UPDATE: The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Over the next 16 days, Olympic competition will be held in 34 sports, including the wholly anachronistic sports of badminton and fencing.  And I’m sure all of them will be fun to watch. Moreover, with network TV and internet coverage, it will be possible to watch all events for the first time in Olympic history.

Nevertheless, due to work and other commitments, I’ll be able to watch only few of them. More to the point, however, I shall comment on even fewer, namely (in order of favorites) swimming, diving, track and field, gymnastics, tennis, men’s basketball, boxing, and cycling.

Day 1(August 9)

Cycling

The first day of competition was highlighted by the Men’s Cycling Road Race.  The 152-mile course took 143 cyclists from 54 countries through some of China’s most scenic landscapes, including Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.

Unfortunately, the only exciting thing about the race was the few seconds it took the 5 cyclists in a lead pack to sprint over the last 200 meters to the finish line. Samuel Sánchez of Spain won the Gold Medal.

Day 2 (August 10)

Swimming

Michael Phelps began his quest for an unprecedented eight gold medals in one Olympic Games in impressive fashion by winning the 400 Individual Medley in Olympic and world-record time.   In another swimming final of note, 41-year-old Dara Torres anchored the women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay for a second-place finish behind the team from the Netherlands.

Diving

The Chinese continued their dominance in diving (having won 9 of the 10 medals awarded during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens) by easily winning the Women’s Synchronized 3m Springboard Final.  (The once dominant Americans had to settle for fourth place after also being outclassed by the Russians and Germans who placed second and third respectively.)

Men’s Basketball

The US Men’s Basketball (Redeem) Team began its rendezvous with destiny by trouncing host-country China 101 to 70.  But frankly, in addition to reports that it was probably the most-watched game in history (with over 1 billion watching worldwide),  the only thing noteworthy about this game was the sportsmanship US players like LeBron James displayedafter dunking over Chinese players like 7’6″ national hero Yao Ming.

After all, this stands in stark contrast to the boorish and off-putting behavior members of the original dream team displayed by elbowing and pushing opponents aside after dunking on their heads.

Gymnastics

Men’s qualifying rounds were held on Day 1, and the women’s on Day 2. Unfortunately, the scoring in this sport has evolved to a point where one needs to be a Euclidean mathematician to understand it.

All I can say is that all of the major men’s teams performed well enough to make it to the medal rounds, including the defending champion Japanese, highly favored Chinese and upstart Americans.  Unfortunately, the US team will be competing without their leader and defending all-around Olympic champion Paul Hamm, who was forced to withdraw due to injury just days before Opening Day.

Likewise, all of the major women’s teams performed as expected.  One got a sense, however, that the gold medal has already been ceded to the Chinese – whose team members looked an average of age 12 despite the requirement that all competitors must be at least 16 to compete.

Frankly, it would be an understatement to say that the American women seemed nervous or intimidated.  After all, when they weren’t falling flat on their butts, they were jumping out of bounds – in both cases losing points that could mean the difference between gold and last place during the medal rounds….

Olympic spirit overcoming war

I would be remiss if I did comment on the quintessentially Olympic spirit demonstrated by the Russian Silver Medalist and Georgian Bronze Medalist in the Women’s 10m Pistol Air Final. Because they made a show of embracing despite the fact that their two countries began waging a bloody and possibly catastrophic war just days ago.

Day 3 (August 11)

Swimming

The Americans? We’re going to smash them! That’s what we came here for.

[Alain Bernard, world-record holder in the 100m Freestyle and anchor for France’s top-ranked Men’s 4×100 Freestyle Relay team]

In the days before the 2004 Olympic Games, US swimmer Gary Hall made waves by predicting that his American 4×100 Freestyle Relay team would smash the favored Australian team “like guitars.”  But the Americans were humiliated and Hall was forced to eat his words after the Australians beat them for the gold by an agonizingly close .19 seconds.

Therefore, you’d think that no swimmer would be so foolish as to repeat Hall’s ill-fated boast.  Yet that is exactly what French swimmer Alain Bernard did – as cited above.  Therefore, just imagine his team’s humiliation and the crow he was forced to eat after the Americans toasted the French for gold in this event by an even more anxiously close .008 seconds.

