SYDNEY – U.S. gold medal winner Brooke Bennett, the fastest middle-distance swimmer in the world at the last two Olympics, worked part time, about four hours a day, at an Express store in Bradenton, Fla., this summer to earn a little walking-around money.
It’s one of those stories at the Olympics that jump out and bite you square on the nose. One of the best swimmers on the women’s Olympic team, competing against Aussie, Dutch and South African swimmers who don’t have a financial care in the world. They’re resting or training and Bennett is on her way to work at the mall. It’s not news, of course, that the so-called minor sports, which dominant the Olympics don’t make wealthy the athletes who dedicate their life to them and excel beyond any other. It’s not news, of course, but it’s nonetheless amazing.
So there she sat yesterday at a news conference, her shiny gold medal around her neck and her red-white-and-blue toe and finger nails proudly displayed.
“It wasn’t too bad,” the beaming Bennett said of her part-time clothing store job. “I like their clothes and I got an employee discount so I stocked up.”
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New Yorker Cristina Teuscher qualified for tonight’s final in the 200 meter individual medley by swimming the third-fastest time in the semis. Teuscher, 22, who won a gold medal in Atlanta as part of the 800-meter freestyle relay, posted a fast 2:13.47 … Fellow USA Swim teammate Gabrielle Rose will also be in the pool tonight chasing gold.
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Nike is at it again. In Atlanta, Nike, at the time not an Olympic sponsor, bought nearly every billboard in town to get out its message. And it worked. Their effort at ambush marketing was the buzz of the city. This time around, Nike is on the inside, an official Sydney sponsor, but is still plastering its posters around town – lest its rival, Adidas, do the same. On Parramatta Road, the main road leading from Sydney to Homebush Bay, the Olympic Park site, every bus shelter is a Nike billboard.
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While athletes and tourists will not see any kangaroos hopping down George Street in Sydney, athletes staying in the Olympic Village are having their own close encounters with the native Aussie marsupial – they’re eating them. Spotted on the athletes menu the other day, kangaroo proscuitto, as well as goat vindaloo, smoked emu, grilled mako shark and crab and coconut soup. The No. 1 dessert, according to the chefs? Chocolate cheesecake.
