Four years ago, one of our earlier dates was sitting together and watching the spectacular show that was the Opening Ceremony for the London Olympics. We both remember that night fondly and talk about it from time to time. We both were fans of the Olympics, but this date in particular has amped up our passion for the world showing.
So, we wanted to try to get even more out of the event and wanted to watch events that we have never watched before. We knew that this was on our list from when we first started planning our list of firsts, but until today, we weren't entirely sure what event would be the new thing.
After watching the Opening Ceremony the night before in Philly with the Eadie family, we checked the list to see what was on the docket for Day 1. We found that the very first event that awarded a medal for the games was the Women's 10m Air Rifle event. It was so new to us that when I told Ellaine there was a shooting event, she assumed that it was archery.
So we sat and watched as contestants suited up in ridiculously stiff outfits (to help them stand in a set position) and lined up with their target 10m down range from them. The guns did not use powder, but propelled each shot with compressed air. The targets aimed at have a dot that is the size of lead in a mechanical pencil with scoring awarded based on how close to the dot each pellet hits.
Out of the gate, Virginia Thrasher (who has a super 'Murican name) hit a perfect bull's eye! She didn't have the lead the whole time, but started to separate herself from the rest of the pack and eventually triumphed. So our new sport happened to be the first American Gold medal won of the games and the first gold won by any country!
While it's a little ironic that our first Gold came in shooting, I can't help but feel super proud to be an American! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
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