Legendary+Olympics

Adam Lee 5/21/12 L&L 3 Mrs. Dabrush

=__**Narrative Writing Assessment**__=

“Who am I?” I thought to myself as the summer approached us. I sat in my living room spacing out while my father watched the news on the television. I could hear my mom upstairs on a business call and by her tone, she was obviously getting agitated and annoyed with her clients. Lucky for my family, my one year old sister, Natalie, was sleeping in her crib. Hi my name is Legend MacArthur and yes, Legend is my real name. I am fourteen years old, I have medium length and curly dirty blonde hair with crystal bright blue eyes. Basketball is my greatest passion and my favorite sport to play and watch. Speaking of which, I was very excited to watch basketball in the Olympics this summer. I have a dad, Pat MacArthur, who was a former Navy SEAL and is the reason why I have USA pride beyond belief. He is the reason why I work extremely hard in school and on the basketball court, its my goal to make him proud. My dad is very stocky and averaged height with short brown army-style cut hair. My mother is a business women at a huge financial-aiding corporation and always seems to be wrapped up in her work or with my one year old sister Natalie. Natalie looks like somebody took a baby right out of a Gerber Baby commercial. When she is not wailing her lungs out, she is always smiling. For the rest of that week I was either reflecting on my life while spacing out like a zombie or going to my club team basketball practices, which my team was considered to be number one in the entire region and quite possibly the nation. The practices, as you might imagine, were extremely intense and completely wiped out all of my energy. One thing that kept me interested in the practices was the talk of the Olympics and what people or teams were projected to either do great or poorly. During these talks, I only knew about the US Olympic basketball team’s history while others talked about soccer, swimming, hockey and the US in general. I was extremely curious about the other teams and didn’t want to seem clueless in front of my teammates either. It was a very quiet, calm and relaxing thursday night when my father and I started to debate on who is the top quarterback in the NFl. “Tom Brady is the most accurate passer and has vision that cannot be matched by anybody else.” my dad said “Yeah well Peyton Manning also has the same accuracy and vision and he is more mobile and is willing to take a hit unlike that wussy Brady.” I argued back. Here is where my dad turned into an annoying college kid who is obsessed with being right. “Okay fine, fine, fine. Well lets see who is ranked number one on NFL.com, how about that?” He went over to the computer and searched for the right link and shouted, “Oh yeah, boo-yah baby! What’s up huh? What’s up?” Tom Brady was ranked the best quarterback in the league with Peyton in second. I could have argued back on how Brady choked the last two Super-bowls but I knew once my dad had his mind set, he is always right in his mind. I didn’t say much to him after that because I was trying to stay away from the gloating and possibly another argument. This would be an easy task for my dad had not noticed that his only son in the house was not talking to him and the all the news on the television about the upcoming Olympic Games were filling up the news. All the hype of the Olympics gave me some time and motivation to research the greats of the US Olympics. What I discovered was some of the most interesting things that I have come across. In 1920, the US Men’s hockey beat Switzerland with a score of 29-0 in the Olympic Games. Twenty nine goals in a single game of hockey! That would be like scoring five hundred points in a regulation basketball game. Reading fact after fact made me more and more proud to live in the US and to support them in the Olympics. I made a promise to myself to try and watch almost every event in the upcoming Olympics. It was extremely close and every day was agonizingly slow to pass by.

