Hassel the Hoff

No, not that one...this one:



Katie Hoff has been a big disappointment at the Olympic games. It's been talked about a lot, see here, here, and here.

While I do think she chose an overly ambitious program, I think she did it for attention, not because she actually thought she could medal in all of those events. That bothers me. She wasn't talked about a lot prior to the Olympics. Dara Torres and Michael Phelps stole the show, and continue to do so. But guess what? That's life. Get over it.

What really bothers me is that in her quest for attention, she jeopardized her own chances and thus the U.S.'s chances at gold medals. So she earned medals in 3 out of 6 events, but none of them were gold. Maybe if she only raced 3 events, she would have 3 golds instead of a halo of disappointment following her around (for the record, I'm not a gold medal snob, I'll take them in any color really, its just the point of it. I think she could have done better, and I'm not alone).

Don't get me wrong, I think she's a great swimmer. I just wish she would have stuck to the events she wanted to swim and realized she would get more attention sweeping 3 events than having a poor showing at a 3 of 6 events.

I hope if she makes it to the London games she takes a cue from the lovely Natalie Coughlin:


Who's taken a much calmer/more relaxed approach to these games and has swam very well. And hey, I can't help but love the California girls. ;)