olympic achievements

so if any of you missed it, the olympic games were on for a while, ~2 weeks actually. it was a little bit strange to be here and not following it as intensely as I used to, but there was still time and opportunity to enjoy some of the amazing achievements made. my top 3, in no particular order:

michael phelps - eight (yes, eight) gold medals, of which three were relays and five individuals. in all but one he beat the world record, although he did set a new olympic record there. two of them were absolutely amazing comebacks - 100m butterfly where he won with literally his last stroke; and the 4x100m free where jason lezak came back from behind to beat alain bernard by 0.08 seconds. alain bernard happened to win the individual 100m later on...

usain bolt - lightning bolt struck not once, not twice, but three times during the olympics. although again, in the last race, 4x100m, he obviously got help from the rest of his team. world record on 100m (9.69), with his seven last steps already stopped running; world record on 200m (19.30), beating michael johnson's old record by 0.02 seconds - with a headwind of -0.9! this record was deemed to be "impossible to beat", as it stood for 12 years. just while they were at it, the jamaican team also set a new world record for 4x100m by 37.10. amazing to watch this guy run, and he's only 22 years old, so there's plenty more to go.

with a bit of swedish patriotism, jörgen persson - who finished 4th in individual table tennis competition. what's so amazing about this feat? well, first of all, he's 42 years old... in 2000 he finished 4th, and the same thing here again. china usually subscribes to these medals, and the same thing happened this year again. in 4 years he's 46, will he make it?