Stronger, Higher, Faster...

Friday night I'll admit, I had my chocolate milk, my carrot sticks, and bologna sandwich (yes, I'm five!) and fuzzy socks on and settled in for the Olympic Ceremonies, which even 'mist all the recent controversy is still the most amazing display I've ever seen. Part of me wishes I could have seen it live and part of me was glad I wasn't there engulfed in the mass crush of people and fireworks smoke. I don't know how London plans to top that show.

I'm sure most people who watch the Olympics feel some kind of connection. I do too. For me, it really started with the Atlanta Games. I was fortunate enough to go as a sponsor's guest and had the most amazing time. I will always, always remember it for a number of reasons.
1. I fell in love with Atlanta.
2. Pin Trading (when you start trading pins with people while standing in line during closing ceremonies, you know you've got the bug)
3. Watching Cuba v. Japan in Men's Baseball Finals 8 rows behind home plate
4. Getting to go to closing ceremonies
5. Meeting Holyfield and Nadia and Bart.
6. Cheering a runner during Track and Field from last to first to last, but still chanting U-S-A.
7. Most importantly, getting to go with my father. At the time my mother suggested I go with my dad, I honestly thought that maybe I wasn't going to make it back in one piece. But it turned out to be, to this day, one of the most striking memories I have with my father. I'm not sure how good a time he had, but he made the trip so wonderful in so many ways that in all honesty it's why I even looked up the oppty that became my summer job before I graduated.

So that brings me to the other reason that the Olympics are special to me. I got to work for the USOC on Corporate Sponsorships and live in Colorado Springs, at the training facility. It was right before Sydney, so again that experience made the Olympics near and dear to my heart.
1. Getting to stare at Ian Thorpe through the glass window to the pool to watch him train
2. Meeting some great people that I still to this day know what they are up to
3. Working with some of the biggest companies in the world
4. Finally bonding with my 1996 Geo Prism and learning how to drive (for once)
5. Driving by cows, horses and antelope everyday on the way to work
6. Playing Pictionary and Taboo with the athletes
7. Choosing between WalMart and Tar-jey
8. Learning how to shoot a pistol, pretty well actually (way more fun to me than gambling)

So for Sydney, I was up at insane hours, watching and cheering people that I had actually gotten to know over the summer at an Olympics.

Part of my job had been to collect potential host material for the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. For 2012, London won, but being in NYC while it was a finalist was actually kinda cool.

And as for 2008, there is an element of pride and a hope of a good presentation to the world. There will be no stage bigger to show how far China has come and how far it has left to go. (Oh, yeah, and did I mention the Men's 400 Relay?) I was screaming at the TV. :)