GEBRSELASSIE COME HOME

Bad air.

 

Last March Gebrselassie, who suffers from exercise-induced asthma (and this is a man who exercises quite often), announced that he would not compete in the marathon in Beijing. He will restrict himself to the 10,000, a race now dominated by his protege and countryman Kenenisa Bekele, the current world-record holder and reigning gold medalist.

 

"The pollution in China is a threat to my health," Gebrselassie said then, "and it would be difficult for me to run 42K in my current condition."

 

 

 

I'm not here to castigate China for the quality of its air, especially over Beijing. Hey, the USA had its own Industrial Revolution, too. As did Great Britain. As my friend Ferris, a Yankee capitalist who travels to China often, relates:

"I think about Dickens' books and the coal smoke haze over England in the 19th century, or the coal mines of Pennsylvania, and I realize that this is where China is right now. I can't say that I blame them.

 

"If you had absolutely nothing for 50 years, and you started to find a way to make some RMB (Renminbi, i.e., Chinese currency, translation: The People's Currency), you would do it. They're not ready to afford the impact of environmental responsibility, especially when there's 1.3 billion people finally starting to get an economic opportunity."

 

So, yes, as Americans we come off as a little hypocritical criticizing the Chinese for the quality of their air. On the other alveoli, why should Haile Gebrselassie have to pay for it? Why can't there be some compromise? I'm glad to hear that the men's marathon will begin at 7:30 a.m. (prime-time on the East Coast) but I'd rather, having spent nine days here, it start at 4 a.m. locally. 

 

More important, why does the marathon need to be staged in Beijing? The equestrian events are taking place in Hong Kong, which is like holding them in Miami if we the Olympic flame was in New York City. Soccer is taking place in Shanghai and other cities along the coast. So why not stage the marathon somewhere in China far from the maddening clouds? Why not give the marathoners a chance to hit The Wall, if only for a few moments? 

 

Seeing how this marathon is being staged, it becomes clear that the people who authorize the final plan for the Olympic marathon have probably never run a marathon. And that's a shame. 

 

Haile Gebrselassie will be 39 when the London Olympics are staged in 2012. And maybe he'll still enter the marathon then, since London is a runner-friendly town that stages one of the best marathons in the world each April. But he'll likely be less a threat to win then than he'd be this year. And there's a very good chance he will have retired by then. It's too bad that he is taking a pass here in Beijing.

 

The world's greatest marathoner should run in the Olympics climactic race.

 

Facebooks

 

Here at the IBC we are preparing ardently for tomorrow's Opening Ceremony. My suggestion that we should come on air with Messrs. Costas and Lauer sporting breathing masks ("you know, just for laughs") was politely refused. What we are doing, though, is poring through the facebooks (the only facebook I've ever visited) that are given us. 

 

My job tomorrow night will be "spotter," one of about a dozen staffers stationed on the field who will attempt to "spot" famous Olympians during the Parade of Nations. The idea is for me to point a cameraman toward that Olympian so that we can show him/her to you and identify them. The facebook is just a series of mugshots so that we can familiarize ourselves with the features of a Laura Wilkinson or a Pieter van den Hoogenband.

 

What I love about the facebook, though, as I look at it here, is that whoever compiled it included a photo of Yao Ming. "Yeah, there's some 7-6 Chinese dude but I can't be sure it's Yao. Let me check the facebook to confirm the features."

 

Also, the photo of van den Hoogenband shows him in just his swim trunks, donning goggles and a swim cap. I think the ladies would love if he entered the Bird's Nest -- or their nest -- in that get-up, but something tells me he won't look anything like that tomorrow night.

 

It Bares Repeating

 

So Amanda Beard posed nude again. I am so over this.

 

But, since it's for an anti-fur campaign, it's alllll good. If you're scoring at home (and my guess is Amanda Beard's boyfriend is), that's:

Anti-Fur: You're socially conscious and welcome to compete at the Beijing Games.

Darfur: Your travel visa has just been revoked.

