Olympics 2

Center court at Wimbledon is a pretty good place to watch your first high profile tennis match. On top of that, seeing Serena Williams, of the United States, depose Vera Zvonareva from Russia 6-1, 6-0 in 51 minutes made it even better. That’s how my day started on Wednesday.

Believe it or not, this was a rematch of the 2010 Wimbledon Final right there on that same Center Court. But, in this week’s match Williams won the final 10 games and racked up 12 aces in a dominating performance.

I was sitting in the ninth row and one thing that stood out to me was how effortlessly Williams was able to knock out the Soviet star. While Zvonareva was perspiring heavily on the humid morning, Williams never broke a sweat.

The other impressive thing about Williams is the strength of her lower body. Her legs are muscular and resemble that of an NFL running back while her upper body is relatively slight. She would playfully bat the ball back and forth with her racket before every serve, finally picking it up and routinely bounce it 5-7 times with her left hand before delivering her powerful serve.       

I had the privilege of seeing Novak Djokovic, from Serbia in the second match. The top ranked men’s player in the world was matched up against popular Australian Lleyton Hewitt, a 31-year warrior. Hewitt won the first set 6-4 and has hanging close in the second set when Djovovic was able to break serve and win 7-5. Youth and skill prevailed in the third set as the Serb wore down the Aussie and won 6-1.

Greg Norman, famous Australian, golfer was seated in the team box during the entire match. Norman was with his girlfriend and a group of Australian tennis officials. Late in the second set, Chris Evert, Norman’s former wife showed up in the box. It seemed like most at Center Court were more glued on the box than the court for the rest of the Djokovic-Hewitt match. Norman seemed a bit uncomfortable while Evert seemed to be enjoying herself immensely.

Wimbledon is an impressive complex. It is huge with several dozen courts. Center Court actually has a retractable roof. Even the Brits misfired on the weather. They opened the roof before the men’s match, which takes 20 minutes and soon after, it started raining heavily and the roof had to be closed. The result of the wrong read in the weather was a delay of over an hour, which gave me a chance to eat some of Wimbledon’s famous strawberries and cream.

Later that afternoon I headed to the Aquatics Center to watch swimming. It was a great night as the U.S. won three Gold Medals. Nathan Adrian set the tone by winning the Men’s 100 Free by .01 seconds. 17,500 people were packing the steamy venue and it was a raucous atmosphere all night. Most of the crowd was British and they were only able to see one of their swimmers win a medal on a night that the Americans completely dominated.

The highlight of the evening was when Rebecca Soni set the world record in the Women’s 200 Breaststroke semi-final. Soni had held the previous Olympic record in the same event and it was very exciting to be a few feet away when an American set the world record.

The third Gold Medal of the night for the U.S. came in the Women’s 4x200 Relay. The U.S. trailed the Australians heading into the final leg when Shannon Vreeland swam the team to victory, setting an Olympic record. Teenage phenom Missy Franklin swam the first leg of the relay for the U.S.

One of the most interesting events of the night was the Men’s 200 Medley semi-final heat featuring Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps. Lochte held the Olympic record in the event and Phelps holds the World Record. Lochte bested Phelps by .98 seconds and is gradually taking over as the top U.S. men’s swimmer.

Several things stood out in the Aquatics Center. It was spine tingling when all of the national anthems were played. The jumbo monitors clearly showed the tears in every Gold Medalist’s eyes as their respective flags were raised and anthems played.

At best, uou could label me no more than a casual swimming fan. I did learn from my friends at NBC that the top two seeded swimmers are always in lanes 4 and 5. The next seeds are in the outside lanes and the lowest seeds are in lanes 3 and 6. The reason is that the wake caused by the fastest swimmers creates friction in the water and slows down the swimmers behind it. Consequently, the best seeds get the center lanes.

Another interesting thing was the underwater cameras installed by NBC. They are very visible and you would think they would distract swimmers, but obviously they don’t. Those cameras are set in lanes 4 and 5. NBC also built a tube for a camera to actually drop in during the platform diving so that they could catch the performers at every phase of their dive. That was designed by the legendary Tommy Roy. Who thinks of that stuff?

There was a lot of concern in London about security. The private company hired by the IOC had difficulties and at the last minute, military personnel from all over the world were called in to assist with the Olympics.

