End of Day 8: Au Revoir Swimming

google says it's time to swim in sync

Finished typing everything slowly and it's only 4am. It could only be *sighs* the last day of the swim events. I admit I lost a little bit of interest by sleeping yesterday and attempting to give the meet a miss the day before. But the usual melancholy of the finale still struck me. With my end of day posts getting shorter and shorter, I'm sure you can tell how I'm doing. :((

I'm more composed now. Hopefully during the next olympics I can really be a real neutral spectator and not have any more biases. I don't really want that to happen though, where's the fun in that? Having someone to root for, something to look forward to, really gives you that adrenaline and emotional roller coaster that could be so awesome and satisfying. I can get on to reality now. Everything that was paused can now be resumed now that swimming is over. I can sleep now. :)))

I had fun throughout, and I concluded there's only 3 types of medalists. The young guns announcing their arrival to the world, the bridesmaid who was forever waiting and waiting for their turn to shine, and then there's the ex-champions looking to defend their titles. I've witnessed so many heartwarming moments, bridesmaid who finally got a taste of gold, young swimmers who never swam as fast in their lives and are shocked to tears at their own capabilities, these are swimmers who gave up so much in their life, just for that 15-25 years old time of glory. It's a short career, but it's the price to pay for being the best in the world in swimming. Many swimmers who have yet to reached their peak managed to produce such stellar results. I look forward to seeing them in 2016. :))

And to the real olympic fish Michael Phelps. You are truly the greatest olympian alive. Your story will live for generations to come and I am glad I have stood by to witness it all happen. I'm glad to be in this generation that is basking in your hype. Have a good rest and continue to spread your love to the rest of the world, truly living up to the London 2012 motto - inspiring a generation.

xoxo

Men's 4x100m Medley Relay

Gold: USA
Silver: Japan
Bronze: Australia

Yeah, the results was expected. Like the Women's medley before, the big 3 dominated the race. The only difference being the Aussie men's team is a tat bit weaker than the Aussie women's team in this games and Japan, with all fresh medalists (with the exception of Kitajima, but he's already a legend) is a stronger team. I actually thought Japan might win this, because they were tied from Brandan Hansen to Phelps. But Nathan Adrian really helped widen the gap to bring them the gold. :)))

Phelp's last race.
Last swimming event.
It's been a good ride.
:)))

Women's 4x100m Medley Relay

Gold: USA world record
Silver: Australia
Bronze: Japan

What could go wrong with a line up of already gold medalists? The 3 powerhouses of swimming took up the top three spots like expected. Kudos to the ladies for pushing under world record time. What a major medal haul it is for them! :)))

Men's 1500m Freestyle Finals

Gold: Sun Yang (CHN) Olympic Record, World Record 14:31.02
Silver: Ryan Cochrane (CAN) 14:39.63
Bronze: Oussama Mellouli (TUN) 14:40.31

Sun Yang is insane! I was just introducing to my sister who has make it awake to her first ever live swimming events at this olympics, about what happened the last weeks and who the swimmers are. Sun Yang got off to a false start, second so far in this games. Also in this race is Park Taehwan, nice to see him interacting with Sun in the waiting room. The both had definitely grown closer - I'm not sure if they're friends yet, but hope they are - over the past week due to all their events clashing. Sun led from start to finish, Park was second in the first third of the race but fell behind afterwards. Sun didn't kick as much, he was using mainly his hands, cruising along. And he was consistent throughout the race and was ahead of his own world record which he set last year by a stunning 3s (his old record was 14:34.14). A well deserved race! And I wondered what secrets goes behind his training...he is coached by another legend, Grant Hackett's coach.

Mellouli, 27, was the gold medalist for this event at Beijing 2008, and had been the world champion for several years till 2009, till this young boy showed up. This is very well his last olympics, but he looks genuinely contented at his win, as he congratulated Sun happily in the pool and tried to comfort him as Sun did his 'roar' thing. Cochrane, 23, was silver at the last games.

Women's 50m Freestyle Finals

Gold: Kromowidjojo (NED) olympic record
Silver: Herasimenia (BLR)
Bronze: Marleen Veldhuis (NED)

I always like to say 50m were the hardest to win, because it's too short, too fast and the win is always by hundredths of a second - unsatisfying for audience. But Kromowidjojo proved that wrong today as she wins by about 0.2 second, a hand's length. An event later, she went onto the podium, and then immediately after parading with her medals for the press, she walked out again for the women's 4x100 medley relay. :))

Royalties and celebrities at the Games