Then they checked into luxury accomodations on a 196-cabin cruise ship similar to one used by the USA team in 2004 at Athens.
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“I’ll come with a lot of focus and preparation, and compete”.
The Americans are once again taking a star-laden squad to this year’s Olympic tournament with the newest member of the Golden State Warriors, Kevin Durant, being the hottest star to feature on the USA Dream Team.
The men’s basketball team is made up of 12 NBA stars, and they’ve always had a tradition of lodging at expensive resorts since they were allowed to participate in the Olympics in 1992.
“It didn’t go as well as I thought it would”, said the Sacramento Kings center.
Besides China, the other teams in the same group with Team USA are Australia, France, Serbia and Venezuela. The opening ceremony is on Friday night and the games kick off this weekend.
In an interview after one of their practices in preparation for 2016 Rio Olympics, Anthony said, “It really hasn’t sunk in yet about the fact that I’m playing in four Olympics and have an opportunity to win three gold medals”. Melo has two golds and a bronze medal to his name and is the first American male to play in four Olympics.
The Australian team captain and flagbearer at one stage fought back tears during her passionate address as she recalled the inspiration behind her quest to win a third gold medal in Rio. “You know, I think the media blows things a little more out of proportion than they need to be, Gray said”.
“What I hope happens is, that if we are fortunate enough to win a gold that it is a big deal instead of the big deal is, if we lose”, said USA coach Geno Auriemma.
The AOC, Rio 2016 workers and the IGF staff have been extremely accommodating, working long hours in sometimes hard conditions and circumstances and, more on this next time I write, the golf course is in spectacular condition. Both the men’s and women’s teams will be living it up, or resting, on board.
“We can’t go into the games thinking, ‘Hey we just beat these guys by X amount a few days ago, ‘” he said.
August 6: China vs. USA, 6 p.m.
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Team USA tips off its schedule when the women play Senegal as part of Group B action on Sunday. “We’ve got cleaning problems and lighting problems in some of the stairwells”. But the reason we are held in such high esteem as sportsmen and sport women is because we carry that Aussie spirit, that never-give-in attitude and that let’s have a real crack mindset.
