Olympics!
There's a guy from my office who took a leave of absence to concentrate on making the Olympic team for kayaking. He was doing well on the World Circuit last year, but then while weight-training early this year, he dropped an 80-pound weight on his hand and broke his finger. He wasn't able to paddle or compete for most of the year. He qualified for the Olympics in his last chance. It wasn't an international meet, but he unofficially broke the World Record time for the K-1 200 m.
A few weeks ago he came to the office for a meet and greet, where we could wish him luck and we got pictures taken and he signed a few autographs.
His first Olympic race wasn't until yesterday morning. The heats were at 5:30 am our time and I got up early to watch. He handily won his heat. After watching the heats, I drove to the office, where they were having a viewing party at 7 am--they brought in breakfast (breakfast sandwiches, coffee, fruit and Timbits) and we excitedly watched the semi-finals. The top four boats would go through to the finals. The first two boats crossed the line at almost the same time, and Mark won his semi-final race by 2 one-thousandths of a second and had the fastest time of both semi-finals.
The final race was this morning at 5:30 am. The club he trains out of is about 10 minutes from my house and they invited people from our office to come to their viewing party. I wasn't going to, but then some co-workers who live around the corner from me offered to pick me up, so I figured, what the hell? How often does this opportunity come along?
My alarm went off at 4:40 am this morning--way too early for a Saturday morning. The club was packed with members and there were about 10 of us from my office there too. Every time he came on screen, the whole place erupted into cheers. He had a great start off the line. Everyone cheered the whole time. Mark ended up trailing and when he crossed the line, we couldn't tell if he was in second, third, or fourth. We couldn't hear the announcers, but the camera was focused on Mark as he focused on the scoreboard, waiting for the results to be posted.
Then we saw this and the whole place erupted again:
But we couldn't hear the announcers so we still didn't know the colour! Then they finally flashed it on the screen.
We were so excited! Now I can't wait until he brings his medal to the office.
A few weeks ago he came to the office for a meet and greet, where we could wish him luck and we got pictures taken and he signed a few autographs.
His first Olympic race wasn't until yesterday morning. The heats were at 5:30 am our time and I got up early to watch. He handily won his heat. After watching the heats, I drove to the office, where they were having a viewing party at 7 am--they brought in breakfast (breakfast sandwiches, coffee, fruit and Timbits) and we excitedly watched the semi-finals. The top four boats would go through to the finals. The first two boats crossed the line at almost the same time, and Mark won his semi-final race by 2 one-thousandths of a second and had the fastest time of both semi-finals.
The final race was this morning at 5:30 am. The club he trains out of is about 10 minutes from my house and they invited people from our office to come to their viewing party. I wasn't going to, but then some co-workers who live around the corner from me offered to pick me up, so I figured, what the hell? How often does this opportunity come along?
My alarm went off at 4:40 am this morning--way too early for a Saturday morning. The club was packed with members and there were about 10 of us from my office there too. Every time he came on screen, the whole place erupted into cheers. He had a great start off the line. Everyone cheered the whole time. Mark ended up trailing and when he crossed the line, we couldn't tell if he was in second, third, or fourth. We couldn't hear the announcers, but the camera was focused on Mark as he focused on the scoreboard, waiting for the results to be posted.
Then we saw this and the whole place erupted again:
But we couldn't hear the announcers so we still didn't know the colour! Then they finally flashed it on the screen.
We were so excited! Now I can't wait until he brings his medal to the office.