 

Cupid in China

 

Happy "Night of the Sevens" everyone. It's the Chinese Valentine Day, held on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month. As was written earlier this week in the blog, per our NBC Research Manual, "this romantic holiday’s traditions include young girls demonstrating domestic skills, particularly melon carving." How 'bout those melons?

 

And in NFL News ...

 

I hear that my old colleague Peter King has demanded a trade to New York Newsday ...  

 

 

100 MOST BIZARRE...

 

As previously promised, Part II of our Clavinesque salute to 100 bizarre occurences in the history of the modern Olympic Games. Take it away, Don Pardo ...

 

51. Melbourne, ’56: Twenty laps into the 10,000 meter final, Great Britain’s Gordon Pirie is the only man within striking distance of the U.S.S.R’s Vladimir Kuts. Suddenly Kuts swung out from the inside lane and slowed nearly to a stop, compelling Pirie to take the lead. After half a lap of playing possum, Kuts puts on a burst and leaves Pirie in the dust. The Ukrainian-born Kuts wins both the 10,000 and 5,000.

 

52. Melbourne: Aussie miler John Landy takes the bronze in the 1,500, but earlier, at the Australian Championships, he too stopped in the midst of a race. Landy’s cessation was not tactical, but rather compassionate. When fellow miler Ron Clarke tripped and fell at the start of the third lap, Landy stopped,  doubled-back and checked on him. Clarke rose quickly. Landy followed and then continued on to win the race.

 

53. ’56: The “Blood In the Pool” water polo match between the U.S.S.R. and Hungary became the first vestige of the Cold War to bleed into Olympic competition. One month earlier the Soviet Union had invaded Hungary. With the Hungarians, the defending gold medalists, leading 4-0 late in a contentious match, Hungary’s Ervin Zador was sucker-punched by a Soviet player. The cut required 13 stitches to close and a riot nearly broke out as Hungarian fans rushed the railings. The match was declared over, Hungary went on to win gold, and Zador—like nearly four dozen Hungarian Olympians—chose to defect rather than return to his homeland.

 

57. Buenos Aires lost the competition to host the ’56 Games by one vote. More than half a century has passed and still no South American city has hosted the Olympics.

 

58. Melbourne: For the first time in history, there was a false start in the marathon (simmer down, guys). Frenchman Alain Mamoun, who had fought six years in World War II and had his left leg badly injured by a mine in the Battle of Monte Cassino, took gold. Mamoun became the third consecutive athlete to win gold while running his first marathon.

 

58. 1960, Rome: American sprinter Ray Norton bragged that he would win gold in the 100, 200 and 4 x 100. Indeed, an American had won each 100 since 1928. Norton finished last in the 100 and 200 and he stepped out of his lane in the 4 x 100 to DQ his U.S. team, which otherwise would have won gold. Jackie Gleason then threatened to send him “to the moon!”

 

59. Rome: Ethiopian Abebe Bikila, who was born on the date of the Los Angeles Olympic marathon (8/7/32), became the first black African to win the marathon (this is probably a good place to note that the Kenyans, the undisputed marathon kings for the last two decades, have never produced a gold medalist in this event). Bikila ran barefoot because his shoes had worn out while in Rome and he could not find a comfortable replacement.

 

60. The 1960 U.S. team in Rome featured a pair of gold medalists who would later light the Olympic cauldron at the two Games subsequently held in the states: Rafer Johnson, decathlon, Los Angeles and Cassius Clay, boxing, Atlanta.

 

61. 1960: Hungarian fencer Aladar Gerevich, who had competed in and won at least one gold in every Olympics since the 1932 Games, was told by the Hungarian Olympic Committee that he was too old to try out for the team. Gerevich, 50, who had won nine medals (six gold) in his career, challenged the entire sabre team to individual matches. He won every last one, competed in Rome and won his seventh gold medal in the team sabre event. (“

 

62. How good was the U.S.A. men’s basketball team in 1960? Future Hall of Famer John Havlicek was selected as an alternate.

