Congrats to Michael Phelps, who now has 8 Olympic gold medals in the 2008 Games.  He had a tremendous run in Beijing, and the rest of the US men’s swim team deserves a lot of credit for that — Jason Lezak kept the dream alive for Phelps in an earlier relay, and he finished off the last race strong.  It is a shame that all of the press will continue to focus on Michael Phelps (even though he is the popular story), because he has quite a few talented teammates including Aaron Peirsol, Ryan Lochte, and Lezak who deserve more attention for their own achievements in Beijing.

Even though we cannot deny the flawed nature of our Olympic hosts in Beijing, nothing can take away from the human stories we hear every year about our athletes and how much they have overcome to have a chance to compete in the Olympics.  Sure the sentimentality of the whole deal is overdone at times  — but we are suckers for this stuff.  The coolest thing about this group of medal-winning athletes for the United States is that they are not only great athletes, but also great people. That’s true not only in swimming, but in other Olympic sports as well.  I’m proud to support these men and women and I couldn’t be happier than they are representing my country — because they are doing it with class this time around.