The REAL. BIG. Blog

I don’t know if any of you were watching the” Shaq Vs.,” show that aired on ABC.  For those of you who didn’t, it is Shaq Vs. top athletes at their own sport. This video is the final episode which included, 14-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion swimmer Michael Phelps. This looked like a great show, I’m sorry I missed it!

Enjoy the clip!

So, today, our CEO here at Fathead announced a company contest.

You see, here at Fathead, we all have business cards that contain a promotion code that gives our friends and family discounts.  These promotion codes give big discounts on anything at http://www.fathead.com .  The premise of the contest that was announced is this: let’s run a contest where the team-member who’s promotion code is used on the most orders wins a new TV.

Now normally, I would hand out my card and see how close I would come to winning.  The problem is that I am REALLY competitive and there are NO RULES to this contest.  It didn’t help that a few my team members challenged me.  Not a good thing! So, I figure, I will really try to WIN this contest.  The goal: pride.  The outcome: one of my deserving team members will get the TV if I win.  It’s a win-win-win-win deal.  Someone gets a TV, a true fan gets some awesome Fathead stuff, the company makes a little extra money and… I win.

I can’t really post my code here on the company blog, but you can Click here to read on!

Help me win! On my blog, I’ll keep some current posts regarding whats happening with the contest, what competition I’m facing and anything else crazy that happens during the race to the finish line.

The Blog
-C

By Apryl DeLancey

Did you watch the 2008 Olympic Games?  Did you see any of the swimming contests?  It has been difficult to escape the news of the remarkable Michael Phelps of the USA Swimming Team.  If you haven’t heard about him and his amazing swimming then you have probably been on vacation somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  Not since Mark Spitz back in 1972 has anyone dominated the sport of swimming the way Phelps has.  Spitz won seven gold medals back then in just one installment of Olympic Games.  Phelps has now won eight in Beijing.  Talk of his dominance and if he is the best Olympian ever are now everywhere.  Is he the most dominant Olympian? The most dominant athlete ever?

Over the span of the Games, we’ve learned much about this 23-year-old super human.  We know that he eats a lot of food.  In fact, we know he pretty much eats as many carbohydrates and sugar as he can possibly shovel in throughout a day.  Regardless of how much he eats, we can see just about every muscle in his body.  In fact, we can see muscles that I bet not everyone even knew existed!  In addition, we have found out that he listens to hip hop and rap in his music player.  We know that he’s really good at the butterfly stroke.  News outlets are giving us every detail of this young man’s existence.

So I hereby ask - why doesn’t he get a Fathead?  I think it’s time.  There could be one of him in the water from the side.  This could be done with or without water.  Without would be fun since then it would look like he’s swimming in your wall.  Sort of.  Better yet, how about with that celebratory look on his face that makes him look like a monster?  Nothing says you’re a champ like having your emotional moment captured and duplicated all over the place.  I’m sure he doesn’t mind!  I know I wouldn’t…

Bring on the Phelps Fathead!

By Apryl DeLancey

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony were the Fathead favorites that helped lead the Men’s USA Basketball Team to Olympic gold against Spain. This was a particularly rewarding victory since the US had to settle for bronze at the last Olympics in Athens. LeBron James would no longer have to hear the taunts of “LeBronze” but could relish in the title King James once again.

Although Team USA got a real run for their money against Spain in the gold medal game, they were able to pull off the victory. Post-game interviews with Kobe and LeBron confirmed that they never believed that the team would be a pushover in spite of their domination (by 37 points) over them in earlier pool play. Spain was able to pull within 2 points on several occasions late in the game. Kobe also mentioned that this victory was sweeter than any championship. Sure, Kobe, that’s easy for you to say…we still would have liked to see you accomplish BOTH this year here in Los Angeles! I won’t complain though, it was a great game that kept you on the edge of your seat.

Fathead favorites Dwayne Wade scored 27 points and Kobe Bryant put up 20 in the victory. In fact, Kobe seemed to really come alive toward the end and had a hand in many of the 4th quarter scoring. He was a man on a mission, indeed and had a 4-point play with just over 3 minutes remaining. Focused, he put a finger to his mouth as if to say, “Alright, we’ve got them where we want them but let’s wait to celebrate”. Wade sank a 3 with time waning down under two minutes to make the score 111-104. Spain caught some technical fouls and Team USA could finally celebrate with 26 seconds left on the clock. Kobe started the party by dumping his bottled water over Coach K’s head, proving to the world that it really isn’t plastic. Final score, 118-107.

By John Fontana

The Olympics are timeless. My daughter was in awe during the opening ceremonies and stayed up late to watch the parade of champions; yelling out the names of the U.S. Olympians she recognized. But it will be the new names she learns this week that captivate her and make her an Olympic fan for life.

