The Olympics are winding down…

Ryan Hall — Track & Field (M): Marathon [4:30 p.m. NBC Part of Primetime Coverage]

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Here’s a picture of Ryan during his Stanford days:

Two of Stanford’s own, Lauren Lappin and Jessica Mendoza competed on the USA softball in Beijing.  The expectations for this team were so high, and rightfully so. To put things in perspective, USA Softball had won the gold medal in 1996, 2000 and 2004.  They had beaten 22 straight teams since 2000, and until the final game of this Olympics, they had outscored their opponents 57-2.  None of these are small feats.

However, when it came to the gold-medal game, USA lost to Japan 1-3.  And unfortunately, this now seems like a big disappointment because of both the high expectations and the fact that softball has been indefinitely suspended from the summer olympic games.  But, it is important to still have some perspective and realize that a silver medal in these olympcis is still an accomplishment, and 3 golds and 1 silver medal over four straight olympics is a huge accomplishment.  So, I just want to say congratulations to Lauren and Jessica and the entire softball team.

When I first heard this at the women’s beach volleyball gold-medal match, it rang true immediately.  This was the philosophy of the team USA’s coach, Misty May’s father.

BATTLING, BELIEVING, BREATHING.

I feel each terms covers so much when it comes to sports mentality.  For example, it is important to be both aggressive yet relaxed and calm– in other words, breathe and battle.  And as was made clear by Gene Hackman in “Hoosiers”, the first rule of sports is to believe.

With all the attention on beach volleyball these days, I felt like this might be a good time to quickly describe what the black stuff is on Kerri Walsh’s shoulder during these Olympics.  It is actually Kinesio tape.  Coming in all different colors including black, beige, blue, and pink, this tape has been seen on many different olympic athletes this August.  Walsh’s reason for wearing it is that she had surgery in the fall of 2007 to remove bone chips, bone spurs, and scar tissue in her shoulder.

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There are two winners in this story: Kerri’s shoulder and Kinesio.  This small company just got world-wide recognition and attention.  I’m sure that I’m not the only person who was curious about what that stuff was on her shoulder, and therefore, I wouldn’t be surprised if this Kinesio tape started popping up more often in sporting events both nationally and internationally.

Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor have dominated the sport of beach volleyball recently.  As proof of their domination, they have not lost a beach volleyball match for over a year, and this is the second time in a row they are up for Gold at the olympics.  No other beach volleyball team has ever won back to back gold medals at the olympics.  The final match versus China is coming up– schedule below.

At Stanford, Kerri won national titles in 1996 and 1997 and was a 1st-team All-American all four years.  She was the Final Four MVP in 1996 and the co-National Player of the Year in 1999.  She graduated in 1999 with a B.A. in American Studies.

Stanford athletes are at it again today…

John Gall — Baseball: USA vs. Japan [4 a.m. MSNBC Mult. Sports Coverage]

Ian Dobson — Track & Field (M): 5000m (Round 1) [5:15 a.m. Telemundo Mult. Sports Coverage]

Tug-of-war was an official Olympic sport back in the day, and it’s a bummer that it is no longer featured.  One could’ve seen the spectacle at the olympic games in Paris 1900, St. Louis 1904, Athens 1906 (which was officially recognized), London 1908, Stockholm 1912 and Antwerp 1920.

Looks light it was quite an event!  I wonder if it would have fallen under Track & Field?

The Olympics is a tough time for those interested in watching as many of the events as possible.  Getting the necessary sleep while still watching Shawn Johnson or Nastia Liukin compete for gold is no small challenge.  Thus, in a mocking way, Bob gave us all some tips on just how to make our olympic goals come true:

1.  Stay hydrated.

2.  Tell yourself you only need 4 hours sleep.

3.  Listen to whatever was on Michael Phelps’ iPod.

4.  Skip work. “You’re never going to see another Olympics like this, anyway.”

What is a little ridiculous for those committed olympic-watchers on the west coast is that we have to watch everything 3-hours delays.  Therefore, not only do we have to struggle not to go to the wrong website and have the ending spoiled, we also have to wait up when the event has already finished.  Maybe instead of the suspense of 5 minutes waiting for a gymnast’s score, a one-minute delay might be sufficient.  It’s at least something to consider.

Well… here I go again.  The olympic coverage starts in about 10 minutes and ends hopefully before midnight.  Red Bull anyone?

I’ve seen a lot of photos of the olympic flame over these last 11 days, but none as interesting as this one.  I thought I’d share:

This is a very funny video that was brought to my attention, and I thought that I’d share it. Click the video below to be directed to the bbc website.