I am still young and have many olympics to see. I'd be very impressed though if London or any other games to come are better - athlete performance wise - than this one.
With most of the media trying to convince the public that choosing China as a host was a mistake, it was hard to not think the 2008 Olympic games would be the games to never remember. Yes, there were some messed up situations like the little girl singing issue (how the real singer was replaced) and how terribly organized the women's marathon was (hopefully the mens will be okay). But the organizers are human, like us, so I guess a mistake or two is not such a biggie.
The organizers are human like us ... but are all the athletes? Because I have seen things I have never heard about or thought possible. Let's keep in mind this is the Olympics. EVERYONE participating is a professional athlete. Everyone taking part in the games is amazingly good at the sport they play. Pretty much every athlete here can take an entire elite high school team from any country single handed. How elite can you be among the elite? What if a boxer can knock out any other boxer with both feet tied and an arm tied to his body? And with his eyes shut ... that did not happen, but maybe one day it will ... because in another sports it pretty much did.
Michael Phelps:
8 Golden Medals in one olympics. 8, yes eight. Some countries don't even have 8 medals in their whole history. In fact all of the South American continent together doesn't have 8 golden medals, even if you add Central America reaching 8 is still not possible.
So who can win more gold medals? Michael Phelps or 1000 super elite athletes? What does probability teach you ... well probability is wrong.
Not only did he win 8 gold medals, he beat 7 world records while doing it. That is not normal, that is something that will never ever happen again (unless they extend the olympics to 4 weeks, thus giving the next super human that appears more time to rest).
Usain Bolt:
100 meters in 9.69 ... yea it's true he did have a 9.72 before. Did you watch the race? He jogged at the end. He extended his arms to the point they acted like a parachute slowing him down. He pounded his chest, looked at both sides, smiled, was totally not concentrated. That 9.69 is actually at least a 9.59. And if this 21 year old is normal, meaning he will peak in 5 years, that time will go down to about 9.39. In 5 years nobody ... NOBODY will be running under 9.70. And maybe you will have this guy running under 9.40. I mean he will be able to jump rope his way to the finish line and still win.
So you are not sure how far 100 meters is .... think about a 25 meter pool like the one in your gym. At max speed in 5 years Bolt can run from one end to the other in less than 2 seconds (at max speed - maybe a 2.2). So by the time you say his name - Usain Bolt - he is at the other side. That is something you only see in cartoons - beep beep.
And there are some others like Jelimo the 18 year old Kenyan 800 meter runner or the sexy Russian pole vaulter who already has 24 world records under her belt.
Human evolution ... right before our eyes.
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