Now that I have been home from Beijing almost a week, I have had some time to think about all that transpired this last month.  The Olympics will still forever be the greatest event the world can put on.  It brings together so many people and allows us all to look past what is right in front of us to see a much bigger and more beautiful picture.  

I am not going to lie, coming away from the games with a silver medal instead of a gold was not how we pictured the games to end. But looking back, I have realized a lot more than what one game can define.  Our team was able to travel this beautiful country for the last eight months and meet and greet millions of children, parents, coaches, and people that love this sport we play.  

I felt that when we had USA across our chest, we represented this country more than we ever have in the past.  These were the people I heard from immediately after our loss.  Emails came flooding in from those I hardly knew, but had some how connected with along this incredible journey.  

And EVERY SINGLE ONE did not talk about disappointment (which was what I initially felt after the loss -- disappointing all those that are back home), but rather how proud everyone is of this team, and of the women that wear the uniforms.  The words I have read these last few weeks have made more of an impact on me then any other time in my life, and I have never felt more proud to be an American.  

There are countries where athletes are from that if they lose, they ARE a disappointment and their life and goals become defined by their athletic outcome.  But I have found that as much as I want to win, there is only so much we can control in life.  Our team did all we could to get to the top of the podium, but it was just not our day.  

I look back and think more about the experience and opportunity being an Olympian has given me.  And what that opportunity has given me to reach so many more ... a gold medal is a beautiful thing, but to be an Olympian, an Olympian that represents none other than the United States of America, there is nothing that could put a brighter smile on my face. 

Thank You.

Today is the day we have been preparing for the last four years of our lives.  It has definitely been a whirlwind of emotions, and although it has been a long journey, I can not believe this moment is actually here.  

We tried to sleep in this morning, but as soon as I started picturing the game tonight, I could not keep my eyes closed.  It has been pouring rain outside all morning and we have been spending our time watching other sports on TV (Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh win gold in beach volleyball this morning and our indoor volleyball women's team beat Cuba in their semifinal match) and hanging out in the dining hall.  

Village life is interesting these days because a large percentage of the athletes here are done, and it is as if they have all come out from hibernation and are ready to meet people and socialize.  It seems as if our time has just flown by here and it is hard to believe we are nearing the end of this amazing journey.  

I am hoping after tonight, this journey will continue, maybe not for many of us, but for the future of the sport.  Win or lose, we are hoping to unite with both Japan and Australia to send a message after our game tonight to keep this sport in the Olympics.  This is an experience that should be shared and continue to be shared for so many others to come. 

 

I can not wait to take the field with the women who have become my family over the last eight months ... all that we have worked for day in and day out coming together as something beautiful, something that will bring us and our country home a gold medal. 

GO USA!!

Most of you know and have been following how we spend one half of our days : on the softball field.  However, there is also another large part of our day that is spent hanging out in the village.  It is like two different worlds ... the field is where we compete and is familiar to what we have been doing for almost our entire lives, but the village is like walking into a dream world or something you would see in a movie.  

Thousands of athletes and coaches from every edge of the earth walking around, eating, trading pins, laughing.  Boxers from Poland sparring each other right outside of your dorm.  Long distance runners from Kenya and Tanzania zooming by you as you walk to the dining hall.  It is so magical, especially for me because there is so much competitive energy and love for sport bottled up in one place, I just want to sit on a bench for hours and take it all in. 

 

Part of the enjoyment of village life is interacting and rooting for all the other USA athletes. The other day I was in the training room next to a women's volleyball player.  She had brought in some McDonald's and it smelled so good.  She offered me an extra apple pie and I took her up on the offer and scarfed it down.  I told her how I had been staying away from that side of the dining hall but had recently been dreaming of their apple pies (they fry them here instead of baking them like they do back home -- yum!) so it was funny that she had offered hers to me.  

She said it was meant to happen and that if in return I could now start having dreams of their team beating China because that is their next big game coming up.  I told her I would, and sure enough, they beat China yesterday in a VERY close game that all of us athletes back here were watching together.  A bunch of the athletes here knew the story of the "apple pie exchange" and starting giving ME high-fives for helping them out - too funny. It is like one big family, rooting on our brothers and sisters, helping each other out one apple pie at a time :)

 

Speaking of rooting and cheering, today we spent the morning watching USA's 4 x 100 medley relay and saw Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal ... it was as if time had stopped in the village and everyone was in their rooms doing the same thing.  On the last leg of the relay, our whole team was yelling, cheering, sending every possible vibe we had for him to win the gold, and when he did we, and the village, erupted with excitement.  We then belted into a chant of "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!"  It was beautiful.  

To watch history with all those around you sharing that same excitement and emotion ...  pretty cool morning.  Then I was off to lunch where I separated from our team to meet some new people.  I decided to sit with the Swedish women's handball team.  This is a sport that our team has joked about playing in 2012 instead of softball.  It looks so interesting and physical, and as it turns out (according to the Swedes) the US doesn't have a team.  Perfect!  So the Swedish women were teaching me the basics of the sport and even offered to have our team train with them, as long as they could all come visit it us in "beautiful California!" 

