Beijing Summer Olympics Top 10

I'm sad to say that the summer Olympics are over for another four years. The reports are saying this years Olympics were the most watched tv event ever. I can't say I disagreed. I watched coverage every day. I'm sad that they are over but there are a lot of memorable moments. Here are my top ten:

• Opening Ceremonies - by far the best I've seen in all my years of watching the Olympics. They were beautiful!

• Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay – Jason Lezak’s swim will probably go down as one of the best relay finishes ever. If you did not see it you should check it out. Lezak was a full body length behind the swimmer from France. It is amazing that he not only caught him he passed him. Plus when you read the trash talk the French were saying it makes the race even better. NBC Olympics has the video here. You will need to scroll down to find it. It is worth the watch trust me.

• Phelps 100m butterfly swim – If you watched this race you saw that at the 50m turn Phelps was in 7th place. Best thing about Phelps’ swims are his turns. He was in second place with about 15 to 20 meters left. Without his half stroke into the wall there is no way he would have won that race. Winning the race tied him with Spitz for 7 gold medals one at one Olympics. This race is also on NBC’s Olympic page.
  
  
  

• Phelps surpassing Spitz – I was very excited for Phelps to swim for 8 gold medals. Lots of people didn’t think it would be done. 36 years is a long time to hold that record. It will be interesting to see if it happens again in my lifetime.

• Dara Torres – How can you not think she is amazing? She’s 41 and had a baby in the last two years yet she still was able to come back and swim in the Olympics. Plus she showed some awesome sportsmenship when she told the judges to hold the race while a swimmer changed her suit that had ripped.

• Men’s gymnastics – They were not slated to medal in the team finals once the Hamm brothers pulled out but they pulled out a Bronze with some awesome gymnastics by two alternates. One of the alternates had tried out for the USA Gymnastics team two times before 2008.

• Woman’s gymnastic all-around – First time the American’s have gone one two for the all-around. It was a fight to the end.

• Beach Volleyball – Both the men and the woman took gold. May and Walsh have to be one of the best teams I have seen in a long time for beach volleyball. They are undefeated in 2008 and haven’t lost a tournament since August 2007. You still have one more chance to see them play as they will be coming back to try and win the AVP tournament, tune in Saturday August 30th.

• Men’s Volleyball – Their gold medal match was awesome! After the tragedy at the beginning of the Olympics it was nice to see the team win the gold medal.
  

• Closing ceremonies – China went out like they came in. The change over ceremony to London was very well done. I can’t wait for 2012!