Video of the Week: U-S-A! U-S-A!

So the Olympics began this past Friday. It’s been truly exciting stuff so far. Barring any overly oppressive Beijing smog or panda attacks I think these games should be a success and will turn into quite the coming out party for China. The thing I love so much about the Olympics is that you not only get excited about the world coming together to engage in hard-fought sport but you get to root all-out for your country. These events are bigger than the Mets-Yankees or Giants-Dodgers rivalries. This is hardcore country on country action—and the nationalist in me couldn’t love it more.

Last night’s coverage provided a great “U-S-A” moment when the French found a size 12 foot in their mouth after the US swim team came back in literally the last 5 meters to snatch the gold in the 400M freestyle relay. Before the race, French anchor-man Alain Bernard was quoted in a French publication as saying: “The Americans? We will smash them. That’s what we came here for.” Oh really? You don’t say? All fired up, the US team swam their hearts out and upset the favored French team as Jason Lezak hit the wall before Bernard. The race was so fast the US set a new world record by over four seconds!

This is the stuff we live for. Watch the video of the week here!