Home Town Pride

It is hard not to feel a sense of home town like pride for Olga Rypakova who won an Olympic gold medal in the women's triple jump. 

Olga is from Ust-Kamenogorsk, a place we called home for a brief couple of months, a place where our family celebrated Christmas and New Years and our 19th wedding anniversary and OF COURSE it is the birthplace of my dear daughter, Nina Bea!

Kazakhstan has done very well in these Olympic. With just 15 million people it is one of the smaller countries in the games and yet they have amassed a disproportionately high number of GOLD medals.

As of today they are number 11 in the Gold medal count with 6 top finishes (plus they have 2 Bronze medals).  For a country just formed in 1991 that's pretty darned impressive.

But of course as I said at the start, I'm a little bit biased.

HERE IS AN ARTICLE COVERING OLGA'S HOMECOMING IN UST--THERE IS A GREAT SLIDE SHOW!


Footnote:  I'm headed back to Ust next spring as part of the Two Hearts for Hope mission trip.