All American

Dale and family in town from TX for the Olympics where they will spend the rest of the day. Ben (middle) a budding running star and we do a loop of Richmond Park and I try to keep up.  He is of that wonderful age when sports and puberty collide : his aim to hit 4:10 in the mile before college.  When not running, and since summer, Ben works at a pretzel stand at the Austin mall.  I send him "Fast Times At Ridgement High".

Day eight of the Smörgåsbord : swimming's conclusion and Michael Phelp's last race ever (gold in the 4X100 medley relay), gymnastics, diving (what bodies), wrestling .. water polo, ping pong, judo and beach volleyball. .. the velodrome and , of course, athletics : Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford anad Mo Farah take gold in the Hep, long-jump and 10K respectively (the press calls it the "greatest day in British sports history"). The BBC records it all across 20 dedicated channels. TGP (Team GB or Team Great Britain) takes six golds on "Super Saturday" and, at this stage, 29 medals overall trailing only the US and China. Compare this to Atlanta in '96 : one.
Boy it is going to be some bummer when the games end and we are back to reality.  But let us focus instead on the men's 100m final and Usain Bolt, which is in several hours.

"This is U.S. History, I see the globe right there."
--Spicoli