however, even the average darcy can't help but be inspired. i've watched my best friends kick ass for years, so frankly, that's old news. ;) no, this quadrennial's inspiration has come from the plethora of blogging that my friends have taken upon themselves. pete, brenda, betsey, golda, alison and jess are all dominating the internet with awesome blogs on their experiences. so i figured, if ass-kicking olympians can take the time from their ass-kicking to write kick-ass blogs on a daily basis, this journalism major should be able to write SOMETHING a little more often than once every 6 months.
but today, rather than talk about myself, which i greatly dislike and also i realize is quite boring unless you are enthralled by hermit workaholics, i'm gonna give you a lil olympic update on my friends in beijing.
besides blog domination, the crew in u.s. women's water polo is hitting their stride in the pool as well. if we have learned anything from the beijing games so far, it is that china has been ferociously focused on building their teams and individual athletes into medal contenders. and apparently the chinese people as a whole have been well versed in cheering loudly and in unison. having been to the past two olympics, i've seen the power of the home team playing in front of crazy support from the home crowd. the chinese water polo team is certainly well-trained and ready for these games, knocking out russia and giving both the usa and italy tight games to advance to the quarterfinals. our usa friends have settled in and grabbed that top spot in the group to score a quarterfinal bye and move straight to the semifinals, where they await either australia or china. keep an eye on team usa HERE. that's also where my friend brad and i have been huddled late at night to watch the opening rounds live online. i've had several mild heart attacks already just watching the tiny-screened usa games so far, but there's no way i could handle waiting through the night for a tape delay. it's live action or nothing for me. let's hope NBC picks up the semis live on real tv... my heart and my eyeballs will appreciate it greatly.
two nights ago, i spent approximately 2 hours napping on the futon and 2 hours in my actual bed thanks to my unnatural desire to watch the water polo and soccer live. after my water polo friends snagged that trip to the semis with a powerful 12-7 win over russia, it was time for a quick nap before tuning in for the usa-canada women's soccer quarterfinal. usc senior amy rodriguez -- a wonderful and hilarious girl who also is very adept at applying clairol hair dye to my gray hair when necessary -- has been tearing it up for team usa. she did the same in the quarterfinals, using her blazing speed and vision to set up both usa goals in a looooooong match (interrupted for 1.5 hours by lightning) that went into extra time. keep an eye on a-rod and team usa as they head into the semifinals as well -- playing japan soon. NBColympics.com has some good coverage, but even better is media director aaron heifitz's work with ussoccer.com and another entertaining WNT blog.
another friend doing some serious damage in beijing is my old high school teammate nicole branagh, who is teamed up with elaine youngs as usa's #2 team in beach volleyball. although kerri and misty are the only team that nbc pays attention to, believe it or not there IS another usa pair playing in beijing! i admit that i really love to watch kerri and misty play -- they are outstanding athletes and have such great personalities and certainly deserve the success and attention -- but it's been a little frustrating for me to keep track of nicole's matches because they don't get much play in the media. that said, our mighty matador won her first four matches and team BY is heading into the quarterfinals! go branagh go!
ok... that's enough blogging for the day. you really gotta train for this stuff i think. sending winning vibes to beijing... back to hermit life...
