Totallympics Introduction Thread

[ofan 238]

9 minutes ago, Csapo said:

 

Thank you! and yes a Californian but also a transplanted  in California!

 

This is a fantastic site.  I love how it is formatted and it clearly has a ton of information and opinions!   I want to let everyone know the reasons I'm here.

 

I've been an Olympic junkie since watching the ABC Network TV coverage of the '68 Mexico City Games.  The vivid memories I have of Tommy Smith/John Carlos/Peter Norman stories, USA long jumper Bob Beamon crumbling to his knees in disbelief after landing a jump over 29' and USA swimmer Debbie Meyer winning gold in the 200/400/800 freestyle events.  It is a passion that has stayed with me through all the summer and winter games to date.

 

Because of my passion, I have begun producing a short story documentary series based on (living) Olympians.  These documentary stories feature Olympians who were not necessarily medal winners or in the limelight, but Olympians with amazing, inspiring and compelling stories.  My series is titled Beyond Bronze, Silver and Gold.  I have completed filming of two Olympian stories and hope to begin post-production in August.  Once these are completed I will be seeking distribution, in hopes of continuing to bring more of these wonderful stories to a screen.

 

I am constantly in research mode, digging to unearth these amazing untold stories.  I have identified quite a few, which will require much more research, but I am always on the hunt.  My series is open to winter, summer and para Olympians and open to stories of Olympians from all included Olympic countries and Olympic events.  Should you know of an untold inspiring story of a living and deserving Olympian, please don't be shy.  I'd love to chat with you.

 

Thank you again and really looking forward to my time here on Totallympics!

 

 

Welcome to the forum from a fellow Canadian!

 

I just read your bio on your site, and it's very cool to see that you represented Canada in 1976 in Montreal. It's awesome to have an Olympian in our midst posting on the forum!

[Olympian1010 7,971]

23 minutes ago, Csapo said:

 

Thank you! and yes a Californian but also a transplanted  in California!

 

This is a fantastic site.  I love how it is formatted and it clearly has a ton of information and opinions!   I want to let everyone know the reasons I'm here.

 

I've been an Olympic junkie since watching the ABC Network TV coverage of the '68 Mexico City Games.  The vivid memories I have of Tommy Smith/John Carlos/Peter Norman stories, USA long jumper Bob Beamon crumbling to his knees in disbelief after landing a jump over 29' and USA swimmer Debbie Meyer winning gold in the 200/400/800 freestyle events.  It is a passion that has stayed with me through all the summer and winter games to date.

 

Because of my passion, I have begun producing a short story documentary series based on (living) Olympians.  These documentary stories feature Olympians who were not necessarily medal winners or in the limelight, but Olympians with amazing, inspiring and compelling stories.  My series is titled Beyond Bronze, Silver and Gold.  I have completed filming of two Olympian stories and hope to begin post-production in August.  Once these are completed I will be seeking distribution, in hopes of continuing to bring more of these wonderful stories to a screen.

 

I am constantly in research mode, digging to unearth these amazing untold stories.  I have identified quite a few, which will require much more research, but I am always on the hunt.  My series is open to winter, summer and para Olympians and open to stories of Olympians from all included Olympic countries and Olympic events.  Should you know of an untold inspiring story of a living and deserving Olympian, please don't be shy.  I'd love to chat with you.

 

Thank you again and really looking forward to my time here on Totallympics!

 

What sport/event in 1976? I haven’t gone through your site yet.

[Olympian1010 7,971]

Hello @lotsip, Our first  user!

[Csapo 19]

1 hour ago, ofan said:

 

Welcome to the forum from a fellow Canadian!

 

I just read your bio on your site, and it's very cool to see that you represented Canada in 1976 in Montreal. It's awesome to have an Olympian in our midst posting on the forum!

 

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

What sport/event in 1976? I haven’t gone through your site yet.

 

 

Thanks ofan!  Happy to still be a Canuck.  I had the honor to represent Canada on the Canadian Olympic water polo team

[Olympian1010 7,971]

2 minutes ago, Csapo said:

 

 

 

Thanks ofan!  Happy to still be a Canuck.  I had the honor to represent Canada on the Canadian Olympic water polo team

9th place and multiple wins at home isn’t too bad .  I never got to ask an Olympic athlete this before, but: What does it feel like to compete and participate in the Olympics?

[Sindo 1,504]

3 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Hello @lotsip, Our first  user!

 

I think Afghanistan is not his nation and it's the default one if you do not set a nation. I guess @lotsip is from the US ?
 

[vlad 351]

Acum 7 ore, Csapo a spus:

 

Thank you! and yes a Californian but also a transplanted  in California!

 

This is a fantastic site.  I love how it is formatted and it clearly has a ton of information and opinions!   I want to let everyone know the reasons I'm here.

 

I've been an Olympic junkie since watching the ABC Network TV coverage of the '68 Mexico City Games.  The vivid memories I have of Tommy Smith/John Carlos/Peter Norman stories, USA long jumper Bob Beamon crumbling to his knees in disbelief after landing a jump over 29' and USA swimmer Debbie Meyer winning gold in the 200/400/800 freestyle events.  It is a passion that has stayed with me through all the summer and winter games to date.

