1. First, I was thoroughly bummed that the U.S. women didn’t gold it up in softball. I mentioned before that has been my guilty pleasure. However, Japan balled it up. I watched a good chunk of the Australia v. Japan semifinal softball game and it was one of the best softball games I’d ever seen (I haven’t seen more than 10 though). It went six or seven innings extra and there was clutch play after clutch play. Japan rode the wave of winning that game to take it to the U.S. in a big upset.

2. I’m very interested with what’s going on with the gymnastics inquiry into the real ages of the Chinese gymnasts. Nobody is immune to cheating – western or eastern countries. It just goes down in different ways. What’s different about the Chinese if they get busted for cheating is that it really is a black-eye for the government and whole program because of the level of control exercised with the sports programs. The athlete only isn’t dirty, so is the country. Western athletes cheat usually on their own or as part of their individual quest. The government probably doesn’t have anything to do with it. Interesting difference between societies and I’m curious how this all will go down. I still think it will get brushed under the rug, but I have no doubt that a couple of those girls are 14 or younger. Old enough to drive a car? No way. They barely are tall enough to get access to the bounce houses at county fairs and carnivals.
3. Stoked to see how well men’s water polo has done. I watched a little bit and was amazed that I actually recognized some of the people. A former student and now friend, Trent, was a water polo player at Stanford so I watched a couple of their games/matches. Several of the guys on the team now were playing for Stanford or on the teams I saw them play against. It’s cool that I also remember praying for a lot of those guys with Trent and few other guys as part of a prayer group we had going towards the end of my time there. I hope they pull out the gold. That would be huge. I hope God still answers those prayers that they come to know him too. That would be better.
4. Ooops, I just dropped the baton….
5. Decathlon – Thumbs up; Pentathlon – Thumbs down
   Seriously – what’s up with the pentathlon? Since when are shooting a pistol, fencing and riding horses part of what makes up the ultimate athlete? It all sounds like a training program the 3 Musketeers had to go through. The Decathlon – that’s a full-on test. Props to Bryan Clay for blowing everybody away in that contest. He’s a stud.
6. I hope the men’s v-ball team pulls out the gold too after everything that happened to their coach and his in-laws. That’s brutal. It would be a great story for them to win it for them.

We’ll see if I can’t get one more update before the end of the Olympics, but I’ve managed to keep my interest somewhat high (with the power of Tivo).