La Vie des Feins: Olympic fever

{Our uniforms all laid out before the finals by our manager...even sprayed a rose gold for us}

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have caught Olympic fever or know someone who has. It is all around us,not even sure hiding under a rock will spare you. There are the billboards, the t.v. ads, and also NBC's awesomely terrible coverage of showing marquee events on a 5 or 6 hour time delay (don't get me started on watching swimming already knowing what the results are). And seriously NBC, how is that possible when we can access anything from anywhere in the world on the internet...boo NBC, shame on you. But I think we can all agree that the Olympics bring out the country pride and the competitiveness in all of us. And I have to admit, it is pretty darn cool being from a country that is either a favorite or a top competitor in all sports. So needless to say, I have enjoyed the last week or so, so much so that there is a permanent ass print on our couch, not really proud of that but I'm going for honesty here. But the Olympics hold a special place in my heart. Not just because it is an awesome event but also because I was fortunate enough to be on the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney. Yes, we won a medal..although it felt more like we lost gold than won silver (happens when you are the favorite) but the experience off the field was what I will remember most. For some reason, this Olympics has me reminiscing more than ever. I am thinking it could be 1 of 2 things.... 1- I am getting older and need to hold onto my 'glory days' or 2- my mom made me go through all my old soccer stuff when we were in San Diego and bring everything back to Atlanta so it is fresh on my mind. Please let it be #2 cause I would sure hate to be one of those people who need their 'glory days'. But it was a once in a lifetime experience (for most) and I am hoping by re-visiting it, it will resist fading in my memory for a few years longer later on in life... hopefully. I won't go into all the details (I could go on forever) so I will let the pics tell the story.

Marching/Opening Ceremonies

Hands down, my favorite part of the Olympics. You get to spend time with all the other athletes for hours and just mingle and meet each other. It doesn't matter if you are in the NBA or you are on the Ping Pong team, everyone asks each other for pictures and autographs, no one is too cool. Actually I take that back, there were 2 female tennis athletes that were sisters who were not too approachable. I won't name names but it's pretty easy to figure who these two are. But other than that, it was unreal. And the chaos of when you actually march... you start with your team and by half a lap, you find yourself intermixed with all the other sports, very cool indeed.

{Waiting to march}

{We chose not to wear the footwear provided since they were very uncomfortable. So instead, we all looked like idiots...but we were comfy}

{Tommy Lasorda}

{Taking a breather before marching..we waited for hours before we were called to the stadium since it goes in alphabetical order}

{The start of marching}

{Love love love Tubby Smith, so after this picture he asked me where I was from, and I became flustered and said "umm, USA". To which he replied, "yeah, I figured that. Your outfit gave it away." Really!?! That was the best I could come up with? Still kicking myself}

{Bri and I}

{Mingling with tennis folk, Lindsay Davenport}

{Marion Jones was huge in the 2000 Olympics and was extremely friendly. Her and her husband are soccer fans so they attended a few of our games}

{Danielle Slaton and I..no idea who we were with at that time}

Soccer/Medal Ceremony

We lost in overtime to Norway in the final. It was a great game but just didn'g go our way. The medal ceremony was still emotional and awesome to hear the National Anthem being played, kind of bittersweet.