 

Because of my passion, I have begun producing a short story documentary series based on (living) Olympians.  These documentary stories feature Olympians who were not necessarily medal winners or in the limelight, but Olympians with amazing, inspiring and compelling stories.  My series is titled Beyond Bronze, Silver and Gold.  I have completed filming of two Olympian stories and hope to begin post-production in August.  Once these are completed I will be seeking distribution, in hopes of continuing to bring more of these wonderful stories to a screen.

 

I am constantly in research mode, digging to unearth these amazing untold stories.  I have identified quite a few, which will require much more research, but I am always on the hunt.  My series is open to winter, summer and para Olympians and open to stories of Olympians from all included Olympic countries and Olympic events.  Should you know of an untold inspiring story of a living and deserving Olympian, please don't be shy.  I'd love to chat with you.

 

Thank you again and really looking forward to my time here on Totallympics!

 

 

Welcome here Csapo. Glad to see on this forum someone who competed in Olympics. Greetings from Romania Feel free to share with us your opinions regarding sports, expecially Olympics. I'm sure your informations will be helpful for this forum.

 

 PS: Your site is great

[Csapo 19]

6 hours ago, vlad said:

 

Welcome here Csapo. Glad to see on this forum someone who competed in Olympics. Greetings from Romania Feel free to share with us your opinions regarding sports, expecially Olympics. I'm sure your informations will be helpful for this forum.

 

 PS: Your site is great

 

Thank you for the welcome and thanks for checking out my site.  Greatly appreciated! 

 

 

13 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

9th place and multiple wins at home isn’t too bad .  I never got to ask an Olympic athlete this before, but: What does it feel like to compete and participate in the Olympics?

 

We weren't happy about the 9th place.  In the overall standings we actually tied with the Soviet Union but they were awarded the 8th spot based on goal differential.

 

A few highlights/lowlights;

 - We lost to West Germany in the opening game, 5-0.  We choked!  We had beaten them in West Germany about a month prior to the Games.

 - We had never defeated or tied Mexico.  We tied 4-4.

 - We had never defeated or tied the Soviet Union.  We tied 6-6.

 - We lost to the gold medal Hungarian team but only by a score of 4-2.

 - We were ranked 16th in the world 2 years prior, so we did improve.

 

In addition to defeating West Germany in their home pool, one additional non-Olympic highlight is; in the spring of 1976, we traveled to Long Beach CA to play an exhibition game against the US National team (which didn't qualify for Montreal).  For the first time, we defeated the USA and did so quite convincingly.

 

To answer your question, it was an honor, a thrill and a lifelong dream to compete in the Olympics and represent my country.  There were many highs and lows throughout the journey.  I remember saying to myself many times, "this is the big one, give every single ounce of effort you have, stay focused and do what will help the team".  Looking back, this is exactly what I did.  Do I have regrets about how I and the team executed our play?  Yes but I have none regarding the efforts we all put forward.  We left it all in the pool.  

 

Thank you again for asking and I'm happy to answer questions or share experiences...

[heywoodu 15,124]

21 minutes ago, Csapo said:

Thank you again for asking and I'm happy to answer questions or share experiences...

Everyone says the Olympic Village is full of....let's say, obscure behaviour  Have you noticed anything?  

[Csapo 19]

20 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Everyone says the Olympic Village is full of....let's say, obscure behaviour  Have you noticed anything?  

 

I can't speak to what might go on inside the Village.  Now outside the Village (during the Games) is another story.

 

The Montreal Games Village was built to be used as apartment/condos once the Games ended.   Each apartment had a 3 or 4 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, bathrooms, kitchen, etc.  Certainly not built to house 11 guys (only 2 bathrooms!?!).  Each room had nothing but beds, bedside tables which doubled as storage trunks and bedside lamps.  The bedrooms had 3 single beds and living room had 4 single beds.  We had 11 players, our coach and out manager in our apartment.  The beds were comfy and it was sort of stylishly decorated, think Ikea.

 

As a team, we moved into the village about 10-14 days (can't remember exactly) prior to the Opening Ceremonies.  A few months prior to our moving into the Village, one of my teammates had begun dating a young lady from Montreal.  During the couple of weeks before and during our week of competition our curfew was 11pm.  He was also one of my 2 roommates.  At midnight he would climb out the window of our bedroom, onto a walkway, get picked up outside the Village gate and go stay at his girlfriend's home.  He would then sneak back in at around 7AM.  Amazingly, he played incredibly well.  Fast forward, they are married to this day!  

 

I know there were other shenanigans going outside the Village on but I prefer not to elaborate.  The water polo competition in Montreal used 2 pools for competition, one being the main Olympic swim pool.  Polo was played in the main Olympic pool for the first week and then swimming took over for the second week.  We had games every day for the first week but now since there is both women's and men's competition and it lasts for almost the entire 2 weeks.  Additionally, they now have their own dedicated pool(s).  This means we were finished after the first week and had the second week to go our own way and do our own thing.  We still stayed in the Village and were able to attend other events and stay out late...VERY, VERY LATE!!!!

 

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by Csapo