Tuesday, August 12, 2008

An Amazing Race

I tend to look for running inspiration in a lot of other sports besides running. In my opinion, running isn't really an exciting spectator sport unless I'm watching a track meet. Ironically, I haven't been watching any of the running events in the Beijing Olympics this year even though I've read all about the extremely talented US, British, and Kenyan participants. However, I did manage to spend most of my weekend glued to the TV watching Women's Volleyball, Women's Beach Volleyball, Men's Basketball, and Men's/Women's Swimming. (Don't worry, I still got in my runs, folks.) In any case, there was one race in particular on Sunday night that I'd like to pull your attention to.

By now, everyone has heard about Michael Phelps, the intrepid olympian swimmer focused on adding 8 more gold medals to his collection. If he does win every medal, he will go down in the history books as the first olympian to win that many golds in one olympiad. I've been avidly following his story and his races to see if he succeeds. And I can't help but admire this driven/focused athlete. But, it wasn't his solo races which had me on the edge of my seat; it was the 4x100m relay on Sunday night where he competed with 3 fellow US swimmers.

What struck me about that race was the humbleness that the US team had when they entered the stadium. The Americans declined to comment or boast despite the verbal abuse that they were receiving from the favored French team. Instead, they decided to focus on each other and the race to swim a good swim and do their best. It's hard to find athletes who can keep that level of focus, especially with the world watching them. In any case, after watching that race, I'm now inspired to run with that level of focus, passion, and humility.

Check out the race: HERE

Good Luck Team USA with the rest of the Olympics!

P.S. So, those are the sports I've been watching in the games. What are you folks watching?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Track and field and other such running isn't on until next week :) I was watching the rowing, and while slightly inspirational, it also made me feel slow! lol...oh well. Other than that, lots of late nights watching gymnastics, swimming, and volleyball. I love that the US women's v-ball team is like half former hawaii players!