Olympic happenings in Hungary

You may or may not have heard about Gyorgy Kolonics -- an Olympic medalist who died this last week while training on the Danube River near Margaret Island. He was a two-time gold medalist and set to go to Beijing in a few weeks. His death was sudden and the cause of death was heart failure.

I've only been kayaking once and it was tough so I can only imagine how difficult it must be to canoe. :D This doesn't seem like a sport for wussies. You have to have a lot of upper body strength to compete in this, I would think. And I would think you would be ......healthy...

The only thing I can link his heart failure to might be his diet. Hungarian foods are rich in fat. Darn it all, I wish it didn't matter what foods you eat. I love all the stuff that clogs the heart....atleast initially until I start thinking about how its clogging my heart. Then I crave fruit and veggies.

Lots of people are mourning his death. Hungarians hold a lot of Olympic pride, especially with water sports. Their historic water polo match of 1956 will be forever ingrained in every Hungarian's mind. If you're not familiar with it, I'm sure you can google it. Basically in the middle of the Russians invading Hungary, there was a water polo match between them. It's called the bloodiest match in history. It's sad to see Gyorgy go so suddenly and just before the Olympics.

Another thing about Hungarian Olympics that I just recently heard or read is that Hungary's financial situation is pretty bad and they can't afford to pay their coaches to go with the Olympic team to Beijing. They are looking for sponsors to fund the coaches.

On a less serious note, this Olympians first name was the name of about 8 boys I taught last year. Unfortunately, I pronounced it just as you probably did as you read his name. But the real pronunciation is "Your-e" actually more like "Yur-e". It's not Gyorg-e. The G is silent. Do you know how embarrassing it is to be a highschool teacher and absolutely botch the first name of half your kids in class? Yep. That was my life. Those good humored boys still loved me even after all that!