The Olympics are over, long live the Olympics. Now that the Beijing (Peking for those who get confused easily) Games are over I have to say that I have two Olympic moments.  The first was the USA's come-from-behind win in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay. Forget that it kept Michael Phelps drive for eight golds alive, the win typified what relays are all about, a team putting it all together and being greater than the sum of its parts.  My second Olympic moment was Usain Bolt's WR in the 200m.  Yeah, the boy also won the 100m in WR time, but in the 200, we got to see him run all the way to the line and actually lean at the tape.  If I was a male sprinter, I would get myself a very good agent and start picking my races well.  Bolt is going to be the Federer/Woods/Lance of the next generation of sprinters with everybody else racing for second place.

I thought Sanya Richard's catching the Russians to win the women's 4x400 was also exciting and coupled with the men's victory in the same event restored a bit of US pride after the debacles in the 4x100.  Did you catch Jeremy Wariner's relay split at 43.2?  That is how you silence the critics. Too bad he came up short in the open 400.

What happened to Bernard Legat? The double 2007 World Champion (that's just last year) got skunked and looked bad doing it.  If the USA can't even draft a ringer to do well in the distance events what are we to do?  USA Track and Field won only one medal from the 800m on up and that was a bronze by Shalane Flanagan in the women's 10000m.  Yikes, it's tough being a USA distance runner these days regardless of your country of origin.

I still think they should toss out race walking.  Either that or add a new event, the 400m run while carrying a piano on your back. Time for this sport to go, let's face it, they are all running and just hoping not to get caught before the finish line.

Oh yeah, for the ladies, I think the men in the beach volleyball event should play with their shirts off.  If the women have to play in bikinis it seems only fair.

Judged sports have to go as well.  Yeah, I know gymnastics and diving are graceful and all that so let's have an exhibition for those sports and forget about the medals.  It's not supposed to be about the medals anyway.

And, along those lines, I think they should stop playing the national anthem of the country who wins. It is about sport, let's try to keep the nationalistic aspect out of it.  Distance runner Kenny Moore once opined that everyone should compete in white t-shirts and black shorts.

You got any thoughts out there?

Bruce

As much as Michael Phelps 8 gold medals puts him in the running for the greatest Olympian ever, all the hype probably hurt him when it comes to the overall Olympic moment. On my meter, Usain Bolt jogging to a new world record in the 100m was simply indescribable. Some really big names were saying that if Bolt hadn't started  celebrating in the final 20m he would have run 9.5x and I believe them.  I can't even get out of bed in 9.69 and this guy is waving his arms and thumping his chest.  Oh baby! Frankly, I think Michael Johnson's 19.32 200m record is in jeopardy unless Bolt, who will be about 30m in front of his nearest challenger as he nears the finish line in the 200m final starts playing the air guitar and humming Bob Marley tunes.

OK.  We had to give citizenship to a Kenyan to get an Olympic contender in the men's 1500m.  But, not just some Kenyan, a guy who won silver in 2004 and is the reigning World Champion. C'mon man, the USA was drafting a ringer! Then the ringer fails to make the finals in the 1500m. What happened?  Is citizenship revokable? Hopefully, Lagat will redeem himself in the 5000m, but frankly he looked flat and that graceful stride and potent kick were nowhere to be seen.

I said this once an I will say it again.  They should just toss out judged sports from the Olympics. We know Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt are the best because they were first across the line.  Forget the doping, the judging is the biggest blight on the Olympics.  It just sucks big time to see all the bad calls.

Bruce

In my last blog I talked about my Olympic moments from past and present Games.  Well, four days into the Beijing Games there has defintely been enough happening to talk about my non-Olympic moments.

-the Women's Gymnastics.  It's Women's gymnastics so even having an age-limit of 16 is stretching it. But, what about the  Chinese whose team was composed of a bunch of girls, yes, they are girls!, who are 15 or younger.  As everybody has been saying that violates the rules of competition for gymnastics in the Olympics, but still the Chinese girls, yes, they are girls!, were still allowed to compete.  Hey, I am not bitter about the USA getting silver.  They made enough mistakes and were not gold-worthy.  I just think that if you have rules, you either follow them or throw them out.

-Georgia's women's volleyball team.  No, we are not talking about the peach tree state. We are talking about one of those seemingly endless countries formed after splitting from the former Soviet Union. The women on the Georgia women's volleyball team are actually Brazilians.  Yeah, the have dual citizenship, but, let's face it, when you are the Republic of Georgia, you can grant citizenship to just about anyone you want. OK, in the grand scheme of things, having more Brazilian women playing beach volleyball is a good thing, but given the current conlict between Russia and Georgia, when the two teams played each other in Beach volleyball on Wednesday, I wanted to see some fireworks.  A good old kick of sand in the face or something along those lines would have been expected. But, when your team is made up of Brazilians they just don't care.  Too bad.  We all remember the Hungary vs. USSR water polo match in 1956. It could have been so good.

-judged events.  OK. I am about to suggest that any event that has judging be immeditely removed from the Olympics.  There is so much bias in all the judged events nothing seems to make sense except that there is no guarantee that a stellar performance will be rewarded.

