The Olympics Are Over?!

Whoa! Where was I?

A week or so ago, when I realized the Olympics were coming to a close, I started thinking about some of the Olympians I had the good fortunate to interview as a reporter. Good memories all. I'm sure I'm leaving out a few, but here are some highlights.

• Lloy Ball, volleyball player extraordinaire. I was an intern at the Journal-Gazette in Fort Wayne. We met at Frisch's. He ate a fruit a cup. I don't remember what I ate but it wasn't a fruit cup. It was probably biscuits and gravy or something heinous.

He had several tattoos even then and was 24 at the time. One of the tattoos was his girlfriend's initials on his chest. You got to be pretty bold (or stupid) to get your girlfriend's initials tattooed on your chest at 24. But I think he married that girl. And it looks like they have several kids. Good for him.

• Becky Jasontek, synchronized swimmer. She was super chatty and friendly. She was in the Aflac commercial with the synchronized swim team during the 2004 Olympics. She told me there was a duck on set during filming but that mostly the duck in the commercial was computer generated. I was so disappointed.

• Paul Hamm, gold medal winning gymnast. I interviewed Paul in the midst of the controversy surrounding his men's all-around gold medal. The International Gymnastics Federation wanted to take it away because of a scoring error with another gymnast; Paul was having none of it. The interview was for a pop culture piece we did at CiN and one of the questions was what song was he into at the moment. He said Tom Petty's "I Wont Back Down."

• Rau-Shee Warren, flyweight boxer. He went in 2004 and again this year, and both times got knocked out in the first round. Too bad. He was favored to win gold this time around. No matter. This isn't about how he did. He was a tough interview and gave mostly one word answers. Getting anything more from him was like pulling teeth. He was young, so it's not uncommon.

But his sweet mama, Paulette, was a great interview. I adored her. She was raising him solo and could not have been more proud of that kid. When he got knocked out in 2004 and I called her for a follow-up story she said she told him after the fight, "That's ok baby. This is one fight. Someday you'll be fighting in Vegas and everyone will know who you are." I loved that she dreamed big for him.

• Ron Siler, flyweight boxer. This kid came up hard. ( NyTimes story here and a better story here from the San Diego Union Tribune.)

I interviewed him and his dad, who raised him, and spent time with them both in an oppressively hot gym with two boxing rings located inside of some school in Mt. Auburn. (I couldn't find it again if you gave me a million dollars.) He'd been let out of jail early from a felonious assault charge. (He pleaded guilty to hitting a constructor worked in the back of the head with a hammer). Yet he was the kindest, sweetest and seemingly gentle person. I couldn't believe he passed away his time punching people. He also referred to me only as ma'am, even when I asked him to call me Gina.

He had four kids and I when I went to his house with a photographer to interview him again and take photos he was too embarrassed to have us in his house, so I interviewed him on the front porch instead. No one rooted for that kid harder than I did. He lost in the second round.

Citius. Altius. Fortius.