Moreover, the Frenchmen’s humiliation was compoundedby the fact that Bernard took off on the last leg of this relay with a full body-length lead on the American anchor, 33-year old Jason Lezak. In fact, for the first 50 meters, Bernard actually extended his lead.

But Lezak (pictured left) somehow ignited a turbo boost in his legs over the final 25 meters to catch and out-touch a stalling Bernard in dramatic fashion.

(I just hope we don’t find out down the road that Lezak’s boost was powered by a banned substance that causes this US team to be disqualified….)

For now though, just as last Friday’s opening ceremony was the best ever, this was the best relay race in Olympic history.  Alas, in both cases, you really had to see it to believe and to fully appreciate it.

Of course, that Phelps’ quest for an unprecedented eight gold medals hung in the balance only added to the thrilling and suspenseful performance of the US team, which included Phelps, Garret Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Lezak: 2 down, 6 to go….

On a personal note, the thrill was also enhanced by the fact that a black American, Cullen Jones, was a part of this US relay team that ended up smashing the world record  by an unimaginable four seconds.

In another event worth mentioning, US swimmer Katie Hoff – who perhaps misguidedly fancied herself the female Michael Phelps – lost her second chance at winning one of the five (individual) gold medals she hoped to capture at these Olympic Games.  Because, getting smashed in the 400 Individual Medley on Day 2 (and barely winning a bronze medal), she lost the gold on this day in the 400 Freestyle by a mere .07 seconds.  (Stephanie Rice of Australia won gold in world-record time, and Kristy Coventry of Zimbabwe won silver.)

Tennis

Both defending Olympic Champion Venus Williams and her sister Serena won their first-round matches….

Day 4 (August 12)

Swimming

Phelps continued his Olympic quest in world-record fashion by winning the Men’s 200m Freestyle: 3 down, 5 to go…. (Incidentally, with this win, Phelps tied legendary Olympians Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz for the most number of gold medals ever won, namely 9.  And no one doubts that he’ll surpass them at these Games.)

Reigning Olympic champion Natalie Coughlin of the US defended her title in the Women’s 100m Backstroke. While defending Olympic champion Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers continued American domination of the Men’s 100 Backstroke by finishing first and second, respectively.

Perennial world breaststroke champion Leisel Jones of Australia redeemed surprising losses at the 2004 Athens Games by winning the Women’s 100 Breaststroke in Olympic-record time.

Speaking of Spitz, the fact that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) failed to invite him to these Games smacks of an egregious oversight.  After all, he hovers over the swimming venue like a forbidding ghost from the past, being the name commentators invariably cite when they continually remind people that Phelps is trying to emulate the feat of winning seven gold medals in swimming, which Spitz did at the Munich Games in 1972.

They voted me one of the top five Olympians in all time. Some of them are dead. But they invited the other ones to go to the Olympics, but not me…. Yes, I am a bit upset about it.

[Mark Spitz]

But never mind the IOC, I wonder why the US Olympic Committee (or even NBC) did not invite Spitz – unless Phelps whined about his presence causing too much performance anxiety.  On the other hand, I know Spitz has a reputation for being an arrogant SOB.

Yet, whatever the case, they really should have invited him to assume the place of honor at these Games that he has earned. Besides, it would make far more compelling television for NBC cameras to be providing close-ups of Spitz’s increasingly begrudging mug instead of shots of Phelps’ deliriously happy mother every time he wins another gold medal….

Gymnastics

In the medal rounds, despite flirting with the China syndrome (of snatching defeat from the hands of victory by making silly mistakes), the Chinese finally lived up to expectations  by winning the Men’s Team Competition in dominant fashion.

But the story of the evening was the way the US team, without its two best performers (the Hamm brothers), challenged the Japanese for second place while fending off the Germans to capture an improbable bronze medal.

Day 4 Medal Count:  USA 21, China 18, South Korea 11

NOTE:  It is truly remarkable that Abinav Bindra became the first Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal by winning the 10m Air Rifle event yesterday.  After all, one would’ve thought this nation of 1 billion people would have won many gold medals by now.  Hell, even The Bahamas, my country of birth with a population of only 300,000, has won many coveted gold medals….

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