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There are a lot of residents in London that put on their sneakers and pound the pavement to work everyday with the high heals in a bag.  While I was there, I have t say that there are not a lot of people that are overweight.  Walking and biking is encouraged and is promoted to the public in many ways.

Imagine working for years, getting up early, staying up late and missing all kinds of fun things with your friends because you are practicing and dreaming of going to the Olympics.  Not only do you work hard, it costs your parents a lot of money and time for your lessons, transportation.  Now the government wants to tax the medal winners money they receive.  Gold gets $25,000, silver $15,000 and bronze $10,000.  Mark Rubio, the governor of Florida is trying to fight this so that they athletes do not have taxes on their winnings.  The gold medal itself  is valued at $644, the silver at half that and can you believe the bronze medal value is $5.00.  I heard of one family today who’s home was in foreclosure and their son was hoping to use his winnings to help them keep their house.  This was so sad and the story really touched my heart.   

Did you know that all of the athletes are drug tested before they can try out for the Olympics.  If they win a medal, they are taken right away for another drug test before they are awarded their medal.  When we were there, Ye Shiwen who is 16, from China swam a fantastic race and was way ahead of her best time and was even faster than the men in her 400m Individual Medley.  Although she tested negative, John Leonard, executive director of the American Swimming Coaches Association made several comments which led to her getting further testing for steroids.  She tested negative and said her results come from hard work and training.  Article from The Times.

Did you see this article in the News and Observer?  Yes there were a lot of empty seats especially in the lower seats which had the best views.  When we left last week, the Olympic committee had opened up some seats to folks wanting to purchase tickets on line.   If I were an athlete, it would be sad to look up to empty seats when you have worked so long and hard.  McDonald’s took us to two events.  We heard that tickets to the swimming event ran about $400 for a ticket.

The city of London put in specific lanes for Olympic Traffic.  It seemed to work and there were not too many delays.  Photos from London Evening Standard.

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