last few weeks, I've been doing a lot for the U.S. Boys' Youth National Volleyball Team. Building bios, cropping and resizing mugshots into every size imaginable, putting together a press kit for their world championships in Tijuana...

Basically, it's been BYNT (almost) all day, (almost) every day. And eight hours in a cubicle is a really, really long time. It can get a little tedious, making sure all the formatting is correct, editing everything into oblivion, trying to get SiteCore to cooperate. And then I realize these boys are 17 or 18 years old and on a national team, and I'm 22 and what am I doing with my life? (Come on, twenty-somethings, you all know this crisis, amirite?)

For the last week, they've been living and training at the OTC. Let me tell you -- it's weird seeing these kids I've never met and thinking, "Oh, I know your face. And your name. And your birthday. And your favorite book... And you have literally no idea who I am." But it's been really cool seeing them as living, breathing, volleyball-playing people rather than just words and a photo on a computer screen. And if the laundry is any indication, they were also living in my building.

There was also a washer full of white jerseys. And another washer full of blue jerseys...

Since they were in town, my boss BJ and I went to their practice this morning to do some interviews in person. I was excited to get out of my cubicle and stretch my journalist muscles again, but I wasn't expecting too much. I mean, these are teenage boys we're talking about. The one that lives in my house communicates mostly in grunts and single syllables (love you, Nolan!).

So I sit down with the kid I'm profiling and... I'm actually blown away. He's friendly, and intelligent, and appreciative, and incredibly well-spoken, and has some real depth to his character. I was beyond impressed. I'm excited to write about him!

There's no high like the one you experience after a good interview, so I was walking with a bounce in my step after that wrapped up. I tweeted about it, tagging the USA Volleyball account, and it was retweeted.

A little bit later, I notice that one of the other boys from the team favorited my tweet. So I take a look at his page, and I see this:

That's a link to his bio on TeamUSA.org. The bio I built and formatted and published and worked (probably harder than necessary) to make sure was as close to perfect as possible.

This was one of those moments that make it all worth it, you know? Kind of funny that a teenager tweeting "this is so sick" would have that much significance, but it just reminded me why I like doing this.

Most people that get involved in sports want to work with the big-time athletes, the pros, the Olympians. And, yeah, I'm partially guilty of that myself. But athletes that play for money tend to be... well, you know. Even Olympians and college athletes, to an extent. They're used to being noticed.

As a college graduate it was sort of strange doing media stuff for boys that are barely out of high school. I mean, they're kids! But at the same time... they're kids. They've never been on Team USA before. This is all new to them, it's exciting, it's a big deal!

And I had something to do with it. The time it took me to make that bio translated into a really, really cool moment in that kid's life (and, hopefully, similar moments in eleven other kids' lives).

How awesome is that?

Good luck in Mexico, guys!