Day 5 wasn't all that exciting. There weren't any Michael Phelps finals to show. But in other news American James Blake knocked out top seeded tennis player Roger Federer, which is a pretty cool feat because Federer has won so many grand slams. They didn't show much of this match on TV, but it was cool that Blake beat someone so good. I realized just now that I'm getting my days confused really bad but I'll just talk about some highlights over the past few days. The women's sabre team got bronze in the team event. All three of the girls who had gotten individual medals fought to get the team bronze. The women's volleyball team of Kerri Walsh and Misty May are still dominating. They are a great team and awesome athletes. They haven't really come up against hard competition. The men's team is also doing well but played a hard game against the swiss. Both the indoor teams are doing well as are both water polo teams.
Another thing that has been marching on is what I'll call the "Phelps Phenomenon." Every time he even gets in the pool the broadcasting shows it. Commercials are on all the time featuring Michael Phelps. They interview him, do all the bios , tell us what he eats in a day, how big his shoe size is (14), and hype it all up to the level of a frenzy. Well he finally caught Mark Spitz tonight in the 100 meter butterfly. Seven gold medals in one olympics. It was a crazy race, it looked like this other guy won but it was a matter of where their strokes were and how they reached for the wall. Phelps won by one one-hundreth of a second. Close. But it really is cool how he's won all these medals. He is doing quite a lot for the sport of swimming, he has one more event, a relay, I hope he makes it eight.
In other pool events, Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Peirsol repeated as gold medalists in the 100 meter backstroke. (This didn't actually happen, I'd forgotten I'd reported on it earlier.) Both had won in Athens. Aaron Peirsol is pretty chill outside of the pool but he gets really competitive when it comes to swimming. Michael Phelps won the 200 meter individual medley and his teamate Ryan Lochte got bronze. Yet another race where Lochte has lost to Phelps. Later Lochte out-touched Aaron Peirsol in the 200 meter backstroke to claim his first gold medal. Lochte really deserved after coming in second string to Phelps. Peirsol was really gracious in coming in second and giving up his world record. Lochte also had one of the hardest turn arounds having to swim in races only 26 minutes apart.
Aaron Peirsol
Ryan Lochte
Lochte celebrates his win
Lochte and Peirsol
Women's gymnastics also had a great night. Nastia Liukin (18) won gold in the all-around competition and Shawn Johnson (16) won the silver. They both gave amazing performances and managed to squeak ahead of the superstrong Chinese girls. Shawn is small but she packs power in her routines. She is so good and does everything with intensitity. Nastia also packs a lot of difficult elements to her routines. I really enjoyed her on the uneven bars and balance beam. She almost looks like a ballerina when she does her elements. She has long graceful legs that come to a dancer's point in her foot. She is beautiful to watch. The margins of winning were close but there were few mistakes that the judges could deduct points from. Nastia's father won gold for the Soviet Union when he was a gymnast a long time ago. He is her coach and they got to share that moment together. These gymnasts are tough cookies! They do amazing things with their bodies and have to have a lot of strength and get over any fears to do their sport. It is really great. Oh, in the men's individual the Chinese guy won gold, the U.S. finished ninth and 12th. I think that's it for now. Track is starting so that will be fun to watch. And Michael Phelps will be done soon...thank goodness, it's getting old.
Nastia Liukin
Shawn Johnson
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