Love in the Time of the Olympics: Two Athletes Balancing Training with Planning!

I want to lead off by saying we here a Marilyn’s Keepsakes are super duper pumped for the Olympics!!! We couldn’t help but dish a little bit about some of the amazing people competing over in Foggy London-town! U-S-A! U-S-A!….but I digress. Let’s dive in! Swimming joke. Get it?…….*insert sound of crickets here*

OK, I want you to do something for me before I get started. Close your eyes and I want you to visualize all of the stress, all of the decision making, and all of the pressure that goes, is going, or is about to go into planning your wedding. Got it? Good. Now, take that pot of sweet, sweet madness and blow it up to about the size of a swimming pool(aaand swimming joke numero 2)! That is about the weight Olympic athletes Brittany Borman and Jennifer Nichols are carrying around on their shoulders as they compete in the London 2012 games….and plan their weddings!

Brittany Borman (top) and Jennifer Nichols (bottom). Images courtesy of Google Images.

Brittany Borman is having a whirlwind summer for the record books! Let’s do a quick rundown to bring us up to speed shall we? This summer, she has: graduated from the University of Oklahoma, landed a sponsorship deal with Nike, qualified for the Olympic Games in javelin, and has been planning a September 2012 wedding……wait….WHAT?! I’m going to let her speak on this one as I pick my jaw up from the floor. “My mom is planning the whole thing,” Borman told reporters with a laugh. Well, there is a little stress off I suppose, but fellow teammate and maid of honor, Tia Brooks, isn’t letting her off that easy! “Oh, we talk wedding all of the time,” Brooks said, “pretty much every day. She wants to get as far away from it as she can, but I won’t let her. I feel like it’s my wedding.”

Jennifer Nichols, an 3-time Olympic archer, has a way different “little helper” if you will. Fiance, Chris Hardy, is planning out the couples September wedding solo right now! Get it, dude! So, while Nichols has been hunting bullseye’s, Hardy has been hunting wedding cakes. I think we all know who wins there….yum. In a bittersweet turn of events for Nichols, she sadly lost Tuesday, losing out by two points that would have sent her to the medals round. Bummer!! It was a nail biter for sure, but she isn’t down about it! Nichols is joining her fiance once again back in the planning trenches to push to the end, September 1st.

Moral of the story here, it could be worse ladies. Instead of balancing caterers and DJ’s, you could be juggling, well, those things, plus the media, fierce competitors from around the globe, Olympic medals, and the pressure to not let your country down! So, before you lose your mind over the color of the linens you just ordered(mint is NOT the same as sea green…I know), take a deep breath, and remember….it could be worse. (I was going for a hat trick of swimming jokes, just couldn’t pull it off. One might say I “bellyflopped”? Haha!….OK, that was a reach, but, nailed it!)

2 Comments August 2, 2012