Olympic Gold

[OBie]

I haven't been in the forums too much of late. Busy busy busy.

But this morning my daughter's year-round swim team had a fun registration day, and since 3 swimmers from the club won gold medals at the Olympics, we had a chance to see the medals up close and personal!

And - the white stuff you see on the medals that looks like plastic - it's jade. I neglected to get a picture of that side

Swimmers were Mark Gangloff, Cullen Jones, and Ricky Berens.

And now, the bundt - er, I mean the medals:
(Sorry - I have a heck of a time getting the size correct for the forums)

[gahspidy]

That is very exciting. A chance to see them up close and to have a few swimmers from your daughters club take Gold is awesome. Thanks for sharing these great pics.
What a tremendous experience for the three to come back with the gold. . . .

[Old Timer]

So glad to see you back and with an exciting post! The Olympics were a real treat for me but to know someone that competed and won a medal would be over the top.

[Lori11]

That is so cool! A friend of mine (Jennifer Chandler) won the springboard in the '76 Olympics , she was 17! Seeing those medals close and meeting the swimmers is awesome for those kids! Congrats to the winners too. Well done :thumbsup:

[Abiciriderback]

Very cool must have been very ecstatic for the kids to see the medals great role models. And long term goals for some of the kids I would imagine.

Ray Still

[OBie]

Thanks everyone. It was pretty awesome to see the medals up close. Only 1 of the swimmers was there, but the kids have seen them all plenty of times up close at practice.

USA Swimming has started a new program called a Center of Excellence at that club. It's designed specifically to train Olympic swimmers. Typically, after they graduate from college, swimmers have no place to train. But now they do. The hope is to see amazing results for the 2012 Summer Games.

The best part is that the 'elite' swimmers are expected to help out with the younger kids practices. Way cool.