During swimmer Michael Phelps’s first race to gold in the 400 IM, I could hear her and my son downstairs jumping up and down as Phelps pushed to the wall. You would have thought the ice cream truck had broken down in front of the house with a sign stuck to the side that read: “Free – Today only!”

The Games have that powerful draw and they always will. And who can get that Olympic music out of there head for the next few weeks, including “Bugler’s Dream.” (It starts out with the slow rolling drums). I fondly remember some of the athletes I have seen through the years performing in the Olympic Games, sometimes in sports about which I knew little. Colorado local Frank Shorter winning the marathon in 1972 in Munich. Zola Budd running barefoot during the 300 meter final in 1984 and bumping with American Mary Decker who fell into the infield, unable to finish with an injured hip. Bulgarian weightlifter Naim Suleimanov, better known as Pocket Hercules, who won his third consecutive gold medal in Atlanta, and was the second man ever to clean and jerk three times his body weight. Only six others have matched the feat of the 4-foot-11 mighty mite.

In 1976, boxing was king with perhaps the greatest U.S. boxing team of all time that featured among others Sugar Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks and his brother Leon, with his missing front teeth. On the other side of the ring, I remember Teofilo Stevenson, a heavyweight bruiser from Cuba who beat American “Big John” Tate in the semis with a knockout in the first round. Tate went on to be the WBA heavyweight champion for a year from 1979 to 1980, but Stevenson went home with gold.

And there were countless others: gymnasts Olga Korbut (Russia, 1972), Romania’s Nadia Comenci (1976), the first gymnast to post a perfect score of 10 on her way to seven gold medals, and American gold-winner Mary Lou Retton, who also earned a 10, and her million-dollar smile in 1984.

Track and field stars Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner, Edwin Moses, Bruce Jenner, Michael Johnson, Sebastian Coe and high-jumper Dwight Stones.

Diver Greg Louganis, who overcame problems with dyslexia and stuttering as a child to win gold medals in 1984 and 1988, when he hit his head on the diving board during the early rounds and then bounced back to win.

Swimmers Janet Evans (gold: 1998, 1992), Tracy Caulkins (gold: 1984), and Colorado native Amy Van Dyken, who in 1996 became the first woman to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

There was also Russian weightlifter Vasili Alexeyev who won gold in 1976 and was the first athlete I ever saw who tipped the scales at nearly 350 pounds.  As a teenager, I thought it a feat for him just to walk out into the competition area.

And I will never forget Jim McKay’s broadcast of the tragedy at the 1972 Games in Munich when 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed by a militant Palestinian group known as Black September.

This abbreviated list of names and memories only continues to grow and it is fun to watch my kids banking their own memories and stories they will revisit each Olympic year.

Who are the athletes and events you remember?

In today’s era of big money sports I was motivated to look up once again the Olympic Creed, a spirit that keeps the game in the Games:

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

BY John Fontana

The NBA ballers. James, Wade, Anthony, Paul, Williams, Howard. It will be coming of age for these young heroes. LeBron James has already guaranteed the gold. Pressure? This is going to be good.

David Oliver. The 110-meter hurdler went to Denver East High School, just five blocks from my house and where my kids will go to high school. Hometown hurdler makes good? I’m hoping so.

Taylor Phinney. Another local favorite, the 18-year-old from Boulder, Colo., has all the genes he needs to shock the cycling world in individual pursuit on the track. His dad Davis Phinney was the first American to win a stage of the Tour de France and has a bronze from the 1984 games. His mother, Connie Carpenter-Phinney, won gold in the women’s road race the same year. Taylor captured an elite national title in the men’s individual pursuit in his first-ever track race.

Dara Torres. The 41-year-old swimmer is nothing short of phenomenal.

Michael Phelps. I watched Mark Spitz set the pool on fire in 1972 to the tune of seven gold medals. This is the second chapter of fish gone human.

Asafa Powell. Staying in Jamaica to train for the 100-meters at a local dilapidated track. This is the stuff that makes legends and PBS documentaries.

Liu Xiang. The decorated Chinese hurdler is under the gaze of 1.3 billion countrymen counting on an Athens gold repeat. Anything short of No. 1 and he won’t be able to go home. Pressure is what creates special athletes.

Eccentric U.S. shot putter Reese Hoffa whose profile says his dream is to compete in a bear suit after being brought onto the track in a cage. Literally a massive pro wrestling fan, the 5-foot-11, 315 pound athlete once competed while wearing a mask, calling himself the “Unknown Shot Putter.” He also loves to feast on turkey legs after a win. I love quirky athletes. Turk Wendell is still my favorite MLB pitcher. Ever.
Roman Sebrle, the Czech decathlon athlete once caught a javelin in the shoulder confirming that decathletes may be the toughest of all.

Who are you watching? Why?