 

This is one of the highlights of village life for me: eating with athletes from all over the world.  The other day, Lauren Lappin and I had breakfast with two track athletes from Pakistan.  I told them about my trip to Afghanistan (which is a bordering country) earlier this year and how beautiful the K2 mountain range is.  They told me about some of the beautiful places in Pakistan and I told them I would love to visit there one day.  When they asked us where we were from, they were shocked to hear we were American because they never thought Americans would want to visit them. 

They also said they had always dreamed of seeing the beaches in California, and I told them that is where I live and they should come for a visit too!  They laughed at that, but I smiled and I think there was a mutual understanding that there will be a day when we can visit each other and not have to worry about anything.  When you are sitting over eggs and cereal in a dining hall at the Olympics, just about anything seems possible ... 

 

 

Well, there are many things one can predict for the Olympics, but to be honest, I never predicted we would get so much rain that our game would be cancelled and postponed to the next day.  

We were down by one run and had the top of our order up to bat; Natasha Watley had a full count and you could just FEEL she was going to get on base and we were mounting a comeback.  But then ... rain.  In fact, I am back at the village hanging out in the athlete lounge right now and it is still coming down outside.  Oh well.  

We definitely kept ourselves entertained in the locker room while we waited it out.  We played a card game called "Spoons" but instead of spoons (we had none) we had to use these random tubes of mystery meat they gave us to snack on (we had no idea what was in them, but there was a picture of a lion on the wrapper, ha!  I don't think anyone ate any ...).  

Basically how the game works is that there are only enough "spoons" for everyone playing minus one, so one person is eliminated each round.  So take a competitive group of 15 women who are in the middle of a very competitive game of softball already and are now using all that energy to play this game.  You can imagine how crazy and loud it got when we all had to dive in for our mystery meat tubes, wrestling each other and grabbing for these gushy tubes to stay in the game.  Lauren Lappin and Caitlin Lowe ended up ripping one in half and we had flying meat all over the place.  Needless to say, it kept us occupied with laughter and good fun. 

 

Tomorrow is going to be exciting.  We play Japan at noon (who is one of our toughest opponents) and then go back to where we left off in the top of the 4th against Canada.  Big day for us -- it is just so hard to think about tomorrow when we are all so fired up to play today!  So pray for clear skies and USA to come out with two more wins!!

 

Jessica Mendoza #2

I have been waiting four years to finally play in the Olympic Games again and the time is finally here!  We have played two games, one against Venezuela and today against Australia.  Today was a close game and our first challenge, so it was exciting to see our team respond the way we did.  The adrenaline was flowing and the excitement was definitely strong as we pulled off the win!!  

Hey Everyone!!!

We are here in Beijing at the Olympic Village and have had much to tell the few days we have been here.  We have already had a few practices and are getting familiarized with this gigantic village with so many things to do and people to meet!  

But the highlights thus far have come in the last 24 hours. Last night I was able to attend my very first opening ceremonies and it did not disappoint!!  

First of all, our team looked so good all dressed up in our Ralph Lauren blazer and khaki's, topped off with a cute newsboy cap!  As we waited our turn to march through the tunnel into the stadium, we mingled with athletes from other countries and met many from our own as well.  The anticipation grew strong however as soon as we neared the end of the tunnel.

All of a sudden, our whole US delegation of athletes and coaches began chanting "USA! USA!" and you could feel the pride pumping through the goose bumps that had risen on my arms.  As we got to the entrance of the stadium we heard over the loud speaker, "United States of America" and 90,000 fans greeted us.  

What a feeling.  I have experienced the pride of being an Olympian, but to experience it with all those who are representing our country by your side, was a whole other level of excitement.  

Once inside, the best part was the lighting of the torch ...retired gymnast Li Ning ran across the top of the stadium while being suspended in the air, following him were the faces of all those who had run with the torch from all over the world.  It was absolutely spectacular ... with a giant ignition of fire to light the enormous torch at the top of the stadium.  

The whole night was so stimulating we thought it was going to be hard to get up for practice today. That is until an entourage of cars showed up at practice and President Bush came out ready to play.  He watched us hit, tried out some gloves, even asked me where I learned to hit.  

But the highlight of the day was when out very own Laura Berg pranked the president.  Now as many of you know, Bergie is THE prankster and is always up to something with a teammate or coach. However, she went above and beyond any prank she has ever done when President Bush said hello; she shook his hand, said "Hi there Mr. President" and gave him a good hard slap on the back.  

What she had done was caked her hand full of chalk and left a perfect five-fingered hand print on the back of his shirt.  Now of course, there is a million members of the media taking pictures and video and just snapping away at the president with a hand print across his back.  We finally had to tell him because everyone was laughing and really, you can only prank the president for so long right?  

The highlight of his visit then came when we did our traditional (what we do for every game and practice, from the movie Miracle) "Who do you play for?". President Bush took the place of Coach Candrea in the huddle threw his hand out with all of ours piled on top and shouted "Who do you play for?" where we loudly responded with "USA!!"  

Hard to get much more patriotic then that.  Pretty cool stuff in the last 24 hours ... and the real excitement has not even arrived yet!!  This is why I love the Olympics!!!  Can not wait to update you all more on what is still yet to come!!!  

TWO MORE DAYS!! Go USA!

Jessica