Great Olympic Moment

I started swimming competitively when I was eight years old on the tiny Falfin swim team in Colorado Springs. A couple years later, I watched the Seoul Olympics on my family's small black and white TV. Because I was a swimmer, I watched all the swimming events and idolized the swimming greats of the time. Matt Biondi and Janet Evans were my heroes. My parents did not let us watch much TV growing up, but for two weeks in August, we watched the Olympics whenever they were on. Watching Americans win gold medals was pretty much the high point of my summer.

Eight years ago, I went to the Sydney Olympics as a spectator. Four years ago, I went to the Athens Olympics to work for NBC. Neither time did I get to see my favorite Olympic sport (outside of mine), watch a world record be broken, or see an American win a gold medal. Yesterday, I saw all three.

Each night at the village, tickets for the following day are released to athletes. Swimming finals tickets are hot and I was surprised when I found them available on Thursday night. I changed around my Friday schedule to accommodate making the 10am swim session (which is what shows in the evening live in the United States).

Olympic swimming finals met all my expectations. The crowd was on fire for the US team, and the swimmers responded in kind with a fantastic show. Just before the session, I ran into my friend Rowdy Gaines who does the color commentary for NBC in swimming. I would have liked to sit with the US swim team, but my ticket was for the nose bleed section and two attempts to get back to the US swimming section were rebuffed by aggressive but nice volunteers.

The first medal was a surprise in the 200 breast and went to Rebecca Soni of the USA. It was during this race that I realized I had become fairly accustomed to seeing the green World Record line on TV and found myself somewhat expecting to see her swimming along the line in real life as well.

Next up was the 200 backstroke where US men went 1-2. Then came Michael Phelps who broke another World Record to win the 200 IM. The US team was truly having a phenomenal day, and they wrapped up with a bronze medal swim in the 100 freestyle.

But the high point of the day for me was watching the US Flag raised and hearing our national anthem played three times. It's really hard to describe how proud it makes you feel to be in another country and have that experience. This is the third time I have been at an Olympics, and watching an American win a gold medal might be the greatest of all my experiences. Seeing it happen three times in one morning… amazing!