One of the lowest and highest moments in the 2008 Olympics, for me, happened in the Women's 100m hurdles final.  Lolo Jones was out in front and on her way to a gold medal when she struck the ninth of ten hurdles and finished out of the medals.  That was the lowest point of the night, the highest point is what came next.  Lolo, who admitted to NBC TV that when she took the lead she saw the gold medal around her neck,  offered no excuses.  She didn't use that awful line "I guess it wasn't meant to be" that we hear so often from athletes coming up short you start to wonder if they can handle defeat.  No, Lolo accepted defeat with honor an class, something we can all aspire to.  Hopefully Lolo will be back in 2012 and I will be rooting extra hard for her to take the gold.

I am not going to say 'I told you so', but I predicted that Usain Bolt would break Michael Johnson's 200m world record and he did just that.  It was great to see him run hard all the way to the tape.  Frankly, I don't understand all the hoopla over Bolt's apparent grandstanding in the 100m.  He was the class, no, the super-class, of the field.  All the criticism sounded like sour grapes from a bunch of people who realize that the 100m is going to be a pretty boring race for the next 8 years or so.  Why don't people embrace Bolt's dominance like the do Tiger Woods?  What's the difference between Tiger's fist pump and Bolt's chest thump? Give the kid a break.  He is the biggest thing on the track and field scene in years and hopefully he can propel the sport out of the spectre of doping where it currently resides.

My apologies to the tiny nation of Togo.  I inadvertenly reported that the nation of Tonga won the bronze in the whitewater kayaking. Sorry about that.

OK.  One last question. Are you a Merritt or Wariner fan?  Who's gonna win the men's 400?

Bruce