Olympics (part 3)

Water Polo

This is a sport I've always had a fascination with even though the opportunity to watch it has been minimal. It sounds fairly stupid to admit, but I'm not sure I ever realized they played in the Olympic pool, meaning, that they had to tread water for the entire match. How the players can seemingly float stationary and pass, fire a ball into the net, or block a shot, amazes be nearly beyond words.

10k Open Water Swim

All I'm going to say is, I swam .3 miles yesterday and was pretty much dead the entire afternoon.

Marathon

I really don't think much of marathon running; to me, it seems to cross a line from sport to something that is just really wrong to do to the body. That said, to see 38 year old Constantina Tomescu from Romania win was pretty exciting, even if I did fall asleep for the apparently very moving final lap in the stadium.

Diving (again)

For as much fun as it was to watch the Chinese diving, it was equally fun to watch the Australian underdog Matthew Mitcham sneak out a win in the 10m platform final. Again for me to point out the obvious, I'm not sure I realized just how fast somebody falls when they jump from 30+ feet in the air; it was the wide-angle, far away shot during the competition that really made me realize just how...crazy?...incredible the diving really is.

Trampoline

An apparatus truly designed, commissioned, and implemented by the devil, there is probably not a more tempting, exciting, and yet ultimately painful thing to do in this world than jump on a trampoline. So when I see folks actually compete on it, I can't help but be envious. Actually, I missed most of the events this year but for the finals; I seem to recall watching the preliminary rounds in 2004 which was full of many more missteps and crashes. Commenting on (and, okay, enjoying) this probably makes me a small person, but I can live with that.

Photos swiped from http://en.beijing2008.cn