Where do I even start! A full week has passed since the spectacular mouth-dropping opening ceremony commenced in Beijing China, and astonishingly world record times/scores have been broken numerous times. Controversial news, claiming gold because of a mere fraction of a second, Georgia and Russia, histories are being made.

Park Taehwan
This guy is amazing and millions of South Koreans are greatly proud of his accomplishment in claiming the first ever gold medal for the Koreans in a swimming competition. Swimming in the Olympics and other worldwide competitions were predominantly won by the Americans and the Australians. But it was a few years ago when a very young South Korean college student competed in numerous swimming competitions, he has become a phenomenal star in both Korea and Asia. Starting swimming at a very young age (seven), Park Taehwan showed exceptional progress winning medals here and there and eventually becoming a member of the Korean Swimming Federation as a national team member.

to be continued...

My father and his friend was stoked when we found out that NBCOlympics.com were streaming the baseball match between South Korea and Japan live! NBC partnered with MSN Video and to view the streaming video, a new Microsoft plug-in called "Silverlight" needed to be installed on the browser. The streaming video was in high definition and high frames per seconds.

Any sports match between South Korea and Japan easily elevates the entertainment rating especially if you are a Korean or a Japanese. It has to do with our pride and our history of the two nations. I can bet that millions of Koreans and Japanese witnessed the glory (South Korea vs Japan 6-2 ) match that just ended August 21st US PST.

With the well deserving victory of the semi-finals, South Korea proudly advances to the final match with the winner from the U.S. versus Cuba match that is scheduled for the 22nd. Both the U.S. and Cuba are the best baseball teams in the world and a final match with either team will require South Korea to bring out the very best: flawless teamwork, zero errors, synergy (line drive after line drives)and a load of luck to the table. I have hope that the gold medal will be presented to Korea.

The gold-medal match is scheduled to play Saturday 3AM PST in the U.S. and there is a good chance that the match will be streaming live on NBCOlympics.com. I'll await for the great news when I wake up.

To be continued...

Have you ever given a thought of what it would be like being in the athlete's shoes in the gold-medal match from the start to the finish? It would be an experience like none other.

Athletes literally invest years of intensive training physically and mentally just so that they could live up to their coaches' expectations (or exceed their expectations and break the world record) and show the world what they're made of. A mere fraction of a second or a single point sets apart from a gold medalist and a silver medalist but that kind of a mindset would not be positive would it? Imagine the rush of uncontrollable emotions when you the athlete realize that you gave everything in the end and the digital signboard above lists your name and time/score as the leader of the pack, it would be an experience like none other.

But imagine being in the shoes of a silver-medalist. Everyone is fiercely competing to win and you succeeded into the finals. It is you against the opponent(s) and 10 seconds remaining. You are behind by one point and you know you can break a tie but unfortunately luck was not on your side. The final results are in and because of a single point (or a fraction of a second), you lost your last change to get a gold medal on your neck and to hear your nation's anthem played with the nation's flag placed in the center between the silver and bronze. The background of the athlete plays a role whether earning the silver medal brings joy and contentment to the athlete. For example, in the Women's +75kg weightlifting, Jang Miran earned the gold medal and Korobka Olha of Ukraine earned her silver. During the medal ceremony, both athletes were overjoyed and couldn't stop smiling, and Olha Korobka was very content with her silver medal. But athletes from countries with dozens of medals, some are not very happy with their silver or bronze. They rarely smile, tries to avoid taking photos at the end of the medal ceremony, avoid handshakes, and show weak sportsmanship in the end. Lot of thoughts are going through their mind and their behavior is reasonable.

To be continued...

Wow~! Wow! What a spectacular way to finish the 2008 Summer Olympics! South Korea earns their first ever Gold medal in baseball history in the summer Olympics. Man, this is groundbreaking news to Korea in the sports world and the nation as whole. I bet President Lee Myung-bak rose up his seats with excitement along with his advisors.

The United States, Cuba, and Japan were dominant forces in the Olympics’ baseball history but then came the undefeated challenger. As expected, the Koreans gave their best game with amazing teamwork and brutal homeruns to surprise the world. The other best part of earning the Gold is that South Korea will remain to be the defending gold medalist until 2020 or later because the International Olympic Committee voted to remove baseball from both 2012 and 2016 summer Olympics.


Bryan Clay-he is the man! He is the ultimate Olympian champion participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics along with Michael Phelps. So is Park Taehwan.
Thank you NBC and the sponsors for broadcasting some of the games live online.


Medal Ranking
China and the United States dominated when it to the total number of medals earned and so did Russia. The three countries are superpower countries and the total number of their athletes competing in the Olympics outnumber most of the other competing nations. South Korea ranked seventh.


Future Olympics