"Herman's the man."-Michael Phelps
Like most of the television watching world, we have Olympic fever and we have it bad. Usual runway fashion talk now consists of China's gymnast attire and the daily read of Popsugar has been replaced with Yahoo!Sports. Just call us Olympic fans. So while you can get the real action on NBC, we wanted to salute the loyal fans (who you may not be familiar with) of our favorite gold medal winners.
Athlete: Michael Phelps; Loyal Fan: Herman, his trusty bulldog
Michael Phelps' To Do List:
-attend Beijing Olympics--check
-smash current world records--check
-become world's most decorated Olympic athlete--check
-walk Herman
As of Wednesday, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps has a whopping 11 gold medals under his belt and is not showing any signs of slowing down. For those of you that may have been living under a rock, Mike is on his way to breaking the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympic event. While the international superstar's fan base is growing exponentially with each new win (he averages 83 new fans per minute on his Facebook page), his most loyal fan is back in the U.S....waiting for his walk.
If Phelps is the media darling of these Olympic games, his pet bulldog Herman (featured in his very own NBC commercial above) takes the silver medal. How incredibly adorable do they look sprawled out on the couch watching TV? It is a pretty safe bet that win or lose, Herman is anxiously awaiting his best friend's return to the U.S. Forget the gold medals and million dollar endorsements, with an owner that requires a daily 8000 calorie diet, the table scraps alone are pure gold.
Athlete: Abhinav Bindra; Loyal Fan: Babli Bindra, his mother
Sure, most of us had no idea that the 10m air rifle shoot, was an Olympic event. But for the medal-starved nation of India, the rifle shot never sounded sweeter. Ecstatic India has been celebrating Bindra's gold medal, making it the country's first individual event win. While his father may have flipped the bill for the training for the expensive sport, we absolutely adore Momma Bindra's quote that has made it into most major news stories about the Olympic champion. She says, "Yes, I have already started the search for a bride, as he is the most eligible bachelor in the country now." Just like a mom to look out for her baby. This was Bindra's third Olympics and he was considered quite the underdog entering the competition. It's doubtful Mrs. Bindra will be including that info in her son's matrimonial.
Athlete: Yang Wei; Loyal Fan: Yang Yun, his fiancee
Veteran Chinese gymnast Yang Wei clenched the gold after his stellar performance on Wednesday in the individual all-around event. This is in addition to leading his team to the gold medal in the team competition. So it's shocking to think that four years ago he was considering retiring and giving it all up due to his age. The gymnast is 28 years old, considered ancient in the sport. However, according to media reports, it was Yang Yun, once a national gymnast herself winning bronze at the Sydney Olympics, that convinced him to return to the team instead of retiring. The Chinese media reports that according to him, at events like the World Championships, his fiancee has sent motivational text messages that have given him that extra confidence. At other meets, seeing Yang Yun has kept him from being distracted on the difficult pommel horse. Wei says, "As soul-mates, we can read each other's minds without uttering a word." Can we just get a gigantic "awwwwh"?
So, it's no surprise, it was his soul-mate that convinced him to stick with the sport he excels at. The result: this week's golden victories. Guess it's true: behind every good gymnast, is a good female gymnast. What can we say? We flip for a good love story.
video source: youtube.com
Michael Phelps is amazing. Here's to summer olympics '12.
Posted by: michael_phelps_fan | September 01, 2008 at 04:06 PM