2008 Olympic Gold Medalists

2008 Olympic Gold Medalists
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Friday, August 8, 2008

Beijing II

WOW!!!! What an opening cermonies. Really glad I walked. It is a pretty overwhelming experience when you walk down the tunnel and come out into the massive stadium with 100,000 people or so cheering. Great to see a bunch of American flags throughout the stadium. Swells you with pride.

The entire American delegation was also treated with meeting President Bush, the first lady and former President Bush. Right before we walked we went into a private hall and the President gave a short speech and then took his picture with every team. He spent a lot of time with each team which was really cool. Becoming old hat to hang with the President. :)

Have our first game today against Latvia. Not sure what exactly to expect. Figure I will just treat it like any other match and go from there. If anything, I am trying not to get to excited and be too jacked up for the match. I tend to play ohhh not so good when I get too jacked up. Start hitting balls out and stuff trying to crush everything. As you can tell though, I am excited and ready to go after a 2 week hiatus from playing. Will update you tomorrow on how it went.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

SWEEEET. Good luck Mr Rogers, we are all rooting for you and Phil. NBC had some nice coverage of Misty and Kerri. You and Phil were in its opening Montage-- soak it in but be present when the feet hit the sand and play like you know you can.

Cheers Jeff

Unknown said...

I taped the opening ceremonies, hoping to see you and Phil in the US contigent(work gets in the way of watching it!). Phil should be easy to spot, him being 6'9" and bald!!!
Maybe you & the Bushes can meet up after January, golf buddies perhaps?
Best wishes today on your first match. Maybe some Olympic jitters on the first or second point then it's still a ball and 8m x 8m court, 8 ft net!

Garret

UmassJSP said...

I will be following the match on the live scoring. I dont see any streaming video. Looking forward to your report. Let us know if the fans are into it...and of course if they have a cheerleaders squad! ESPN says a US Volleyball coach had a family member stabbed to death in Beijing. Sounds like there are some fruitcakes on the streets over there so have your guard up man....Scott from Cape Cod

UmassJSP said...

Looks like Todd and Phil lost to Latvia. I hope that result is wrong but that is what I see. Can someone else verify while I go throw up.

Anonymous said...

should be a new day by the time you get this. Have fun. Only now is what you can control, enjoy the experience and FEEL what it is like to win. We're rooting for you and Phil....

Anonymous said...

Todd - Phil, good luck. I'm sure you guys will step up your game after analyzing what went wrong in that opening match. You guys looked tentative when you saw Latvia team was not the same team that you crushed in previous games a while back. PP.

Eileen said...

GOOD LUCK. :) Hope you and Phil enjoy the games in Beijing!

giveuscleanhands said...

I saw the match against the Swiss today.. and I have to say - you two were on fire!! Definitely a great showing from the previous match against Latvia. Keep being aggressive at the net! Love the new "no shade" shades look. You and Phil are making us back home very proud!!

Good luck with the next match!