 

63. Vilho Ylonen of Sweden, a field shooter, went from a sure silver medal to 4^th place when he shot a bull’s eye to the wrong target (a precursor to Matt Emmons’ 2004 blunder in Athens).

 

64. Perhaps Avery Brundage should have given the city of Detroit a copy of “He’s Just Not That Into You”. Motown, in its bid to host the Olympics, finished 5^th in 1952, 4^th in 1956, 3^rd in 1960, 2^nd in 1964 and ’68, and 4^th in 1972. After six straight “We’re busy that night” demurrals by the Olympics, Detroit finally gave up and began courting the 1980 Republican convention.

 

65. Tokyo, 1964: The Olympic flame was lit by Yoshinori Sakai, a Japanese man who had been born in Nagasaki on August 6, 1945…because political statements have no place in the Olympics.

 

66. Tokyo: Japan’s Osamu Watanabe was no wannabe. The freestyle wrestler took gold in the featherweight division in remarkable fashion: he gave up not a single point on the mat. Watanabe retired afterward with a career record of 186-0, the only modern wrestler to have gone his entire career undefeated.

 

67. Tokyo: Unheralded American Billy Mills shocks the world by winning the 10,000 in a time (28:44) that was nearly 50 seconds better than his personal best.  No American before or since has won this race. When word gets out that Mills is 7/16^th Sioux Indian, wrench companies pursue him with endorsement offers.

 

68. The Tokyo Olympics are the first to be held in Asia. Not to be outdone, China stages its first nuclear test during the Games. Not to be outdone, the USSR removes Nikitia Kruschev from office.

 

69. Tokyo: Kokichi Tsuburaya won bronze in the marathon, Japan’s first track and field medal since 1936. A Japanese soldier, Tsuburaya was ordered to stop seeing his fiancée and commence training immediately for the 1968 Olympics. A series of injuries left him more despondent and in January of 1968 he took his own life by severing his carotid artery with a razor. Tsuburaya left a suicide note that read: “Cannot run anymore.”

 

70. Tokyo: Spanish featherweight Valentin Loren was DQ’d in the first round for repeatedly head-butting his opponent…and then things really began to unravel. Loren delivered a left hook to the head of the Hungarian referee (where had that been during the bout?) and then took a swing at a Dutch judge. Loren was banned from amateur boxing for life.

 

71. Aussie swimmer Dawn Fraser capped a remarkable Olympic career with her 4^th gold (100-meter free) and silver (4 x 100 free) in Tokyo. She was the first swimmer, male or female, to capture gold in the same event (the 100 free) in three consecutive Olympics. Then she led a midnight raid to abscond with a “souvenir” flag from the entrance to Emperor Hirohito’s palace (Australia’s Western origin was as a penal colony, after all). Fraser was arrested. Though the charges were dropped, the Australian Swimming Union gave her a ten-year ban.

 

72. 1968, Mexico City: Dick Fosbury fares better than Babe Didrikson once had. The American high jumper wins gold by unveiling his then-unorthodox style (soaring over the bar head first and with back to the ground), quickly dubbed the “Fosbury Flop”. In 1932 Didrikson was DQ’d (although her jump was ratified as a world record) for a “western-roll” style in which her head cleared the bar before her body. Try the new western rolls at Jack in the Box, by the way. They’re scrumptious.

 

73. 1968: Drug testing is introduced and Swedish pentathlete Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall becomes the first casualty. His “performance-enhancing” drug? Beer, which he drank prior to the competition to relax. It’s worth noting that 64 years earlier, 1904 Olympic marathon gold medalist Thomas Hicks had taken several shots of brandy during his race.

 

74. Mexico City: In the team road cycling race, Sweden’s silver medalist foursome was a veritable fraternity. In fact, they were the brothers Pettersson: Erik, Gosta, Sture and Tomas. Afterward, all four changed their surname to Faglum, which was their home village.

 

75. Tanzanian marathoner John Stephen Akhwari fell during the race, dislocating his knee. Akhwari continued running, finishing in last place. Asked afterward why he did not quit, Akhwari replied, “My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish.”

