SACO — Thornton Academy girls track and field coach George Mendros has been to five Track & Field World Championships as a fan. Yet those five trips couldn’t prepare Mendros for what he experienced at the Olympics in London.
“It was more than I expected it to be,” said Mendros.
With the games taking place in a country that wouldn’t give him culture shock, Mendros decided that this would be as good a time as any to go to the Olympics. Of course, he didn’t just go for the track and field events. Mendros witnessed a wide array of events, such as judo, men’s field hockey, team handball, and he even got to see the U.S. Women’s basketball team play. However, his favorite non-track event was watching the tennis tournament at Wimbledon.
“I guess my second favorite was tennis. I mean, it was at Wimbledon, with all the history there,” said Mendros. “I saw the Williams sisters play. I saw Andy Roddick play. I saw Roger Federer play.”
Of course, Mendros’ first love is track and field, and he made sure to go see plenty of it. Mendros said he went to every session, and even found himself in some premium seats for one of them.
“One of the days at the track, I was in the second row. When the athletes did their victory lap, they were less than 15 yards away from me,” said Mendros. “That was exciting.”
Mendros recalled watching the men’s 800-meter run, in which Kenya’s David Lekuta Rudisha broke the world record.
“That was a great event. People are already calling it perhaps the greatest race ever run,” said Mendros.
Another great race that Mendros was there to see was the men’s 100-meter dash final, which Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won.
Mendros said of watching Bolt run: “It was hard to watch. He’s so fast. You can’t keep your eyes on him.”
While he was there for fun, Mendros also tried to pick up some coaching pointers for his athletes in Saco.
“I always pick some things up, here and there,” said Mendros. “Some things get reinforced that I see. Getting the kids to be convinced of it, that’s another story sometimes.”
Mendros got to see a lot of events, some familiar and some not so much. The ones that he wanted to see, but wasn’t able to, were gymnastics and swimming. Mendros said those events were nearly impossible to get in to. He said he would have liked to see Michael Phelps win.
Witnessing the Olympics in person was quite an experience for Mendros, even for someone who has been to a similar event in the World Championships on more than one occasion. This one took the cake, however.
“This was the best trip I’ve ever made in my life,” said Mendros. “Not even a question.”
— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323.
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