I admit, I did not take Zhi Xiang's advice as to seek help and revise for the upcoming Prelims and O's. But instead, I spent the whole week watching The Beijing Olympics 2008!
The advertisement for the Olympics was so marvelous, that I could not help but be drawn to it.
It showed shots of famous Sports "Heroes" and labeled them with their powers. Magnificent, it gave the whole 'Heroes + Harry Potter' feel.
I managed to get it on Youtube.
But the magical feeling did not just end there, I was blown away by the opening ceremony itself.
Quoted from Youtube's beijing2008: "The world watched in wonder as the glittering and astonishing curtain raiser to the 2008 games burst into the night sky of Beijing."
I could not get the embedded coding as the request was disabled, but if you want to watch it, you can click here
I think only such a great country like China, can be able to pull off such a spectacular sight. I've seen articles on how hard the young gymnasts in China trains, I wonder, how hard have these performers been training?
It was crazy, I kept switching from channel 1, 2, 7 , 601, 602, and 603 to watch the different events.
First I watched the volleyball match where Brazil was up against Algeria, I think. The Brazilians were superb, with their spikes thundering to the ground, and their agility so great, that they managed to double-block almost all balls. They dominated the women volleyball match.
The match was so exciting, that I could not help but jump in glee whenever Brazil scored.
I'm rooting for Brazil!
Moving on, I caught up with the Beach Volleyball tournament. It was not as exciting as the indoor because each team was made up of only two players, and they had to cover the same area that the 6 players had to. It seemed easy to score, but I was impressed with China's players.
I'm rooting for China in Beach volleyball.
Then, I switched to Basketball, where I was rooting for Spain and New Zealand. And it just so happened that the match I was watching showed Spain up against New Zealand!
Spain had strong shooters and defenders, while New Zealand had a strong play-maker. So in the end, Spain players were hounding on N.Z's play-maker.
Spain's Isabel Sanchez was the biggest contributor to her team with 19 points, three rebounds and two assists. Her teammate Anna Montanana scored 18 points and took seven rebounds.
It was a tough fight but Spain won, ending the match with 85-62.
I then moved on to Women football, where I watched the match between Canada and China. It was a feisty one, with Canada's no.15 injuring 2 China players, and Canada's no.3 getting a yellow card for illegal tackle.
The game was a tie, ending with 1-1.
Then it came down to Gymnastic Artistic.
I was mesmerized by the beautiful swings and jumps ( I don't know what they call it). I could not help but ogle at the bulging muscles of both the male and female gymnast. Imagine the great strength they have to swing themselves about.
Speaking of gymnasts, let's rewind back to 1976, a girl by the name of Nadia Comaneci from Romania, actually scored perfect 10s on the beam, uneven bars and her floor exercise. Can you believe it? PERFECT 10s!
Here are her videos:
Beam
Uneven Bars - Check out the flexibility of her body against the bars.
Floor Exercise - She looks like a fragile yet elegant fairy
Beautiful right?
Anyway, moving on, I spend most of the days watching the Swimming in action. My idols both Micheal Phelps and Stephanie Rice were there.
In fact, Stephanie Rice of Australia beat the world record by 1.67 seconds to win the gold medal in the final of the Women's 400m Individual Medley in a time of 4:29.45. While American swimming superstar Micheal Phelps, after taking two relay gold in Beijing, broke his own Olympic Record in Men's 200m Butterfly prelims at the National Aquatic Centre, clocking 1:53.70.
You must be wondering, why am I, a volleyball player having swimmers as my idols? Well, I haven't mentioned this, but Swimming has been passion since I was a kid. Times were tough, and so I moved on to land sports and volleyball has become one of my addictions. I'm trying to figure a way to juggle the both of them. And it's been ages since I last touched the waters, and I promised myself to return to swimming once I finished my O's.
Anyway, I caught a few glances of Hockey but it scared the shit out of me. It was so violent, and so I changed channels to watch Weightlifting! My dad was once a body builder, and so I was used to seeing bulgy muscles, but boy, the women weightlifters were sure one of a kind!
(Taken from http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/headlines/weightlifting/n214529228.shtml)
Chinese weightlifter Chen Yanqing retained her Women's 58kg Olympic title in Beijing on Monday with a total result of 244kg.
Chen, 29, has become the first strongwoman in the world to successfully defend her Olympic title since Women's Weightlifting entered the Summer Olympics in Sydney 2000.
Marina Shainova from Russia took the silver medal with a total of 227kg, while O Jong-ae from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea got the bronze with 226kg, pushing Thai Wandee Kameaim, who also cleared a total of 226kg, to fourth place due to less bodyweight.
I guess that's all for today!
Good night, Love all.
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