Decathlon getting underway - go Trey!!!!

[rainbowgirl28]

Oh nooooo

[rainbowgirl28]

I didn't see the first two jumps, but Trey got hammered on that last one. He tried to save it but was too far under to do anything with it

[master]

Looks like a couple of those guys need some "stick-em".

And the Cuban is using a Nordic pole; the first one I've seen at these Olympics.

- master

[patchdoggydogg]

Clay over @490!

[patchdoggydogg]

From my buddy who is on site at the Bird's Nest.

Group A is closer to the field, while Group B is closer to the corner.

"Walker was closer to the field.
Anyway, they've completely broken down the hardware and re-set it since then
I'd seen something suggesting Walker had trouble with the hardware
lotsa guys struggling on Group A, but then, they're the weaker vaulters."

[master]

They may want to check the standards again after the Jamaican hit it with his arm.

Clay just cleared 5.00

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews ... xml&coll=2

Vestavia Hills' Trey Hardee brought home Olympic memories, if not medals
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Trey Hardee got to meet two presidents, walk through Tiananmen Square, buy some stuff that really was "made in China," and realize what it feels like to have the whole world watching you.

What the Vestavia Hills native and Olympic hopeful in the decathlon didn't get to do was what he went to Beijing to do: Finish the job.

Hardee dropped out of the Olympic decathlon competition when he failed to clear the bar in the pole vault in three attempts.

"But it will definitely help me prepare for the next go-round," said Hardee. "It's a long way off, but you can't lose sight of it."

Now Hardee knows what Olympic competition is like. He knows that it's more than just the ordinary, grueling two-day, 10-event test that makes up the decathlon.

"It was everything I imagined, and more," Hardee said from his home in Austin, Texas. "The opening ceremony was incredible. You're standing around for hours, sweating in these blazers and pants that was the team uniform, feeling miserable, and then you hear them announce `Team USA' and you walk in.

"I was on the third row so I was up front, and it was surreal. I put my hand over my mouth, looked at the crowd and the other athletes and I remember the guy next to me said, `Are you getting all this? This is crazy! It's the Olympics!'"

Hardee couldn't afford to spend much time seeing the sights, although he did watch some Olympic women's basketball and took one day to see Beijing, including a trip through the local market.

"I wasn't willing to risk eating anything outside the (athletes') village," he said. "But it was cool, going around the market. It's like a Publix for them. Any part of the animal you wanted."

Hardee met President George W. Bush and former President George H. Bush. He hung out with actor David Schwimmer in the USA House, a place for Americans to gather, and met actor Vince Vaughn on the flight back from China.

And he heard from people back home whom he hadn't heard from in years.

"Yeah, that was great," Hardee said. "People were coming out of the woodwork - people I went to high school with (at Vestavia Hills), friends who are teachers now and they had their classes do posters of me. Of all the places, there was no greater support than I got from Birmingham. More people than I ever thought paid attention to it, and that means a lot."

Now comes down time - convenient for Hardee because, like many people from Alabama, he's ready for some football.

"I just found out when I got back to America that Brett Favre is a New York Jet," Hardee said. "That's how far removed I've been. I've got to see if I can get a ticket to a (Texas) Longhorn game."

At some point, Hardee said, he'll figure out how to catalogue all the sights and sounds and emotions of what he hopes will be only his first Olympic experience. At 24 years old, he's in position to make another run in 2012 in London, and should be in his prime.

"To be competing in a stadium that was filled to capacity, at 90,000 people - that was unbelievable," Hardee said. "It was such an adrenaline rush. ... For two weeks, we were what the world was watching. That's very cool."


"That was my first international meet," said the 24-year-old University of Texas graduate, who dropped out of his event because he was fatigued and knew after the pole vault that he had no chance at a medal. "The order of events and time schedule was more spread out. The first day, I was out there for 14 or 15 hours when normally you're not out there more than five or six hours. I ran the quarter (400 meters) late at night, and had to be up at 5:20 the next morning to run the hurdles.

"By the pole vault, it was the first time I can remember feeling mentally tired. I let my guard down. I didn't execute. That's what happens."

The gold medal was won by Hardee's American teammate, Brian Clay, followed by Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus and Leonel Suarez of Cuba.

The third American, Tom Pappas, dropped out after suffering a foot injury early in the first day. Several other decathletes dropped out when they realized their medal chances were gone.

Besides the lessons, Hardee returned from China with a head full of memories that, a week after the event, he's still trying to sort out.