olympic moments. :: the gold is mine.

like i said before, i'm very hyped for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. i love the chance to become a guiltless fanatic for sports that i usually change the channel on. Like swimming. only every four years will swimming grab my attention, sit me on the couch, and put the remote aside. it's intense, all that back and forth. and the men have something like the perfect Greek body. all triangular and such (shout out to 9th grade history with Mr. Tottenham for that tidbit). loving track and field is a given, even with all these dummies taking steroids and ruining their careers and legacies (paging Marion Jones...). and then there's gymnastics. everybody loves it. and who can forget the '96 Olympics when Kerri Strug nailed the landing on one foot. hello?! american gangsta she was.

which gets me to thinking: do i have any olympic moments in my life? where i snatched the gold, and stood over the opponent like Christian Laettner did to Aminu Timberlake, minus the stepping on the chest?

in 6th grade (actually, pretty much all through pre-k-12), i was a gym class hero. i killed on all those tests they made us take: sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups, balance beam, agility. i could limbo (omg, i was such a beast at limbo, especially in 2nd grade), ball, all of that. and then there was this one game- TJ Wizards. allow me to explain the name and the game. I went to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, hence the TJ, and our mascot was a wizard. so in this game, like 4 kids are picked to be the wizards. and they stand in the middle of the floor. now the rest of us commoners line up facing them on the other side of the gym. at the appropriate time, when the whistle was blown, or the wizards told us to go, we would try to run to the other side of the gym without being tagged. if the wizards got us, we were out. so basically, the last person or people who survived without being tagged were the winners.

the game started out real regular. a couple of back and forths with only a few people being tagged. but then gradually, everyone started to feel it. the wizards went harder, so we had to dodge harder, trying to figure out who would be an easy victim for them to pick, and kind of use them as a shield as we ran past. so when the game gets down to like 2 or 3 runners, that's when it gets good. that's when you see skill, not luck, get you by. you try to use somebody to block-you're out. and you're outnumbered. now if i remember correctly, i was one of the only girls left (like always, but i'm not bragging). i always felt cool being the athletic girl. it was a good different. finally, it got down to only me. it's the kind of situation where everyone's watching, and cheering, and you don't wanna let the crowd down. probably like how LeBron felt in his first NBA game. and yes i did just compare myself to the Chosen One. and?

so i'm trying to get to the other side. i'm on the far side of the gym, and the wizards are between me and my classmates. and even though i'm the only one left, the game's not over for me. i'm running, and there's a couple hands grasping at me. nah, you missed, come harder. yeah, i see you up front, how about a fake left go right? got it. now you look determined. stutterstep and spin, and i'm at the other wall. the wall? that makes me a champion. where's my medal?

i remember Peyton saying "You're amazing," as i finished the wizards off with my footwork. that's quite a compliment. i mean, who hears that from a friend in 6th grade outside the confines of a yearbook page?

so that was one Olympic moment of mine. but trust, i have others. like the basketball game at Grand Valley when chick was trying to get her inbound pass, and i went for the steal and basically laid her out. no whistle. no foul. and i stepped over her and got back into position. that was Olympic beast, i think. or the game against Berkshire, where we were losing. and i saw ms. ponytail in the short corner looking to take a 3. so i got over there, and sent the ball into the bleachers, like i was Misti May or something. i know they say if you block a shot you should try to get possession of it, but damn, that way felt better. that was Olympic beast.

those are just a few Olympic moments off the top, and i'm looking to make more.

i'm always going for the gold.