This month, we continue our mascot of month theme of Beijing Olympians. Brett Ormsby, UCLA and Olympian waterpolo athele. He lead the UCLA Bruins to the 2004 National Championships (yes, UCLA plays NCAA Waterpolo - but not Ice Hockey; go figure).Here are some details about him from his Olympic Bio.
The Short List
-National team member since 2001.
-Four-time All-American at UCLA.
-In 2003, scored 72 goals for UCLA.
-Competed for the U.S. in the Pan American Games in 2003 and the FINA World Championships in 2003.
-Sixth in World League in 2002.
Did You Know?
-Led UCLA in goals as a freshman with 43, scored 58 goals as a sophomore.
-Dating national team water polo player Thalia Munro.
-Father Greg is an assistant water polo coach with the U.S. national junior team, and also swam at San Diego State University.
-Ormsby draws inspiration from athletes in other sports – he says the person he most admires is Michael Jordan, and his favorite book is cyclist Lance Armstrong’s “It’s Not About the Bike.”
-Meanwhile other athletes draw inspiration from him. “Adam’s water polo IQ is second to none and I’m sure he’s dreamed of this moment since he was at a very young age,” UCLA water polo coach Adam Krikorian told the web site Fans Only.
-“I’m very excited to make this team,” Ormsby is quoted as saying on the website Fans Only. ---“It’s something I’ve been waiting for all year. Everyone has put a lot into this.”
Below is a great picture of him and the UCLA team winning the 2004 National Championship.
Below, Bruce is number 10 (at the back) during the Water Polo Athens games.
And, of course, the obligatory himbo shot.
Andsome details about the WaterPolo procedure and seedings in Beijing. From the team captain's blog.
Hey everybody, sorry it has been a while since I have wrote, but training has been extremely intense. I am sure most of you know that our bracket has been announced for the Olympics. In our bracket we have Serbia, Croatia, China, Italy and Germany. In the other bracket there is Hungry, Spain, Montenegro, Australia, Greece and Canada. For those of you who dont know how the Olympic brackets work, I will give you a quick overview. We play everyone in our bracket, you have a day in between each game to recover and prep for the next one. The top three teams from each bracket advance to the final 6, whomever is in 1st in their bracket gets a bye game and advances to the final four automatically, and then 2nd place plays third place in each bracket to advance to the final four and meet the other two teams.Then the two teams that automatically advanced to the final four play the winner of the games between the 2nd and 3rd place teams, then the winner of those two games goes to the Gold Medal game. Pretty exciting that the brackets are out and now we know what teams we have to focus on to get out of our bracket into that elite top 6 and then from there every game is do or die, you have to win to keep advancing. I think we have a great veteran team, and we can bring home a Medal. For everyone that reads this, thank you for all of your support and I hope you will be watching us when August comes.