Day 3

Whew! What a night last night! These olympics are going to be the end of me with these live events going into the 1am hour! I just can bring myself to record it and watch it the next day!

Michael Phelps ties the record for the most olympic medals with his win in the 200 Free. Hardly a race he dominated so much! It was almost embarassing! Natalie Coughlin did USA proud with a great win in the 100 back! I was so proud of her! Swimming is HOT this year!!!

Another great game by Walsh/May-Treaner. Cuba looked strong, but they managed to pull it out in straight sets. They seem like such nice gals.

Then came Men's Team Gymnastic Final. Of course, China was going to win. Unless they failed to show up (slight exaggeration, but not by much), they are so above and beyond the rest of the world in difficulty, that it would have taken an act of God for them not to pull this one out. And they did, winning their redemptive gold after losing it to Japan four years ago. They rocked it.

Japan went through the whole competition like they didn't really care. Not that I blame them too much, I mean, when your nearest competition is far above you, and you are so far above everyone else, why try too hard? Japan is like China, so above the rest of the world that no one could really catch them. However, I think they tested that water too much, because had the American's hit all of their routines, it would have been a much closer race for silver than they would have anticipated.

They didn't win Gold or Silver, but I would be this was the winningest team in the building. The team everyone had counted out after the Hamms' injuries. No one really believed in team USA. Coming into finals in 8th place, they were the underdogs. But they performed like veterans. NBC didn't show all the events (grrr..little less footage of china chalking up and a few more perfmances please!!!) but I happened to turn it on as team USA started high bar. Man did they HIT IT!!! Oh it was so excited. I had to cheer very quietly as my husband was asleep next to me, and any cheering would bring on a coughing spell, but man I was geeked! Floor was a little rough- not impressed with Joe Haggerty, but they held it together. Then, with the luck of the draw, they had to end on their worst event- the pommel horse. Kevin Tan basically falls (No!!! There goes the silver!!!) and Raj struggles (there goes a medal???) which left us with the last minute alternate of Sasha Artemev who was called up on Thursday to fill in for Morgan Hamm. He fell 3 out of 4 times on the pommel at nationals and trials, but when he is on- he is world class. I crossed my fingers hoping he would be "on" and he was!!!! Sasha salvaged an otherwise dismal event, locking the team's bronze medal. Truly exciting. Great night. Good job Team USA!!!

Well, thats all. Nap time for me. I can't wait until this cough goes away and I feel like myself again.