My Cousin-- The Olympian!!!

Before I begin this post I wanted to follow up on the post from my friend who received her referral on Monday. If you want to follow her journey you can go to her blog at http://lilyswait.blogspot.com/. I cant wait to follow their journey-- Lily is just precious!!!

Next--OLYMPICS!!!! I feel very special (in my own pitiful way) because my first cousin Sarah Hammer is in Beijing right now to compete in the woman's velodrome cycling. Sarah is slatted to win gold and is just amazing. She is the world champ and has been for many years. She is kind of a phenomenon in the field as she is one of the youngest racers (she is 24 and woman racers peak at about mid 30's so she is really young) and she has an unusually high level of natural oxygen in her blood which allows her to compete at higher levels. She also has a longer femur bone which is a huge asset in bike racing. Whatever the case, she is amazing and has been all over the news and on TV (like Access Hollywood and other TV shows) because she is expected to win gold.

I am just so proud of my little cousin. Sara lives with her fiance who is the US woman's team coach (Andy) in Arrowhead (where my parents cabin is) so that she can train at higher altitudes. She grew up in Temecula, CA which is only about 45 minutes away from us so we see each other often. We are just so proud of Sarah and we wish her the best of luck!!!

I will keep you posted on her races and the results.

!!!!!!!!!!GO SARAH!!!!!!!!!

You can follow her moms blog (my aunt Randi) while they are in China if you are interested. She is posting everything to do with Sarah on her blog http://randibeijing.wordpress.com/.

Also you can go to Sarah's site to check out more info about her if you are interested http://www.sarahhammer.us/photos.html.

Here is the schedule of races for cycling. I have put in red the races Sarah is in (I cut and pasted it to avoid retyping and it did not transfer well but I did highlight her races).

TELEVISION SCHEDULE USA Cycling members and cycling fans can follow all the cycling actionvia live streaming video online at www.nbcolympics.com or either live or via tape delay on severalNBC networks.

Beijing time is 15 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time

Wednesday, Aug. 1311:30 a.m. – Women’s Time Trial (Kristin Armstrong, Christine Thorburn)1:30 p.m. – Men’s Time Trial Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie)

Friday, Aug. 154:30 p.m. – Men’s Team Sprint Qualifying (Michael Blatchford, AdamDuvendeck, Giddeon Massie)4:55 p.m. – Men’s Individual Pursuit Qualifying (Taylor Phinney)5:45 p.m. – Men’s Team Sprint Round 16:0020p.m. – Women’s Individual Pursuit Qualifying (Sarah Hammer)6:40 p.m. – Men’s Team Sprint Finals

Saturday, Aug. 164:30 p.m. – Men’s Individual Pursuit Round 14:50 p.m. – Men’s Keirin Round 1 (Athlete TBD)5:05 p.m. – Women’s Individual Pursuit Round 1 (Sarah Hammer’s event)5:25 p.m. – Men’s Keirin Repechage5:40 pm. – Men’s Points Race (Bobby Lea)6:30 p.m. – Men’s Keirin Round 26:50 p.m. – Men’s Individual Pursuit Finals7:15 p.m. – Men’s Keirin Finals

Sunday, Aug. 1711:05 a.m. – Women’s Sprint Qualifying (Jennie Reed)11:20 a.m. – Men’s Sprint Qualifying (Michael Blatchford)4:30 p.m. – Men’s Sprint 1/16 Finals 5:05 p.m. – Women’s Individual Pursuit Finals (Sarah Hammer’s event)5:15 p.m. – Women’s Sprint 1/8 Finals5:35 p.m. – Women’s Sprint 1/8 Finals6:15 p.m. – Men’s Team Pursuit Round 1

Monday, Aug. 18 4:30 p.m. – Women’s Points Race (Sarah Hammer)5:05 p.m. – Women’s Sprint Quarterfinals5:20 p.m. – Men’s Sprint Quarterfinals6:15 p.m. – Men’s Team Pursuit Finals

Tuesday, Aug. 194:30 p.m. 80 Women’s Sprint Semifinals4:40 p.m. – Men’s Sprint Semifinals5:30 p.m. – Men’s Madison (Bobby Lea, Michael Friedman)6:25 p.m. – Women’s Sprint Finals6:35 p.m. –20Men’s Sprint Finals

Wednesday, Aug. 209:00 a.m. – Men’s BMX Time Trial Seeding 1 (Kyle Bennett, Mike Day,Donny Robinson)9:45 a.m. – Women’s BMX Time Trial Seeding 1 (Jill Kintner)10:15 a.m. – Men’s BMX Time Trial Seeding 2 (Kyle Bennett, Mike Day,Donny Robinson)11:00 a.m. – Women’s BMX Time Trial Seeding 2 (Jill Kintner)11:40 a.m. – Men’s BMX Quarterfinal 1 (Kyle Bennett, Mike Day, DonnyRobinson)12:05 p.m. – Men’s BMX Quarterfinal 2 (Kyle Bennett, Mike Day, DonnyRobinson)12:32 p.m. – Men’s BMX Quarterfinal 3 (Kyle Bennett, Mike Day, DonnyRobinson)

Thursday, Aug. 219:00 a.m. – Women’s BMX Semifinal 1 (Jill Kintner)9:08 a.m. – Men’s BMX Semifinal 19:30 a.m. – Women’s BMX Semifinal 2 (Jill Kintner)9:38 a.m. – Men’s BMX Semifinal 210:00 a.m. – Women’s BMX Semifinal 3 (Jill Kintner)10:08 a.m. – Men’s BMX Semifinal 310:30 a.m. – Women’s BMX Finals10:40 a.m. – Men’s BMX finals

Friday, Aug. 22A03:00 p.m. – Women’s Cross Country Mountain Bike (Georgia Gould, MaryMcConneloug)

Saturday, Aug. 233:00 p.m. – Men’s Cross Country Mountain Bike (Adam Craig, Todd Wells)