Tracy Press

The Tracy-based parents of an Olympic silver medalist recount the trip of a lifetime.

Regardless of who brought home the gold medals, Max and Marlene Moses figure their three weeks at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was the trip of a lifetime.

They didn’t understand much that the Chinese announcers said during their son’s water polo games in the Yingdong Natatorium, but the thrill of being in the stands with crowds of other cheering families and fans crossed all national and cultural boundaries.

"Exciting wasn’t the word," Marlene said. "The stadium was crazy with joy."

At the end of competition Sunday, they saw their son, Merrill, and the U.S. men’s water polo team stand on the podium, and then saw the American flag raised as the team accepted the silver medal.

The silver represents the U.S. men’s team’s best finish in 20 years, big upsets for the heavily favored teams from Serbia and Croatia, and the effort the U.S. team put out as it made the Hungarian team earn the gold medal.

Team USA beat Croatia, 7-5, on Aug. 16 in the preliminary round, beat Serbia, 10-5, in the semifinals Friday, and then played a championship match that was 9-8 in favor of Hungary at the half, and 14-10 in favor of Hungary at the end.

"To see them play their hearts out for gold … they gave it everything they had," Marlene said Tuesday, the day after she and her husband returned home to Tracy. "When you’re a parent in the stands, it’s just glorious to watch them."

Marlene said that Merrill also was selected as the top goalie among all teams, and a similar honor went to the team’s scoring leader, Tony Azevedo. She said one of her son’s next stops will be as a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s television show next month.

Merrill, 31, grew up in Rancho Palos Verdes and attended Pepperdine University before he joined the U.S. team. Max and Marlene moved to Tracy earlier this year.

While in Beijing, the couple watched other sports besides water polo, including gymnastics, swimming and track and field, and visited the Olympic Village, the small city where the athletes lived for the duration of the games.

They also visited surrounding areas, including the Great Wall, and Max bought a bicycle shortly after they arrived. As one of the estimated 14 million bicycle riders in the city, he went on self-guided tours when they weren’t at games.

Both Max and Marlene said they felt safe touring Beijing’s streets and trains, and the difference in language wasn’t hard to overcome, since the Chinese were pleased to be hosts for so many visitors. Those who speak English were glad to meet Americans, they said.

Max recalled one bicycle ride through Tiananmen Square where he met a Chinese orthopedic surgeon, the same profession as Max, and the Chinese doctor invited them to his home town to meet his friends and neighbors.

"Everywhere you went, people were cordial and went out of their way to make you comfortable," he said.

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