Finally, after two excruciatingly slow months, the Olympic Games were one hour away from commencing. After researching the teams, I was practically bursting with excitement and pride. I eagerly watched the television in my living room as everything on the screen moved in slow motion and the noises of my dad talking to my mom and my sister making random noises went completely silent. The torch carrier that had been traveling across the world for weeks was approaching the huge steps to the enormous and grand cauldron that would signify the begging of the 2012 London Olympics. The cameramen zoomed in on national teams as they approached in huge groups. As the camera moved and followed the US team, I saw a few people that I had recognized from the past and from my research. I sat straight up as the camera zoomed in on Michael Phelps, one of the greatest swimmers of all time, and the greatest attribute of all was he represents the US. Phelps had won a gold medal in every single swimming event in Beijing in 2008. That was the first time in history that anybody had won gold for all the events. As inspirational music played, the announcer was calling off the names of the national teams and coaches. After all the introduction procedures, the games were pronounced to begin the following day. The floor-plan for the games were to be track and field events for the first two days, diving and synchronized swimming for the third, skeet, trap shooting and archery for the fourth and swimming for the last day. While all the events were underway, soccer, basketball and volleyball tournaments for men and women were to be played throughout the games. I was begging to regret my over eagerness for the Olympics. I woke up exhausted from barley any sleep while thinking about the games and I wasn’t even sleepy tired so I couldn’t go back into bed and fall back asleep. I took a peek at my alarm clock and the red digital numbers read “7:04”. Seven o’clock on a summer morning! I woke up before both of my parents left for work. I climbed out of bed and walked, no inched my way down to the kitchen where both my parents were eating breakfast. “Good morning Legend, sit down and I’ll fix you a plate.” my mom said not looking away from her cabinets, trying to find the right ingredients for her famous omelets. I released all the energy I had to attempt to reply but all that came out was a mixture of a moan, ugh and a cracking voice. This caused my dad to set his newspaper on the table and observe me. “Hey calm down there. No need to be so energetic this early.” my dad said trying to squeeze a laugh out of me. I wanted to talk but I couldn’t dig up the energy to talk. That is, until mom placed her omelet with diced peppers and onions, bits of tomatoes, ham and a whole lot of cheese right in front of my. I was so intoxicated by the smell that it seemed as if somebody, probably a ninja, stabbed me with adrenaline. I scarfed down the omelet and made my way to the living room with newfound energy. I flipped through the guide on the t.v and saw that the first Olympic event would be at eleven. I basically spaced out while cartoons were playing for four hours until the Olympic Anthem woke me up from my daze. The second day of the Olympics were starting with the usual intro from the announcers which I payed my fullest attention to just in case they gave background information about any country that I could learn from. There wasn’t any information but just a few interviews that were set up like the reality shows. “And we kick off day two here in London with the one hundred meter hurdles. The runners are getting set......... And the there off!” the announcer said as the blank from the starting gun was fired. The runners took off blazing as Jamaica was in first, US in second and Germany was close behind in third. Being cautious not to wake Natalie, I clenched the couch cushion to keep my cheering in. “Go, go, go!” I thought to myself as US pulled away from Germany. I tried to keep quiet for the other heats in the hurdles. The final heat had one Jamaican, two Americans, one German and a man from the Netherlands. Jamaica’s representative could run like heck! He smoked everybody while US came in second and fourth and the Netherlands came in second. It wasn’t until after the 4x1 relay that I got completely bored of the track and field events. I decided to get dressed and shoot hoops in my driveway. It was a warm and dry summer day when I stepped on the pavement in my driveway. I scooped up a basketball off of the front lawn and started to take warm up shots. The little bumps on the ball felt smooth as I released the ball and got a swish. “This is going to be a good day.” I thought to myself as I retrieved the ball. The rest of the day went exactly like that. I was on fire. The ball felt perfect and my shots were all going in. I tuned out the rest of the world as I sank shot after shot after shot. I was trapped in my own little world. I would dribble the ball around the perimeter of my driveway and take fade away shots. I was so into my little session that I hadn’t realized that it was turning dark and that my dad had gotten home and was watching me with his arms crossed, leaning against his SUV. “That’s quite a roll you’re on there, Legend.” His tone was softer and kind of relaxed. This was the first time in a while that he has actually called me Legend, we just usually begin a conversation without addressing each other. “Thanks.” was the best response that I could think of off the top of my head. With that he nodded, and walked to the front door. The encounter with my dad who had been accepting and not pushing me to get better had thrown me off of everything. I tossed the ball on the soft green grass in the lawn and went straight up to the shower. In the shower, I sat there thinking of the dad that I saw just ten minutes earlier. Attempting to forget about it, I went to bed. The next morning I woke up at ten. My parents had already head off to work and Natalie was dropped off at preschool. I was in a sleepy mood and decided to crank up the air conditioner. As the room grew colder, I got a blanket and curled up on the leather sofa which absorbed the cold air. The synchronized swimming and diving events were broadcasted that day, because of this I flipped through the channels and found the Olympic men’s basketball games. Luckily for me, the US was playing Ecuador. The US men’s basketball team was my favorite US team. The US had won thirteen gold medals in the Olympics. Possibly the best year for the US was in 1972 when Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson played side by side, two of the greats. Not only them but a handful of other great players as well. They were called the “Dream Team”. As expected, US crushed Ecuador 114-76. I was not interested in watching any other country besides the US so I surfed the channels and found the women’s US soccer team. US was beating Argentina 2-0 and it was already late in the game. During my research, I found out that women’s team was currently ranked first in the world and had won three gold medals in the Olympics. The most impressive feat was that US had the only two women that were listed in the FIFA 100, a list of the top 125 soccer players ever. US was dominating Argentina with their defense. With five minutes left in regulation time, US was trying to posses the ball and run out the clock. “A very impressive win from the girls from the USA.” an english commentator said as the game ended with the US team winning. The day passed by with me just sitting around half asleep until it was time for me to go to bed.

