While you stitch - who's watching the Olympics

I'm trying to finish a little piece with palm trees but not getting very
far.

And which sports are you watching. I'm watching the swimming, the gymnastics
and equestrian (when I can find it). I'll watch the track and field stuff
when that coverage starts.


- I stayed up to watch the Men's 100M relay swim; I'm rooting for Phelps to
beat Mark Spitz record for gold medals in an Olympics even if I think Mark
Spitz is cuter


DS is making all sorts of comments about the Chinese female gymnasts -
mostly that none of them look 16 more like 10 or 11. Told him that he should
read (gasp, read a book) Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. It's about the
training figure skaters and gymnasts go through and I can't imagine the
Chinese are more gentle and certainly aim for the "girls in boys bodies"
look. Most of the other teams seem to truly have 16+ girls on them. The
Germans have a woman in her 30's and she was great.


Cheryl

says...

And which sports are you watching. I'm watching the swimming, the gymnastics
and equestrian (when I can find it). I'll watch the track and field stuff
when that coverage starts.

I'm watching anything Olympic, although I miss the time when all but some
Communist teams were amateurs.

- I stayed up to watch the Men's 100M relay swim; I'm rooting for Phelps to
beat Mark Spitz record for gold medals in an Olympics even if I think Mark
Spitz is cuter

Don't you just love the cutaways to his mother in the stands? He might be an
arrogant SOB in the swimming world but at least he says his success wouldn't
have been possible without her.

DS is making all sorts of comments about the Chinese female gymnasts -
mostly that none of them look 16 more like 10 or 11.

As the mother of a former gymnast, I can vouch for training routines that might
stafe off development and puberty. When my daughter's hormones finally kicked
in, she grew 4 inches in a few months. Despite the possibility that their
training has delayed maturation, the very gifted Chinese girls, imnsho, are
definitely not 16.

--
another anne, add ingers to reply

On 8/11/08 8:18 AM, "Cheryl Isaak" wrote:

I'm trying to finish a little piece with palm trees but not getting very
far.

That was my theory!
And which sports are you watching. I'm watching the swimming, the gymnastics
and equestrian (when I can find it). I'll watch the track and field stuff
when that coverage starts.

Have to admit, we actually stayed up watching swimming last night. And
while I love France, the US win in the mens 4X100 relay was awesome. Just
that you could suddenly see when it seemed hopeless, the anchor guy, Lyzak,
just reach into his gut and pull it off - with an amazing world record
split. And those stunned French guys - learned the "don't give the
opponents words for the bulletin board" trash talk lesson. Very prevalent
in hockey - as in telling kids you coach to keep their mouths shut!

Watched tennis at 6 a.m. Watched gymnastics last night. Our take in this
household - some brave, likely to be imprisoned, Chinese journalist will
eventually talk to the parents of some of those little girls and find out
they're no more than 13 - but it will be in months after they medal. They
are phenomenally talented - but seriously, at least 3 of those girls in no
way appear even close to turning 16 in this year.

- I stayed up to watch the Men's 100M relay swim; I'm rooting for Phelps to
beat Mark Spitz record for gold medals in an Olympics even if I think Mark
Spitz is cuter

LOL - see above. My babysitters when we first moved to FL were swimmers.
One was an alternate for Mexico City (diving), the younger sister swam.
They actually got me to my first competitive AAU team as a tyke. I don't
think I ever thought Mark Spitz was really cute, but, what the heck. Must
say, I'd rather see swimmers in some of these interesting technical suits
than little speedos. May be bad memories of my last assistant swim coach -
parading around in his tiny orange speedo - and nearly breaking my wrist on
backstroke turns (in the olden days we weren't allowed to turn over and do
the front flip/turn going under).

DS is making all sorts of comments about the Chinese female gymnasts -
mostly that none of them look 16 more like 10 or 11. Told him that he should
read (gasp, read a book) Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. It's about the
training figure skaters and gymnasts go through and I can't imagine the
Chinese are more gentle and certainly aim for the "girls in boys bodies"
look. Most of the other teams seem to truly have 16+ girls on them. The
Germans have a woman in her 30's and she was great.

Great story about the 33 yold German - who is really an ex-pat fram
Uzbekiztan or some other FSU - that couldn't get medical treatment for her
son with leukemia - so hooked up with the German coach (likely another
ex-pat) who was her friend, went to Germany, trained, got her son healthy,
changed citizenship.

The Chinese are still one of the remaining governments that takes very young
kids and puts them into away from family strictly athletic school/life.
Even though most of these young athletes end up in very time consuming,
often away from home, training regimens - I think in the west, they're not
moving out from home til around 12,13. These Chinese girls probably know
nothing but gymnastics since age 3, barely knowing their parents. Oh, well.
At least they don't look like men - or the old German & Soviet athletes of
the 60s-70s.

All my serious tennis pals just played a lot during the year (3-4 hours a
day), more on weekends, then went to tennis camp during the summmer. The
living at tennis camp thing is a more recent phenom - but even then - they
don't usually go until somewhere around 13 for the year round thing. One of
our friends (hockey ref, ex-pat Russian) - his daughter is world-ranked in
top10-15 depending. When she was still in the 16 & under group they had to
decide what to do with her. Mom still in Russia. So, ended up with her
here in the states, she turned pro at 16, gets tutoring, and is training out
of a specialty sports facility by U MD (head guy used to be the CAPS
strength guy, former Olympian in T&F). It's a tough life - but they've
balanced it. Cracks us up when we see Vera on TV - she looks just like her
dad.

Ellice

I watch it all! The Olympics is one time the TV is almost never
turned off and I get a lot of stuff done -- stock-making, laundry
caught up, bread baked, etc. I also manage to knit a sweater, crochet
an afghan, or make major progress on a quilt!

