Others making waves in the pool

"We wanted to win, too."

Cullen Jones (right), the third swimmer in the the US men's 4x100m freestyle relay team that captured gold on Monday, said these five words to Meredith Vieira on NBC's Today Show hours after his team's dramatic triumph. He was responding to a question about any pressure the team was facing because of teammate Michael Phelps' highly-publicized quest for 8 Olympic golds. The most interesting thing about the comment was that he sounded like he was trying to remind everybody that, oh yeah, he was an Olympic athlete, too. And, in case you forgot, he was swimming for a gold medal of his own.

There are always athletes that are going to transcend their teams, and sometimes their sport. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Right now, Michael Phelps can most certainly be put in this category. But, by elevating Phelps to such heights, the media threatens to downplay and cheapen the accomplishments of those around him. So much so that an Olympian has to remind the public that he was racing for his own gold medal.

Michael Phelps did not gift that gold medal to Cullen Jones. Cullen Jones, along with Garrett Weber-Gale and Jason Lezak, have put in thousands of hours in the pool to get where they are, and sometimes the bright light that shines on Phelps gets in the eyes of the viewers, keeping them from seeing the accomplishments of others.

Is this Phelps' fault? Probably not. I have never met Michael Phelps, and I might not ever meet him. I've heard from several people who have met him and interviewed him that he is not the most personable guy to be around. I've heard more than a few say that he comes across as arrogant. But, I highly doubt he runs around chasing cameras and pleading for interviews. And, while I haven't read every interview he's ever done, I'm sure he's very proud and appreciative of his teammates. His swimming capabilities are unparalleled, and his goal of swimming after Mark Spitz is an engaging story that warrants following. But, let's make sure we don't drown out the efforts of others making waves in the pool.

Today last night

Who would have thought one of the my biggest thrills of the Olympics would come from none other than Al Roker? No, it wasn't when he implored the television to watch a cooking segment about, "pulling noodles." And as you can imagine, Roker didn't take my breath away with any sort of athletic feat. Instead, it was his generosity and affability, along with that of the other anchors and athletes on NBC's Today Show, that provided the excitement on live TV.

At about 8 AM CST, Roker and the rest of the anchors of NBC's Today Show were doing a stand-up in front of a crowd of on-lookers from their set on the Olympic Green when a boisterous (some would probably say "rude" and/or "obnoxious") "M-I-Z" "Z-O-U" rang out from the crowd behind him. Without missing a beat, as if it were written into some imaginary cue cards in his head, he recognized the Tigers in the crowd and kept going.

A small group of us, including myself, Ted Arthur (who you'll probably see on the NBC set himself sometime in the next few years), Julia Shuck, Laura Dotson, Eric Durban, Chris McDougall, Allison Bennett, Whitney Wright, Danielle Karstens, Ashley Ward and Beth Androuis, went and watched the show on Monday night. Some of us had signs, while others had pins, handshakes and comments to dole out to the anchors and athletes being interviewed.

Probably the most interesting part of the entire ordeal was how down to earth all of the celebrities involved were. The first person we met was Cullen Jones, a member of the men's 4x100m freestyle relay team that snatched gold from the clutches of France yesterday. He was very nice and signed hundreds of autographs for the fans. It snowballed from there, as we got visits from all four Today Show anchors. Especially nice was Ann Curry. During a break, she came over and talked to us about the importance of our job as journalists and how she respected us for what we were undertaking as journalism students. Mariel Zagunis (who many would say is doing the public a disservice by competing in a sport that requires her to wear a mask), fresh off defending her individual saber gold medal in fencing, took time to pose for pictures, and silver medalists Dara Torres and Christine Magnuson stopped by for a sec.

Discovering the personable nature of the celebrities involved in the Today Show taping was a different kind of thrill, one that didn't involve sabers or a last-second reach for a pool wall. Nevertheless, it was still a thrill, an example of how the Olympics is truly an experience as opposed to just a series of athletic events. Now, if only we could have gotten one of those Mizzou pins on Tom Brokaw's lapel...