Olympics ... are over

You don't need me to tell you this was a great Olympics track meet for the good old USA. There were highlights aplenty. Watching the men’s marathon on Sunday morning, I could not help but be amazed and proud of the way Meb Keflezghi – the old man of the marathon at age 37 – ran himself up to fourth place. What a great way for him to end his Olympic career.

Of course, it was disappointing to see the other two Americans in the marathon – especially Ryan Hall – with bummer DNFs. Hall succumbed to a hamstring injury, which may well have been caused by his favoring a plantar fascia injury for several months. It just goes to show you the vagaries of elite level marathon training and racing. It was Hall’s first disappointing performance at the distance. Meb, however, proved his pluck with his fourth-place finish. He, too, had sub-optimal training leading up to the race. His mental toughness carried him to one step away from the podium. Pretty impressive.

I have not posted in a few days, so I did not get to comment on some of the other races. The women’s 1,500 was particularly difficult to watch, as American Morgan Uceny was poised to make a move with a lap to go but got her feet tangled in the pack. She went down in a heap; the scene of her angrily pounding the track is one we won’t soon forget. We’ve seen feet get tangled in races – especially tight and tense middle-distance races – all the time. But for it to happen in an Olympic final … what terrible misfortune for her!

Anyway, I will miss the Olympics. I have grown accustomed to watching whatever was on and enjoying the usually obscure sports get the spotlight for a few weeks. The whole family got into it: Heidi and Natalie loved the gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, diving and synchronized swimmers (side note: one grizzled, cynical old newspaper guy once referred to that sport as “water-logged” cheerleaders; nice). Joey watched track with me, but also enjoyed team handball and actually watched table tennis streaming live on the computer (side note: I really don’t know what to say about that). James liked anything that involved hitting or spiking (no surprises there), so his sports of choice were judo, wrestling and volleyball. Both boys also asked why curling was not in the Summer Games. Hmmm. No ice in London?

And with that, it is now time to focus on the suddenly crumbling New York Yankees starting rotation …