The Olympics
The Olympics starts this Friday! Love the summer Olympics and the opening ceremony. Here is the link – http://www.london2012.com/ if you want to keep up to date with all that is going on with the Olympics for the next few weeks.
I tried to discover if there were any competing athletes with ties to the Outer Banks and was not successful. I did find that out of 600 competing American athletes we do have 19 athletes representing North Carolina. Most of these athletes we may or may not see, but it will be fun to cheer for someone from our state.
Ricky Berens – Is a swimmer that competed in Beijing and was part of the winning 800 meter relay team. He swam the third leg of the 800m freestyle relay final at the Water Cube, where the U.S. won by more than five seconds over second-place Russia and third-place Australia. The time of 6 minutes, 58.56 seconds also set a world record.
Marko Blazevski – Is also a swimmer and will be competing in the 400-meter individual medley. He is a rising Junior at Wingate University in Wingate, NC.
Cullen Jones – He won a gold medal in Beijing for a 4×100 relay. He will be swimming in the same relay but will also race in the 50 and 100 meter freestyle.
Nick McCrory – is one of the best divers in America. He grew up in Chapel Hill, NC and went to Duke University. He is 20 and this is the first time he has made the Olympic team, he will be competing in the 10 meter platform individual even and synchronized diving.
Shalane Flanagan – is long-distance runner that currently holds the American record times in the 3000 m, 5000 m, and 10,000 m. She is also the Bronze Medalist from Beijing in the 3k, 5k and the 10k. Shalane is a graduate of University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She will be competing in the marathon.
Hunter Kemper – will be competing in the triathlon. He competed in 2000, 2004 and 2008 as Triathlete in the Olympics. He was born in Charlotte and attended Wake Forest University. He is the only American male that is ranked as the number one triathlete in the world and will be the first triathlete featured on a Wheaties Box.
Other Notable Athletes with North Carolina Ties are:
Dremiel Byers – Wrestling
Casey Eichfeld – Canoe/Kayak
Eric Hurd – Canoe/Kayak
Caroline Queen – Canoe/Kayak
Nick Thoman – Swimming
Rachel Dawson – Field Hockey
Katelyn Falgowski – Field Hockey
Tobin Heath – Soccer
Heather O’Reilly – Soccer
Caroline Lind – Rowing
John Isner – Tennis
Charlie Houchin – Swimming
Chris Paul – Basketball Lauren Perdue – Track & Field
GO USA!!
