Board Meeting Announcements:

There will be a Board of Director’s meeting on September 9, 2008 at 11:00 am at the Cattle Company.

Upcoming Events

September 9, 2008 luncheon at the Cattle Company

October 14, 2008 golf outing at The Palms

November 11, 2008  luncheon at the Cattle Company

December 9, 2008 Christmas Party at 6:00 pm Cattle Company

The Olympics are here and I thought I would have a look at some Fun Olympic facts to get you in the mood for the competition.

1/ The reason the extra yards were added to the running distance of the marathon to make the total length a rather strange figure of 26 miles and 385 yards (42.2 kilometres)? Was because of the rather whimsical demand of Queen Alexandra of Great Britain, who decreed in 1908 that the marathon should end below the royal box at London’s White City Stadium, which added the extra 385 yards!

2/ The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek root "gymnos" meaning nude; the literal meaning of "gymnasium" is "school for naked exercise." Athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would participate in the nude.

3/ The first Paralympic Games was held in 1948. The name 'Paralympics' comes from the words 'Parallel' and 'Olympics'.

4/ The record for the most gold medals awarded in one Olympic Games went to American swimmer Mark Spitz in 1972. He won SEVEN gold medals! The US swimming sensation Michael Phelps is trying to top that at the Athens Olympics by going for Eight gold medals.

5/ The Olympic symbol consists of five circles or rings. These five circles stand for the five continents. The colours in the circle are green yellow, blue red and black.

6/ In 1900 Australian Donald MacIntosh came third in the live pigeon shooting event, the first and only time animals were killed on purpose in an Olympic event. Donald won by killing 21 of the birds.

7/ The early Olympic Games were celebrated as a religious festival from 776 B.C. until 393 A.D., when the games were banned for being a pagan festival (the Olympics celebrated the Greek god Zeus).

8/ The first Olympics covered by U.S. television was the 1960 Summer Games in Rome by CBS.

9/ Four Boeing 747 jumbo jets could have fitted side by side in the Olympic Stadium in Australia.

10/ The Olympic flame is a practice continued from the ancient Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games. The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavor for perfection. In 1936, the chairman of the organizing committee for the 1936 Olympic Games, Carl Diem, suggested what is now the modern Olympic Torch relay. The Olympic flame is lit at the ancient site of Olympia by women wearing ancient-style robes and using a curved mirror and the sun. The Olympic Torch is then passed from runner to runner from the ancient site of Olympia to the Olympic stadium in the hosting city. The flame is then kept alight until the Games have concluded. The Olympic Torch relay represents a continuation from the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympics.

11/ Athletes will produce as much as 2 million pounds of dirty laundry. It would take a family of four 264 years to go through that much laundry!

12/ In wrestling at the Stockholm Games in 1912, the light heavyweight final between a Swede, Anders Ahlgren, and a Finn, Ivar Bohling, lasted nine hours. Since neither had gained an advantage over the other, no gold medal was awarded. Each received a silver medal.

13/ In 1924 starring in the Olympic pool was young Johnny Weissmuller - forever to be remembered as Tarzan for his later film roles - who won both the 100-metres and 400-metre races, setting world records in both. In the 400 metres, Weissmuller shaved a full 20 seconds off the Olympic record.

14/ In 1932 the flagbearer for the Chinese team at the opening Olympic ceremony was sprinter Cheng Chun-liu who was the solitary participant from China.

15/ Early in the Helsinki Olympics of 1952, the Soviets didn't pay much attention to the unofficial point totals. But after the ninth day, when they saw their lead over the United States grow to 120 points, they decided to construct a large scoreboard in the dining room of their village. The scoreboard showed the daily point totals of all nations.On the last day of Olympic competition, the U.S. won several gold medals and it seemed certain the USA would overtake the USSR in the point totals. Realizing they were not going to finish ahead of the Americans, the Soviets began dismantling the scoreboard, but not before a reporter for a U.S. newspaper saw the scoreboard and sent out the story.

The headline read, "Russians caught with their points down."

After the Olympics, the Soviet newspaper Pravda, which must have juggled point values until they came out right, announced that the USSR and the USA had finished in a tie, each with 494 points.

16/ James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step, and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.

17/ Approximately 2,000 athletes participated, representing 22 countries in the 1908 games held in London. By the 1996 Games held in Atlanta this had risen to approximately 10,000 athletes participating, representing 197 countries.

18/ In order for a sport to be considered for inclusion in the Olympics it must be "widely practiced by men in at least 75 countries and on four continents, and by women in at least 40 countries and on three continents".

19/ During the Athens Games in 2004, 50,000 meals will be prepared daily at the Olympic Village, utilising 100 tons of food. The Olympic Village will provide accommodation and free-of charge services to 16.000 athletes and team officials.

20/ For the first time in 56 years, the Olympic flame passed through London on route to Athens 2004.