2nd Place is just 1st of the LOSERS!

Those who know me, know how much I love the Olympics. To date me just a little bit, I even got my haircut to look like Mary Lou Retton, when I was young. I've even tried to immitate Mary Lou.

While watching a replay of Mary Lou's perfect 10 Olympic performance (see above YouTube video), I decided to do a toe touch over the back of a rather high bar stool (I was in 2nd grade!). Needless to say, my performance was not a perfect 10 and I didn't get a medal...instead, I got a cast to help heal the broken arm my performance caused! Ouch! Inspite of that Olympic experience...I love the Olympics.
OK, I'm a little competitive. I might not be atheletic in reality, but I am still competitive about athletics. The Olympics is the ULTIMATE time for my competitive spirit to come out. Tonight, my parents were over for dinner and a little Summer Olympic watching. I loved it. Right before they left, Bob Costas was talking about the French swimmers and some of the trash talking they were doing about the Americans. I already have serious issues with the French...ok I pretty much can't stand them. My feelings did not improve, when I heard some Frenchie swimmer was talking smack. He said, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." My blood began to boil and I vowed to give up all things French. (ok, I don't really have anything French...unless you count the French's mustard in my fridge, but I'm pretty sure that's American.) My parents went home, right before the men's relay was on TV - LIVE. That didn't stop me from watching it, nor did it stop me from screaming at the top of my lungs, nor did it stop me from jumping on the couch and waving my arms at the TV to encourage Jason Lezak, the anchor of the race. If you missed this race...google it. It was amazing.

Here are 2 of the four atheletes, celebrating their amazing victory. The one thing I regret is that I couldn't find a picture of the lame French swimmers in complete shock as they looked up and noticed that they didn't get the gold. It was priceless. As I watched their faces, a favorite quote from the CEO of my company came to mind..."Second place is just first of the losers"...thus the title of the blog. Sorry France, you shouldn't have talked smack! It's hard to take it back when you have mud on your face! :)

Here is a little article about the race.
Lezak storms back as U.S. wins relay
4x100m victory secures Phelps' eighth career gold
By NBCOlympics.com
Posted Saturday, August 9, 2008 7:33 PM ET
BEIJING -- Michael Phelps' quest for Olympic history continued Monday morning -- but by the thinnest of margins.
Jason Lezak charged home in the anchor leg of the 4x100m freestyle relay to outtouch 100m world-record holder Alain Bernard of France.
Lezak swam a 46.0 anchor, the fastest in history. The team time of 3:08.24 shattered the world record set by the U.S. team Sunday night in the prelims, set without Phelps at 3:12.23. France finished at 3:08.32. The top five teams in the race all swam under the previous world record.
"I've been on the last two relays, where we came up short, and to be honest with you, I was tired of losing," Lezak said of bronze and silver relay medals for the U.S. team in the past two Olympics.
The relay victory moves Phelps to within one gold medal of tying the all-time mark of 10. It also keeps alive his quest for eight golds at a single Olympics. He won the 400m IM in world-record time Sunday and swims his next indivudual final, the 200m free, on Tuesday.
The Americans said they were motivated by the French team's prediction of gold.
"We love listening to other people talk stuff about us, because it just fuels us," said Cullen Jones, who swam the third leg.
Phelps swam a strong opening leg, putting the Americans in second behind Australia. Phelps broke the American record in the 100m free with his leadoff leg of 47.51.
He then turned cheerleader and screamed with emotion as Lezak touched out Bernard.
"I was going nuts. As soon as he came off that last wall, I was going crazy," Phelps said.