Swimming was the topic in this day of the games and swimming was the one event that made me the most excited to watch. Last Olympics, USA won gold in the single and team relay events. I wanted to see a sweep in this Olympics as well. I watched as the cameras were doing a scan of the stadium with thousands of people cheering. The USA team entered the arena with dark blue wind-pants and wind-breakers on with red and white stripes down the sides and “USA” written in red letters on the upper left corner of the jackets. I tuned out the announcer as he was giving background information on the swim teams and swim team members. He praised Michael Phelps and the US team for sweeping the competition the last time. He did leave out that Phelps had been charged with drug use and driving under the influence after his Olympic Games in 2004 and 2008. This was the final day of the Olympics so everybody in the stadium did their best to represent their colors.

I only really payed attention to the medal rounds. The medal round for the 100m freestyle was about to start as the swimmers got into their starting poses. I really only wanted Michael Phelps to win. The gun sounded and the swimmers were off. Phelps tore through the water as he took an easy gold medal without even smiling after. Phelps didn’t even hesitate to get back on the launching pad when they called the 100m butterfly. Phelps won another gold, however, by only a length of a fingertip. This all seemed to zoom right pass in the matter of a few minutes. The team relay was called up. Every single US swimmer was neck and neck with the relay team from China. Phelps was the third of four swimmers and built a half of a second lead on China. The final swimmer from the US absolutely blew away any chances of China winning as US won by two seconds. The swimmers from USA all celebrated with the unknown swimmer who the commentator said was, “the next upcoming great”. Finally the 400m race was going to the conclusion of the events in the games. This was it, the final heat had three Americans, one German and one Japanese swimmer. The swimmers set into their starting position and the gun fired. The swimmers all lunged forward and traveled half the distance on the pool. As the swimmers approached the far wall of the pool, they flipped, set their feet and pushed off the wall. The Americans were in first and second, the German was in third and the others trailed close behind. I was chanting, “Go, go, go, go!” The American touched the wall as he finished. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” I shouted as was jumping up and down with excitement. The games were over and I was filled with pride that the US had won as many medals that they did. The rest of the summer went by extremely quick without anything to look forward to. The only thing that I could say is that I wanted to become an Olympian, I wanted to become one the greats, I wanted to be recognized as a representative of the US. I would work hard every day on the basketball court and in the classroom to strive to become one of them. All I could say is that I was looking forward to my future.

=//Inspire a Generation //=