GRECO-ROMAN POLANSKIS

Earlier, Minguzzi, a 26-year-old policeman, had beaten the defending Olympic gold medalist Aleksey Mishin. He wound up winning the gold medal and during the medals ceremony, Minguzzi went Benigni, hugging everyone in sight: His coach, the flower girls on the medals stand, and even fans. Of course, the sport itself involves hugging your opponent.  

The moment had added irony for this writer, for only an hour or so after Abrahamian tossed his bronze medal onto the mat and stomped out of the arena, I found myself watching the final moments of the movie The Ringer, in which Johnny Knoxville plays a Special Olympian who wins bronze and, while on the medals stand, also takes off the bronze and walks out of the stadium. No kidding, it was actually showing. The reason Knoxville disdained his bronze was different, but still, what are the odds?

Serenity Now ... Insanity Later

Like you, I'm heartened over the wonderful showing the U.S. men's volleyball team has had this week in the wake of such an awful tragedy. The men are 3-0 after defeating Bulgaria yesterday (Is there a country name that is more fun to pronounce in its native accent than "Bull-gehd-i-a!"?). But as I listen to Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett (great guys, by the way ... Paul is the nicest man you could hope to meet ... but then again, why shouldn't he be? Why shouldn't all volleyball players be? They're tall, graceful and they live by the beach) call their matches, I always smile when I hear them call the name of U.S. setter Lloy Ball.

First, because it sounds, to me at least, eerily similar to Seinfeld character "Lloyd Braun."

Second, because his name is absolutely Scrabulous. Do you realize he's a volleyball player whose name is just two letters shy (V and E) of being an anagram of volleyball? I live for that stuff.

Etc ... Lloyd Braun is a real person, a former ABC executive who was Larry David's lawyer during the production of Seinfeld.

Happy Birthday, Kerri Walsh

She has to be the distaff version of Michael Phelps in this first week of the Olympics. That would be beach volley dolly Kerri Walsh, who celebrates her 30th birthday today (she is 3-0 on this date with May-Treanor previously). Our NBC cameras just love Not-So-Little Miss Six Feet of Sunshine, who along with partner Misty May-Treanor just won their 105th consecutive volleyball match this morning. Kerri is gorgeous, of course, but she also comes off as sweet and genuine and her lost-and-found wedding ring tale is one of the great anecdotes of the first week.

By the way, I have a marketing idea for Ms. Walsh. After this is over, Six Feet of Sunshine comes out with a beverage called Six Feet of Moonshine. The beverage comes in a six-foot tall bottle with Kerri's likeness on the side.

Also, hope that you were able to see the first set of May-Treanor-Walsh's match against the belly-ose Belgians on Thursday evening (in the States). Outstanding, especially when you consider that they still haven't lost a set in Olympic beach volleyball in Athens or here in Beijing.

Backpackers

I'm watching the women's individual all-around competition at the moment. Slightly bemused at the sight of the gymnasts transferring from one apparatus to the next and having to tote their own backpacks. Kind of reminds you of watching 5th graders walking to catch the school bus. 

Lance is Legend

Yesterday I wrote about Lance Armstrong and I intended to close that little item with some massive props for the seven-time Tour de France winner. Maybe he never won Olympic gold, but Armstrong's post-cycling career is only dropping more jaws. Last Sunday he entered the legendary, at least among mountain bikers, Leadville Trail 100, and finished second. Which is astounding. The man who defeated him, Dave Wiens, had won the race five times previously and Lance pushed him to a record time.

Springsteen at the Super Bowl

My initial thought when I heard that one of my heroes, Bruce Springsteen, was going to play the Super Bowl in Tampa next February was, "Isn't one Boss in Tampa enough?" I still have mixed feelings, but here's a thought or two:

1) If Bruce were playing these Olympics, he'd have to open with "Waitin' On A Sunny Day."

2) My friend and colleague and fellow bloggist Matt Casey opined that Bruce's three songs would be: Radio Nowhere, Born to Run and probably, as the closer, Badlands. Those are solid choices, and he's probably right.

Just to be contrarian, though, I'll go with this list:

The Rising

Thunder Road

Born to Run (though I'd love-love-love it if he ended with Jungleland).

Lingo

One of the fascinating aspects of working at the Olympics for someone such as myself who doesn't have a background in television is the crash course in the lingo. You go from writing stories that appear in print (or don't) to suddenly having a producer in your ear saying things such as "tag", "lead", "beauty shot", "tease", "mixed zone" and "you're fired" (Whaaa?).

Anyway, it's fun. And educational.  

Tough Luck

You cannot go through an Olympics without hearing one or two stories (or three dozen) that just make you cringe in pain for those athletes who are victims of circumstance. Two days ago it was the Chinese rower who thought he was entered in the 3rd heat but was actually scheduled to be in the 2nd. Sorry, wrong heat, you are disqualified. Come back in four years.

Last night it was Italian butterfly specialist Mattia Nalesso, who was unable to compete in his only Olympic event when his new hi-tech swimsuit tore just as he was about to head out to the starting blocks. Those suits, according to The Daily Olympian, can take up to 20 minutes to slip on and so Nalesso was unable to switch suits. Problems Superman never has, you know?

Note to the IOC, from Shakespeare:

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."

That is, like, the only Shakespeare quote I know.

Bird's Nest Time

Opening day of track and field. I am SOOOOO fired up. Love the oval. Highlight of the first day is the women's 10,000, where hopefully Shalane Flanagan will compete (she had food poisoning earlier this week). Flanagan's mom was one of the original female scholarship athletes and once, briefly, held the world record in the marathon. Also competing for the USA is Kara Goucher, who has Walsh-like telegenic qualities and who wrote an amusing blog entry regarding her Opening Ceremony experience.

We Bet You Didn't Know ...

.. .that U.S. water polo player Peter Hudnut was voted Cosmo's California Bachelor of 2007, while I voted him car part I most likely will need to replace soon. In the interest of equal time sexytime, U.S. women's water polo player Lauren Wenger is a 6-foot-3 glamazon who two years ago, in her senior season at USC, won the Peter J. Cutino Award as the nation's best collegiate water polo player.

And Finally ... (for now, at least)

A happy retirement to Dutch swimmer Pieter van den Hoogenband, who announced he was leaving the sport after being unable yesterday to win gold in the 100-meter freestyle for a third straight Olympics. The Nederlander had held the world record in that event, 47.84, for nearly eight years before Frenchman Alain Bernard broke it in March. Bernard won gold yesterday in the event.

Pieter van den Hoogenband ... has any Olympian ever had a name that sounded more like the title of a drinking song?

van den Hoogenband, in announcing his retirement, said that the new generation of swimmers was "way too fast." What he didn't say was, Wow, Alain Bernard's shoulders and arms are really, really ... developed.