Phelps Not Finished Yet: After Michael Phelps toyed with the field in his 200 butterfly semifinal tonight, you have to believe he may a little magic left. He has his work cut out for him tomorrow night, but given his record, who am I to cast doubt on his chances? True, he tanked in the 400 IM, but that was an event he really didn't train for. At this point in his career, with what he has accomplished and after his inspiring leg in the 4 x 100 relay Sunday, I won't count him out. A silver would still be a great finish.
Okay, So I Like the Women: Well, for those that know me, that's no surprise. But in these Olympics, only three days old, there have been some pretty cool performances by the women. Misty May and Jennifer Walsh continue to amaze on the beach volleyball court. Missy Franklin, a 17 year-old who swims like she's 25, was terrific swimming to a gold medal tonight. The fab five looks to make some real noise tomorrow night. The women's water polo team took the best shot from Hungary and prevailed in a brutal match. In volleyball, the kind they play with their clothes on, the US women played a terrific match against the Brazilians. Now because I'm a guy, I can't help but comment on one thing: that Brazilian volleyball team is the single best collection of truly great looking athletes I have ever seen. And they can really play!
If Johnny Miller Did Gymnastics, We Know What He Would Say: Unlike Miller, I don't generally use the word "choke", but the American men came out of the locker room tonight and, well, what can you say except that they choked? They looked tired and mentally unprepared. I mean really, these guys prepared four years for that? I can understand not being as good, maybe not able to perform the same routines or combinations, but what we saw tonight was nothing short of disgraceful. Whether it was coaching, the selection process or preparation, something was clearly amiss tonight. Did our coaches and athletes expect China, Russia and the Ukraine to screw up again? And by the way, there was no margin for error as EVERY score counted.
How Bad is the Production Quality for These Olympics: Is it just me, or is NBC slightly behind the curve on its production quality for these games? I just finished watching the men's gymnastics team finals, and at the end 1) no one could hear the announcers (which seems to be the norm in London) and 2) there were no graphics showing scores. Therefore, we had no, and I mean no, idea what was happening. Did the British men overtake the Chinese for the gold? Where were the Japanese, the Ukranians, the British? After almost twenty minutes, we finally found out, but this is what happens when a major network pretty much only handles sports every couple of years. Sunday night football, a few golf tournaments, NASCAR, post season hockey and ...............oh,yeah, three horse races a year. That hardly qualifies as a sports network, despite their newly launched NBS Sports Network. And it shows in the production quality at these games. Shame on you NBC. You need to be better than this.
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