MuseClouds

American gymnast Kerri Strug took major decision at the early age of 13 in order to follow her life’s dream. She left home and family to be coached by Bela Karolyi (who also coached Nadia Comăneci some years before). With only an age of 18, at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, the first team gold medal for USA was finally within reach, but in the end it all fell down on the shoulders of young Kerri, as she was the last to compete on the vault and she needed to score high for her team to win. On her first attempt landing, she fell short injuring her ankle. Despite this, she knew it was vital to go there and jump again, so she courageously did a second attempt, this time flawless, but landing with just one leg. She eventually collapsed in pain, but her decision and persistence got her and her team the gold medal. A truly inspiring moment.

In 1992, former British athlete Derek Redmond gave us one of the most beautiful and moving moments in the history of modern times Olympics. Back in 1988, during the Games at Seoul, he had to withdraw just a few moments before the 400 meters competition start, due to an injury. He set all hopes for Barcelona in 1992, where everything was running smooth for Redmond, as he made the best time for the first round and won his quarter-final. However, in the semi-final, about 150 meters into the race, an injury on his right hamstring halted his dream of winning, as he fell on the track in tears. But it didn’t halt him from finishing. He got up and started to hobble on the track, with his face clearly showing his agonizing pain. Jim Redmond, his father, jumped out from the stands diverting security, and joined his son on the field, helping him out until the finish line, only to be greeted by 65,000 impressed people in a standing ovation. He may have not won a medal, but his feat together with his father will always be remembered.

During the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics diving preliminaries, the American diver Greg Louganis, considered by many the greatest of all time, suffered a head concussion when doing a reverse 2 1/2 spike, as the back of his head hit the spring board. However, even with the injury he suffered, and pressured by the fact that he was HIV-positive at the time, he went on to finish the preliminaries and qualified. During the finals and to everyone’s amazement, he repeated the same dive, earning him the gold medal.

Here’s a video remembering those 1988 Olympic moments at Seoul.

In 1976, at the Montreal Summer Olympics, history was made. Nadia Comăneci, a Romanian gymnast with only an age of 14, scored a perfect 10 on the uneven parallel bars during the team part of the competition. This was the first time the score of 10 had been awarded. However, she would get another 6 perfect tens until the end of the Games, taking the gold medals for individual all-around, balance beams and uneven bars.

She holds the record for the youngest Olympic gymnastics all-around champion, a record poised to stay forever as the minimum age for gymnastics was later changed to 16.

Here is a video of her first perfect 10, followed by another perfect uneven bars performance at the same 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Today marks the official start for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This made me recall one of the most beautiful moments in all past opening ceremonies I’ve been able to watch. It was in 1992, Barcelona, when spanish paralympic archer Antonio Rebollo lit the Olympic Torch with a flaming arrow, accompanied by the haunting music of Angelo Badalamenti (in fact, he was there conducting it). Funny thing is I still remember it just like it happened just a few days ago. I was a teenager then, but that moment and what I felt still lasts as an unforgettable memory.

Crawling YouTube I just found a video about a new sport: bodyblading. I’m sure there are no official definition or guidelines yet so I can describe it as a form of road riding. The dry-land cousin of bodyboarding on wheels, without the board! It uses a special suit, though. From the video owner comments “the suit is build by the guy, its just simple wheels in certain parts of body to spread the weight, but i’ve heard this is going to become a sport and it wont be soon until u see the suit on any store.” Well, I certainly would prefer riding on the car behind like the one who’s filming. I’m not a fan of adrenaline-based sports and, although the landscape is certainly inspiring, lying on the tarmac without anything less than a full-blown indestructible robocop suit seems a little too risky to me…

Imagine this scenario: you’re coming back from a great family weekend in the Swiss alps. This guy rides so close to the road you can’t even notice him through the rear mirror. If you’re lucky enough, you only get to see him when he overtakes your car at a speed that can exceed 200km/h. He’s got no license plate nor turn signal lights. What would you think? Frightening, uh?

FYI, the guy on the video is Jean Yves Blondeau aka Rollerman. You can also check his Buggy Rollin website, where he announced Jim Carey saw one of his videos and asked him to be featured in Carey’s last film “The Yesman” due next Christmas. This will definitely give the man major exposure.