Beijing Olympics – Day 15
There are results spoilers in this post, so I’ll put those after the jump…
The Unsurprising Gold:
- The USA Women’s basketball team continued their dominance of the sport and said goodbye to an icon. Â Lisa Leslie won her fourth gold medal – the most of any team sports player…ever. Â She had all four of them around her neck as she watched the flag go up and heard the anthem play for the last time as a member of the Olympic team.
Redeemed:
- They called them the Redeem Team.  And they nearly gave me a nervous breakdown, but they got it done.  They got the gold back to the USA, and they did it with class.  The weirdest part was finding myself rooting and cheering for Kobe Bryant who was probably my least favorite player in the NBA.  I have to admit that my feelings about him have changed a bit. Oh, I’ll still root against him when he plays the Suns, but I have a different opinion of him now.  Jerry Colangeo and Coach K did something amazing.  They got NBA players to play together, to play defense, to play as a team, and to care more about winning a gold medal together than about anything else.  And they got them to act with class on and off the court.  It was so cool to see them at the other venues, supporting the other athletes, being fans, just like the rest of us. Last Olympics, I hated losing the gold, but the team kind of got what it deserved.  This team, though, I’m proud to have represent our country.  I hope and I think that USA basketball has turned a corner.  Let’s keep that gold medal right here where it belongs from now on.Â
The Underdogs:
- The USA Men’s Volleyball team wasn’t expected to really challenge for a medal. And then tragedy struck as the head coach’s father-in-law was murdered and his mother-in-law was seriously injured. Â The team rallied as is often the case in the face of tragedy, and they won the gold medal. And as much as I love basketball, this medal seems to mean even more because of what it cost.
Two More Teams:
- It seems this post is all about teams, so I’ll also mention the Men’s and Women’s 4x400m Relay teams. Â Two of the women had been disappointed in their quest for gold, and it looked like they would be denied again, but Sanya Richards pulled out a gutsy come from behind anchor leg to win the relay and the gold. The men, on the other hand, had a team comprised of four medal winners – two of them gold- and they set an Olympic Record, winning a race that was pretty much never in question.
It’s all about teamwork really. Â Even Michael Phelps had to have help from his teammates to win three of his gold medals. Â I’m proud of our Olympic team – the winners and the ones who just did their best.
One more post and the Olympics are history for a couple of years.
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