 

76. Mexico City: Czech gymnast Vera Caslavska proved very popular with the host audience (her selection of “The Mexican Hat Dance” as the song accompanying her floor exercise didn’t hurt). After her balance beam routine garnered a 9.6 score, the audience booed, hissed and chanted her “Ve-ra, Ve-ra” for ten minutes until the score was upped to a 9.8. Caslavska, who had spent the months prior to Mexico City in hiding after Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, won four golds and two silvers at these Games.

 

77. 1972, Munich: Soviet sprinter Valery Borzov became the first non-North American to win both the 100 and 200. Borzov received involuntary aid, at least in the 100, from the Americans. Sprinters Eddie Hart and Rey Robinson missed their quarterfinal heats because U.S. coach Stan Wright gave them the wrong starting time.

 

78. Munich: While signing the protest over the much-disputed gold-medal game loss to the Soviet Union in basketball, U.S. coach Hank Iba has his pocket picked of $370. Nobody quite knows why Iba was walking around with American currency.

 

79. Munich: U.S. female swimmers sport T-shirts reading “All that glitters is not Gould” in hopes of psyching out 15 year-old Aussie prodigy Shane Gould, who was favored to win five golds. Gould won three golds. To our knowledge, no one named Silver has ever won a silver medal…although 22 year-old U.S. swimmer Emily Silver is making her Olympic debut (4 x 100 free) in Beijing.

 

80. Montreal, 1976: The Japanese men win their fifth consecutive team gold in gymnastics, but not without pain. Shun Fujimoto broke his leg in the floor exercise, but continued on to compete in both the pommel horse, and more excruciatingly, the rings (think dismount). Fujimoto nailed the landing, though he dislocated his knee in doing so. Asked years later if, faced with the same quandary, he’d do it again, Fujimoto answered, “No.”

 

81. Montreal: The Olympic flame, for the only time in history, is extinguished in the midst of the Games. A rain shower on July 27^th doused the flame on a day when the stadium was not in use. Minutes later a workman named Pierre Bouchard who happened to be there re-lit the flame using a cigarette lighter and a rolled-up newspaper.

 

82. Montreal: Italy beat Egypt in men’s basketball, 2-0. The Egyptians pulled out of the Olympics in the midst of the Games. To earn credit for the win, the Italians were required to show up and score at least one basket. Marino Zanatta scored the bucket, his only field goal of the Olympics.

 

83. 1980, Moscow: For the first and only time thus far, the Finn class sailing event was won by a Finn, Esko Rechardt.

 

84. 1980, Moscow: Security, overseen by the Red Army, was particularly zealous. A rower who had just finished his race was booted from from the competition area for not having the proper credentials. At the time the rower was wearing his gold medal around his neck.

 

85. 1984, Los Angeles: Joan Benoit won the inaugural women’s marathon in 2:24:52, a time that would have been good enough to take gold in 12 of the first 13 men’s marathons.

 

86. Los Angeles: Archer Neroli Fairhall, a paraplegic from New Zealand, finishes 40^th out of 47 while competing from her wheelchair. Fairhall had taken up archery after being paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in 1969. Asked if she was at a disadvantage having to shoot from a sitting position, Fairhall replied, “I don’t know. I’ve never tried it standing up.”

 

87. Los Angeles: Nawal El Moutawakel (Morocco) won gold in the inaugural women’s 400-meter hurdles, becoming in the process the first female gold medalist from an Islamic nation (not to mention the first gold medalist of either sex from Morocco). The King of Morocco declared that all girls born on the date of her victory were to be named Nawal in her honor.

 

88. Seoul, 1988: Canadian sailor Lawrence Lemieux, in 2^nd place during his Finn class race, noticed a Singapore competitor struggling in open water 25 yards from his capsized boat. Lemieux turned around to rescue the man, Joseph Chan, and went from a probable silver medal to finishing 21^st. Lemieux was honored by the IOC with a special award. Explaining his heroic act of sacrifice he said, “I’m not that intense.”

