The United States swimming team will have three African-Americans in London; the country’s gymnastics team will carry two.
New York native John Orozco, at age nineteen, is an emerging star of USA Gymnastics and a recently crowned U.S. all-around champion. Having grown up in the Bronx, he had to move to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to fulfill his dream. “It was tough being in the Bronx as a gymnast, especially a male gymnast. I got a lot of teasing from kids, but I didn’t care. I was doing what I loved, so no one could tell me that I was doing something wrong,” he told a reporter. Orozco rarely shows any emotions when he is competing, however, reality hit that he was going to London and tears filled his eyes. For the past ten years he has been dreaming about this moment and it has finally happened.
The USA Gymnastics team is now in Paris at their Olympic training site.
Athletes have been scouring from all sports to check in to their rerspective training sites. For example, the USA Men’s Basketball team was recently at the Verizon Center on Monday, July 16 competing in an exhibition game against the Brazilian team and none other than President Barack Obama had courtside seats to cheer them on. President Obama weighed in Monday on the great national debate: Who is better — the 1992 “Dream Team” or the current U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball squad?
“This is a generational thing. I was around in ‘92. I was a Bulls fan, so I’ve got to go with the original ‘Dream Team’,” Obama said during an ESPN television interview at halftime. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t bring home the gold,” Obama said. The Olympics start later this month in London. (Kobe) Bryant, he added, “is such a competitor, so we can expect him to do a little trash-talking,” he added.
Led by LeBron James, the result was a less-than-impressive 80-69 victory for the United States, coming off a 54-point demolition of the Dominican Republic last week in Las Vegas. The sloppy win came against a team that included three of its NBA brethren but is not expected to contend for a medal in London next month.
James, who during opening introductions, received his first rousing ovation in what has long been unfriendly territory, led the Americans with 30 points on 11-for- 20 shooting. The reigning NBA Most Valuable Player was about the only U.S. player to live up to his gaudy reputation.
The Women’s Basketball team also played in an exhibition game against Brazil and demolished the team 99-67. Some people that doubted whether the USA Women’s Basketball team could be successful in Sue Bird’s absence was proved to be wrong as Lindsay Whalen performed quite well as the team’s starting point guard, leading the way for Team USA with a game-high 21 points, to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
She has outstanding court vision and passing that makes her amongst the best point guards in the world in transition. She rebounds extremely well for a guard, she’s not afraid of scoring through contact and – the thing that was most on display Monday night – she navigates the court decisively, quickly getting to spots that make her a scoring threat even if she’s not the fastest player on the floor SB Nation reported.
Olympians from Brooklyn
Race Imboden – Fencing – Foil – Individual Team
Lia Neal – Swimming – 4×100 Meter relay
Nzingha Prescod – Fencing – Foil – Individual Team