Olympic Fever

This is not related to anything Asian. I just wanted to share that I have Olympic fever. Just like millions of viewers across the globe, I have been glued to the telly since the opening ceremonies.(Present time excluded)

Tonight, as I was watching the men's swimming preliminaries, I heard a name that I haven't heard in ages come up. Matt Biondi.

In a nutshell, Matt Biondi was an Olympic swimmer who represented the US in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 summer Olympic games. In his Olympic career he won 11 medals.

I happened to meet Matt as he was teaching at a school on the Big Island of Hawaii. I was coordinating a photo shoot for work in which he was one of the participants.

When he walked into the room, I tried to keep my cool, be calm and be professional. But on the inside I was screaming. I had watched this guy swim when I was just a little girl. And he inspired me to want to learn how to swim.

He was an intimidating 6'7". But, let me tell you, as we went through the shoot, I could see he was a down to earth nice guy.

I will forever cherish that moment. Some people have the chance to win gold. I will never be able to have that chance. But at least I was able to shake the hand of one of the greatest swimmers and spend a couple of hours with him.

My Olympic moment. My Olympic memory.

One day I'll share another. My Kyla Ross one. I still can't believe the US women's gymnastic team won gold!

Park Tae Hwan- Fortunately There's Video

Wow...the London Olympics sure have gotten off to a rocky start. There were a couple of upsets within the first couple of days alone.

Swimming icon Michael Phelps didn't win gold in the Men's 400m Individual, he didn't even get on the podium! His team mate, Ryan Lochte, took home the gold.

Jordyn Wieber, the favorite amongst the U.S. women's gymnasts, had an off start with little mistakes on beam and vault. She was ousted from going to the all-around individuals final. Teammates Gabby Douglas and quiet warrior Aly Raisman will be representing the U.S.

But what I thought was the most embarassing, lucky, and newsworthy event of the first couple of days, was the "DQ" (disqualification) of South Korea's aquatic hero, Park Tae Hwan.

In a qualifying heat for the 400m on Saturday, Park swam his best, clearly out-swimming everyone else in the pool. As he was waiting for the times to post, he was given the bad news that he was disqualified for a "false start". Ok, what?

Immediately, footage of the start rolled and again, the question, "what?" From my point of view, and I'm sure most others, it was a clean start.

The South Korean's immediately contested the ruling, which I am so glad they did, and FINA, the sport's global governing body, overturned the ruling.

How embarrassing for the officials watching the event. But that's the Olympics for you.

Park advanced to the final and went on to win Silver, just behind China's Sun Yang.

Jja, Park Tae Hwan, lucky they have video these days.