 

89. Seoul, 1988: Anthony Nesty of Suriname becomes the first black swimmer to win a gold medal, out-touching heavily favored Matt Biondi by .01 of a second in the final of the 100 meter butterfly.

 

90. Seoul, 1988: In what can generously be described as “inscrutably judged”, the boxing tournament yields surprise winners (Roy Jones, Jr., “lost” to a South Korean) and sore losers. The worst of the latter was Byun Jong-Il, a South Korean bantamweight who protested his loss by staging a 67-minute sit-in in the center of the ring. Jong-Il was still sitting there when the house lights were turned off. He may still be there this minute.

 

91. Barcelona, 1992: Russian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, the 1988 gold medalist and a man who entered the Games having set 31 world records in his event, inexplicably no-heighted. A month later he set his 32^nd world record.

 

92. Barcelona: In yet another fantastic Finn class anecdote, Canadian Hank Lammens is disqualified after winning his race because he forgot to pack a life jacket. Who needs a life jacket when Lawrence Lemieux is around?

 

93. Barcelona: British sprinter Derek Redmond tears his hamstring during a 400 meter semifinal heat, but struggles to complete his lap. As officials attempt to persuade him to leave the track, his father appears without a credential and helps him to the finish line. The crowd gives the two men a standing ovation.

 

94. 1996, Atlanta: Brothers Elmadi Jabrailov and Lukman Jabrailov competed in the same event (wrestling) and the same weight class (middleweight) but for different countries. Due to the breakup of Soviet Socialist Republics, both men lived in Chechnya but Elmadi competed for Kazakhstan while Lukman did for Moldova (1,000 miles to the west). Lukman was in fact Elmadi’s coach, but when they met in a 2^nd-round bout, the student prevailed over the teacher.

 

95. 2000, Sydney: It wasn’t that female gymnasts suddenly forgot how to vault. It was that someone accidentally set the vault bar two inches too low. Many gymnast stumbled in the vault section of the all-around (one had to be taken off in a wheelchair) before Australia’s Allana Slater noticed the error. It’s a credit to the gymnasts’ precision that so many faulted when the height was inaccurate.

 

96. Sydney: A pair of swimmers from the developing nation of Equatorial Guinea earned fleeting fame and admiration despite swimming some of the slowest times in Olympic history. Eric “The Eel” Moussambani, swimming alone in his heat after the other two competitors had been DQ’d for false starts, swam a 1:57:72 in the 100 meters (gold medalist Pieter van den Hoogenband, for contrast, covered the distance in 47.84). Moussambani had learned to swim just eight months earlier, in croc-infested waters, and had never seen a 50-meter pool prior to the Games. His countrywoman, Paula Barila Bolopa, swam the 50 M free in 1:03:97, the slowest time ever recorded in that event in the Olympics.

 

97. Sydney: American Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner, who had never won an NCAA championship, shocked the world in the super heavyweight class by defeating Russian legend Alexander Karelin. Before their match Karelin had won gold in three consecutive Olympics, had never lost an international match and had not surrendered even a point in the previous decade.

 

98. Athens, 2004: Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris, the defending gold medalist at 200 meters, and Katerina Thanou, who had won silver in the 100 at Sydney,

failed to appear at a drug test on the eve of the Opening Ceremony (they claim they’d been involved in a motorcycle accident). Kenteris had been widely considered the favorite to light the Olympic flame. Neither competed in Athens.

 

99. Athens, 2004: American shooter Matt Emmons squanders a gold medal in the 50-meter rifle by firing his final shot at the wrong target. Later that night at a nightspot Czech shooter Katy Kurkova approached Emmons to offer sympathy (“Can I buy you a shot?”). Three years later they were married.

 

100. Athens: The men’s marathon—it’s always something with this event—was marred when leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was pushed by an Irish nut job (whose name does not deserve mention) about three miles from the finish. De Lima recovered in time to win the bronze and was showered with an ovation when he entered Panathinaiko Stadium.