Poor Li Hung: Pics and Notes from the Orympic Virrage, and more!
By Poor Li Hung | August 15, 2008
Category: National/Int'l News, Special Features
As I sit in an internet cafe that rivals the international trading floor at Morgan Stanley, I have been checking up on the coverage everyone back in the U.S. has been receiving. Is the media trying to make you hate Michael Phelps by cramming his name so far down your throat that you can taste the chlorine, or are they really trying to turn him into the most celebrated Olympian in history? Everyone knows he hasn’t slipped up during his quest for eight golds in one Olympics (6 for 6), but what about the other Americans who have secured the gold for their country? What about the other athletes who’s backgrounds are more interesting, sports more obscure, and opportunities for endorsements pigeon-holed like Macaulay Culkin’s movie career? Here is a look at some of the people who brought home the gold… even if only 29 people from their hometowns know about it:
Glen Eller- Gold Medal Event- Shooting - Went to school in Texas, where you can shoot anything at anytime .. Hobbies include Shooting things (weird)… Tried to follow fat Mama Cass and almost died from a ham sandwich before the 2004 Olympics.. Will probably snipe 65 people 45 years after going senile and arguing with someone that he was an Olympic gold medalist in 2008 in a sport that nobody knew was in the Olympics to begin with. Congrats, badass. Stay in Texas.
Mariel Zagunis- Gold Medal Event- Sabre Fencing- Mariel is the daughter of two Olympic rowers from the ‘76 games in Montreal and hails from Beaverton, Oregon (no funny, rearry where she’s from). At 19, Mariel was the first American gold medalist in fencing in over 100 years at the 2004 Olympics and then defended her title in 2008. She’s the Freddy frickin Adu of fencing and has won every award at a younger age than anyone had ever done. She’s got 7 world titles and 2 shiny gold medals. Bad ass with a sword- would kick your ass if you tried crossing swords with her.
Notable: Stephanie Rice won gold for her home country of Australia. She is not from the U.S. but her attitude and physical prowess are worthy of acknowledgment. Here are two shots I took of her when I snuck into the Orympic Virrage last week.
Wish we had women like that in China!!!!
Poor Li Hung is our senior Olympic correspondent in Beijing. Whenever possible, he will file ultra-secret reports from internet cafes in China so that we in the west will know what’s really happening over there - not the choreographed version delivered by NBC and the repressive Chinese government. He’s invented a program to subvert the Great FireWall; however, it has a few glitches, and we will try our best to transcribe his reports.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:51 am
[...] News » News Poor Li Hung: Pics and Notes from the Orympic Virrage, and more!2008-08-18 00:51:23Of Oregon (no funny, rearry where she’s from). At 19, Mariel was the first [...]