On 8/11/08 9:06 AM, "anne" wrote:

says...

And which sports are you watching. I'm watching the swimming, the gymnastics
and equestrian (when I can find it). I'll watch the track and field stuff
when that coverage starts.

I'm watching anything Olympic, although I miss the time when all but some
Communist teams were amateurs.

- I stayed up to watch the Men's 100M relay swim; I'm rooting for Phelps to
beat Mark Spitz record for gold medals in an Olympics even if I think Mark
Spitz is cuter

Don't you just love the cutaways to his mother in the stands? He might be an
arrogant SOB in the swimming world but at least he says his success wouldn't
have been possible without her.

Of course, around here in the metro dc area & Baltimore he's well loved.
Also, I think it's Katie Hoff who is local - from Great Falls. He certainly
seems a decent enough guy. FWIW - I think with world class athletes they
all share some of that ego, arrogance or whatever - necessary to
psychologically make yourself push beyond.

DS is making all sorts of comments about the Chinese female gymnasts -
mostly that none of them look 16 more like 10 or 11.

As the mother of a former gymnast, I can vouch for training routines that
might
stafe off development and puberty. When my daughter's hormones finally kicked
in, she grew 4 inches in a few months. Despite the possibility that their
training has delayed maturation, the very gifted Chinese girls, imnsho, are
definitely not 16.

The other thing, with all those girls who live/train together - the
phenomenon of their menstrual cycles synching, or lack thereof. I always
think gymnastics is so amazing. DH & I were talking about this - when I was
in 10h grade, our gym teacher decided we had to do a semester of gymnastics.
We'd always done probably 6 weeks from elementary thru middleschool, but.
In this case we actually had to do a basic balance beam routine, vaults (of
course) and....parallel bars - both the boys even ones, and girls uneven. I
still can't believe that I made it thru the balance beam - the "hard" move -
being squatting down on one leg, doing the other leg swing alongside and
turn. Of course, I think our phys-ed class was the section with all the
supposed athletes - hah. It was fun - but not something I'd be doing again.
And certainly added to my admiration for the gymmnasts.

Ellice

Of course we're watching the swimming at our house. . .

That relay was incredible. We were all cheering at our house. Hard
to stitch and watch though, because those races are so FAST. Those
Lazr suits really are making a difference.

We also cheered when we heard the Latvian men beat USA in beach
volleyball - my parents were both born there so it's part of our
heritage and just not something you would expect them to excel at LOL!

Linda

On Aug 11, 8:18 am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
I'm trying to finish a little piece with palm trees but not getting very
far.

And which sports are you watching. I'm watching the swimming, the gymnastics
and equestrian (when I can find it). I'll watch the track and field stuff
when that coverage starts.

Cheryl

I made a commitment to only work on one of two pieces during the
Olympics. My now very old Celtic Christmas and Amethyst Dreams. Slow
going on the Celtic girl. I've been forcing myself to do the beading
down the sides. That's where I bogged down years ago. She's been on
scroll rods since 1998.

Donna in Virginia

Cheryl Isaak wrote:
I'm trying to finish a little piece with palm trees but not getting very
far.

And which sports are you watching. I'm watching the swimming, the gymnastics
and equestrian (when I can find it). I'll watch the track and field stuff
when that coverage starts.


- I stayed up to watch the Men's 100M relay swim; I'm rooting for Phelps to
beat Mark Spitz record for gold medals in an Olympics even if I think Mark
Spitz is cuter


DS is making all sorts of comments about the Chinese female gymnasts -
mostly that none of them look 16 more like 10 or 11. Told him that he should
read (gasp, read a book) Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. It's about the
training figure skaters and gymnasts go through and I can't imagine the
Chinese are more gentle and certainly aim for the "girls in boys bodies"
look. Most of the other teams seem to truly have 16+ girls on them. The
Germans have a woman in her 30's and she was great.


Cheryl

I watch the Olympics and switch to a cooking channel while cross
stitching. Hard to cross stitch while cheering on the home team to win.
Barbara.

On 8/11/08 1:15 PM, "Donna" wrote:

On Aug 11, 8:18 am, Cheryl Isaak wrote:
I'm trying to finish a little piece with palm trees but not getting very
far.

And which sports are you watching. I'm watching the swimming, the gymnastics
and equestrian (when I can find it). I'll watch the track and field stuff
when that coverage starts.

Cheryl

I made a commitment to only work on one of two pieces during the
Olympics. My now very old Celtic Christmas and Amethyst Dreams. Slow
going on the Celtic girl. I've been forcing myself to do the beading
down the sides. That's where I bogged down years ago. She's been on
scroll rods since 1998.

Donna in Virginia

LOL - I feel better now! Just got back from day of errands, and setting up
for the 2nd round of Amethyst Dreams. Settling the job situation. And,
maybe I'll go stitch this evening - or in a while. So much to do.

Ellice

I think this insane, frivilous training regimens are not healthy. *I
understand why we have the sport, but to completely stop *your growth,
stop menses due to no body fat and disrupt your ability to develop
your body is a bit frightening to me.

I totally agree. And I was completely appalled that they put on
television that Michael Phelps' coach basically said at age 11 it was
time to start training him for the Olympics. I know a few parents who
are convinced that their child is headed their - one has SERIOUSLY
talked about moving to CO Springs to be part of the team there so they
can train at the Olympic Development facility. The kid is 10. His
parents are very average sized. He may be a phenom of sorts now but
who knows what is going to happen when he hits puberty. I already
know a couple of kids who did fizzle at 13.

My dd's swimming routine is enough for now. I don't think she needs
to add to it yet. A week at swim camp - maybe. Moving? No way.

Linda