Monday, August 11, 2008

Let the Games begin

Today was our first day of attending Olympic events. Since getting tickets to a single event during the third phase of sales (for 40 people on three consecutive days) is nearly impossible (we managed to get 2 days all together) we had to split the group. Part went out to the canoe/kayaking competition, and the rest of us went to see team handball. The atmosphere was subdued because of all the security checkpoints, but in this case I agree with the restrictions put in place (it was kind of eerie walking up to the venue with only a handful of people who had tickets).




We saw two games in the women's preliminary rounds, the first was Angolia vs Norway. Although Angolia is one of the best African teams, Norway is one of the best in the world and easily ran away with the game. It was great to hear the Norse fans cheering and see them wearing traditional viking costumes (some people really go all out!).





This group includes Janie Seto (a graduate student from Western Washington), Dick and Chris Dressler (Dick teaches communication disorders at Western Kentucky), Beth Weimer (a recent graduate from WKU), Travis Teague (program director of motor sports studies at Winston-Salem State), Jim Hand (also a faculty in motor sports at WSSU), and Jamie Robbins (faculty of sport psychology at WSSU).






The second game was a little closer and pitted Germany versus South Korea. (Speaking of crazy fans ... the Korean contingent was large and loud, but very entertaining to watch). This game was faster paced and featured a lot of great scoring moves as well as timely defense by Korea. They ended up pulling out a win. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the womens draw and following the teams that we have seen in person.


4 comments:

kam said...

wow - i don't think i've ever seen a handball game before. must be fun going to the events now!

Jenny said...

Steve watched this very game on the computer the other day. Looks like a cool game - and the USA doesn't have a team? Should I start training my kids now? They could be the first USA team and I could get to the Olympics too?!

james and bess said...

I think you are on target. Our students came away thinking that it might be fun to start a club team at WKU (kind of like the dodgeball craze that started after the movie cam out).

Kei said...

It's so fun that you're there participating in the whole olympic craze.