An image that I will never forget was the military personnel with machine guns at the entrance of Wimbledon. That seemed out of sorts, but it is the world we live in today. In spite of that, this was one of the greatest sports days of my life.      

Summer Olympics

The sporting world is being dominated these days by The Games of the XXX Olympiad in London, England. As I write this, I am somewhere over Novia Scotia headed out to the Atlantic Ocean and onto London for a three day stint at the 2012 Summer Olympics. I was fortunate to be invited as a guest of NBC Sports.

This was an unexpected invitation that I received in early July from Mark Lazarus and Jon Miller, the top executives at NBC Sports. The Olympics were nowhere on my 2012 radar. This trip comes on the heels of being at the Open Championship a couple of weeks ago. My first inclination was to decline the generous NBC offer. Work always comes first with me and I was having a hard time justifying another trip to England, especially with the PGA Championship on the horizon in early August.

But, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I accepted the invitation. NBC is the broadcast partner with the PGA of America for the Ryder Cup and the Senior PGA Championship. The network is part of the Comcast family and also owns The Golf Channel. That’s my connection.

The 2012 Summer Olympics have been an early success for NBC as it has racked up prime time ratings of nearly 20 percent. The network has come under criticism and scrutiny for some of its taped delayed coverage. One prominent British journalist actually had his Twitter account closed down after making disparaging remarks about NBC’s delayed coverage of the Opening Ceremonies. The ratings speak for themselves and it’s obvious that Lazarus and Miller know what they are doing.

As a guest of NBC, I will be housed at London’s famous Savoy Hotel, a five star masterpiece that recently underwent a massive renovation in preparation of the 2012 Olympics. The Savoy is located in the West End of London on the historic Thames River. NBC will provide all meals, transportation to and from Olympic competition with preferred seating at the events and tours of London if I get my fill of sports. It should be one of the best experiences of my lifetime.

The network will use this venue as a source for business entertainment. I will be placed in a VIP group with dignitaries from corporations and sports franchises. There is nothing not to look forward to this week. Still, I am hoping that being here and experiencing the Olympics up close and personal will rekindle my enthusiasm for the longest standing sporting event in the world.

I have to admit, the Olympics has lost a good part of its luster with me. Decisions have been made by its hierarchy in recent years that seem to violate the true spirit of the competition. For centuries the Olympics embodied the ultimate in amateur competition. That has all changed today with professional athletes competing in many sports.

Recently, high profile American politicians expressed their ire over the fact that the U.S. team would march in the Opening Ceremonies wearing Ralph Lauren clothing made outside of America. As if those same politicians have nothing more pressing to worry about? I sell clothing at my golf course and it’s virtually impossible to find American companies who produce these goods. Our politicians have played a part in that over years, handcuffing small business with taxes, regulations and policies that forced manufacturing to go abroad.

But, I will say this. Seeing Kobe Bryant and Lebron James in their blue double breasted blazers, white slacks and blue berets seemed out of character. Tyler Clary, a swimmer on the U.S. team talked about how thrilling it was to walk in the Opening ceremonies but his final comment to a teammate was, “Let’s go hang out with the NBA players and maybe we can get on TV.”

Call me old school, but there is something totally out of whack with that whole picture. Bryant, James and all of their NBA buddies looked like fish out of water during that march on Friday night. So, suffice to say, I won’t be attending any basketball games this week in London. I can see professional basketball all winter long in Indianapolis. I would rather see the best college basketball players compete as Olympic underdogs than watch NBA stars win the Gold.

One of the developing stories in London has been the disappointing performance of Michael Phelps. The celebrated American swimmer showed up here hoping to add to his career  medal total and become the most decorated athlete ever. Some critics will point to a lack of commitment by Phelps with his training and preparation.

I call it age. He has been a human marvel and I hope to get a glimpse of him in action. Sure, Phelps is a professionally paid athlete, too. But, in his sport the pinnacle is a Gold Medal not an NBA Championship, a Stanley Cup or a World Series title.

Give me some tennis, swimming and a little track and field this week. Sprinkle in some gymnastics and polish it off with women’s beach volleyball. Misty May-Trainer and Kerri Walsh-Jennings will be trying to win their third Gold medals in beach volleyball. The two are now 33 years old, married and they have kids. Now that’s a story.

Yep. That’s my pick. Give me Misty May and Kerri Walsh instead of Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. Did I just say that?