Copacabana

Relays make it a team sport

Okay, first off, does anyone else think that Putin's explanation of why Russia was just forced to invade Georgia sounds a great deal like Hitler's justification (which later proved to be less than accurate) for invading Poland? Bill Kristol asks some pretty interesting questions in this Op-Ed. I sincerely hope this doesn't escalate...

Second, I am just so thrilled with the US Men's relay team and their anchor Jason Lezak who somehow, and I mean against every known law of physics, managed to out length a 6'5" frenchman in the last few pulls of the race, breaking the world record and creating one of the greatest Olympic races of all time. I was hanging around at the pool last weekend with my childhood friend Sara and her husband was a little concerned about leaving their son in the pool by himself for a second. Sara calmly reassured him by reminding him that he was talking to two people, she and myself, who could "be down at the end of the pool in like two seconds." And we could, too, because on our freestyle relay team (and, for that matter, the medley relay team) she and I swam on for the better part of 10 years together, she was the anchor, the fast, last swimmer whose job it was to pull our butts out of whatever fire we had gotten ourselves into. She looked like a freaking paddle boat in the water. I was the fly girl (in every sense of the word, yo) and breaststroke was always my albatross, too, so I have a soft spot for Michael Phelps. But Sara was Lezak. She totally would have caught up to and overcome Alain Bernard. And then we would have gone to Pizza Hut with matted hair and wet clothes and talked about how awesome it felt to win.

Have a large with extra cheese guys. You earned it.

posted by Lola @ 2:24 PM