-Equestrian events.  They should give the medals to the horses.  They are the ones who have to do all the jumping and while carrying all that dead weight on their backs.  Let's recognize the true athletes in the equestrian events.  If the riders were really athletes they would not be clothed in formal wear.

OK.  There were a few positives that could qualify as Olympic moments.  How about Tonga's first Olympic medal (and in the whitewater kayaking!)?  How about Kristin Armstrong winning gold in the women's TT?  How about Michael Phelps finally winning that long sought after gold medal.  After all this is his third Olympics.

Oy yeah, a big Olympic moment for me is the apparent kidnapping of Jimmy Roberts of the NBC crew.  With so much actual competition to show on TV, I guess there is no room on TV for Mr. Superlative. Hopefully he will feel scorned and book and early flight home. And anyways, most of us are not smart enough to get all the symbolism he seems to uncover at every turn.

What are your Olympic and non-Olympic moments?

Bruce

Pollution, heat, humidity and a difficult course all conspire to make both the men's and women's Olympic road races potential death marches of the highest order. Add to that the fact that every country is sending their best athletes to Beijing(well, duh, it is the Olympics!) and 'epic' is the only word that comes to mind to describe the events which will unfold this weekend.

On paper, the Olympic Road Race course looks pretty darn tough. The men will climb over 11,000 feet and the women will climb over 4000 feet meaning that it is highly unlikely that a sprinter will be wearing the gold medal in either event. And the teams seem to agree with only a few of the them bringing anyone with fast twitch muscle fibers.

Actually, the course is split up into two distinct parts. The first section, which both the men and women will ride, is about 55 miles of mostly flat riding, designed by the Chinese to showcase some of their national treasures such as the Great Wall. The second part of the course is a 15-mile loop which contains about 1500' of climbing most if it coming in a 6-mile, 1250-foot climb. Following the ascent is quick down and up and then a long, gradual 8-mile descent back to the finish line. The men will complete seven laps for a total of 150 miles; the women will do two laps on the circuit for a total of 75 miles.

The US Men's team is headed by now 5-time Olympian George Hincapie who is joined by Levi Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde, Dave Zabriskie and Jason McCartney. George, Levi and Christian will be the designated leaders with Zabriskie and McCartney riding in a supporting role. The US Women's team includes two-time Olympians Kristin Armstrong and Dr. Christine Thorburn who will be joined by first-timer Amber Neben.

Both squads are definitely medal-capable especially if they ride as a team. It is difficult to put personal ambitions aside especially since the difficulty of the course will clearly make this a race of attrition. But, teamwork will be key especially if the heat and humidity are oppressive and the designated leaders need a lot of water to stay fresh.

In the men's race, Spain looks to be the biggest threat. They are sending a hugely-talented squad which includes Alejandro Valverde who just won the Classic San Sebastian, Tour winner Carlos Sastre, Giro winner Alberto Contador, Tour green jersey winner Oscar Friere and Sammy Sanchez. Italy always seems to ride well in big races and they can't be counted out especially with defending Olympic Champion Paolo Bettini and one-day specialist extraordinaire Davide Rebellin. The tiny country of Luxembourg looks very good with the Schleck brothers and Kim Kirchen all who rode well in the mountains of the recent Tour.

In the women's race, Germany is always powerful with defending Olympic Champion Judith Arndt and Ina Teutenberg. Holland with Marianne Vos brings a strong team as well as the Swiss and Great Britian.

The men's race is Saturday, August 9th the women's race is the next day on the 10th. Look for both competitions to be action-packed once the races hit the finishing circuits. The pollution coupled with the heat and humidity will make it prohibitive to attack before that.

Bruce

China has just announced that during the Olympics, dog meat will be taken off the menu at Beijing restaurants. Whoa! That's a relief. Or is it? Clearly, we are not all one culture,the world would be worse off if we were all alike.  Could you imagine McDonald's and Starbucks on every corner of the world's cities.  Oops! Looks like that is actually in the works. But, the point is that we are not all alike and in some cultures they do things differently than ours. We raise beef cattle for meat, hopefully the Chinese aren't going around snapping up people's pets.

The air pollution in Beijing will be a huge factor for the Games. China tried to pull a fast one by moving the sensors monitoring air quality further out of the city center, but recently an independent crew sampled the air and found that the reading for particulate matter is seven(that's 7) times over the limit set by the EPA for safe air quality. Cough, cough. I don't think you will see it, but can you imagine watching some athletes competing with particulate masks.

At first I was disappointed that Alan Webb did not make the team for the 1500m. But, on second thought it is probably the best that could have happened.  Like Jim Ryun of forty years ago, Alan seems incapable of running well when it is a race and not just a time trial chasing a rabbit. Big meets like the World Championships and the Olympics are almost always tactical and Webb just comes up short when you aren't just running flat out from the gun.

On the other hand, Nick Symmonds looks like a real bet to medal in the 800m. Not only does he have a huge kick, but he seems to understand how to run in the big meets.  I wonder how he learned that competing for Division 3 Willamette College in Oregon. Symmonds is about as exciting as it gets on the track.  Don't miss his races in Beijing.

All for now,

Bruce