PSSST! ... I THINK I KNOW SI'S SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR
And I think you do, too. And I think he'll pose shirtless on the cover, adorned with eight identical items of bling. The headline: "GRR-EIGHT IN '08"
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Finally made it to an actual venue last night. Attended the swimming events at The Water Cube, the men's heats in the 100 meter freestyle. When you go in person you realize just how many athletes compete in these Games. For example, NBC has time to show you the semifinals in this event, which includes 16 swimmers. But there were 64 swimmers in a total of 10 heats. The first heat, featuring the slowest swimmers, had three men, one of whom was from an African nation and swam the 100 in 57 seconds. The world record is 47 seconds and change. Still, if you're that guy, that's the thrill of a lifetime. As it should be.
Seated not far from me was seven-time Olympic medalist/team mom Amanda Bared. She's got some blonde (or would you call it gold?) streaks in her hair. I admire that she and a fellow female teammate I didn't recognize were the first members of the USA contingent to arrive to cheer on Americans Jacob Lezak and Garrett Weber-Gale, and that Amanda brought a bag-full of USA flag bandanas and tiny flags to wear. I wouldn't be surprised if she brought orange slices and Wet-Naps as well.
Dara Torres also showed up, too, but a little later.
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Meanwhile, at the (C)CP Table Tennis Venue ...
I had a spirited opening round table tennis match with NBC Sports executive producer/bon vivant/genius emeritus Michael Weisman. We split our two games, though as Weisman reminded me as we said goodnight, he won on overall point differential. What a character. During our first game, I pulled within one point and he "called timeout", walked over to a female Chinese staffer who was watching us, and had her massage the top of his back.
He won that game, 21-16, but in the latter game I overcame a 20-18 deficit to win 22-20. Thank God. I'd have never heard the end of it if he'd beaten me two straight.
Maple Grief*
Woe, Canada. The team from Canadia is having an abysmal Olympics thus far. The Canucks were shut out in water polo by Montenegro, 12-0, the first Olympic shutout in that event since 1976. And they lost 6-1 in field hockey the other day. After four full days of competition Canadia has zero (!) medals. Here's a short, and non-inclusive, list of the nations that have more medals than Canada even though they cannot lay claim to having the second-largest nation, by physical size, on earth and a supposed high standard of living:
Togo (first medal ever)
Mexico (at least one border nation is doing us proud)
Vietnam
Georgia (didn't let being in the midst of an actual war distract them)
Zimbabwe
India (first individual gold medal ever...way to step up)
Kyrgyzstan (this nation may be disemvoweled, but it still tops Canada in the medal count)
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan ("Sexytime!")
*Thanks to intrepid Researcher Steve Samuelson for this title. Samuelson, it must be noted, also took on my challenge of putting a Sudoku puzzle into The Daily Olympian and built one for today's edition. Although, instead of using numbers, he is using the letters of an Olympian's name (more difficult than you might suppose, because the name has to be both nine letters and feature no repeat letters).
Today's puzzle? MARK SPITZ
Tomorrow's? USAIN BOLT
Feel free to submit your own suggestions.
Billy Corgan, Olympian?
I'm watching the U.S. men's beach volleyball tandem of Todd Rogers and Phil "Welcome to the" Dalhausser and I'm thinking to myself, If the 6-foot-9 Dalhausser just started belting out, "Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage!" would anyone be the least bit surprised?
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There's a good reason why Dalhauasser is called The Thin Beast...
I am an occasional reader of the blog but I am a full time Canadian so I have to say I was a little surprised at your "Maple Grief" piece. I'm not going to say that it isn't upsetting to Canadians that as of now, and we are only in Day 5 of a 2 week competition, we have not won any medals. Do we wish we had won some? Sure. What country doesn't? But we are also not alone. Why not call out Denmark, Belgium, Greece, South Africa, Israel, Poland or New Zealand? None of them have won medals yet. Are you going to pick on them next?
I was reading that the IOC campaign is "The Best of Us" and is meant to promote "the key Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect." I fail to see you honoring those values in your commentary on the Canadian team. Aren't you the guy that pointed out that it's a thrill just to be there in this very same blog entry?
You know what makes me proud as a Canadian? That we support our athletes. While we may have the world's 2nd largest land mass, we have a population of only 33 million. Despite that, per capita, we send one of the largest teams - 1 athlete per 95,930 Canadians as opposed to the US (1 per 472,136), the French (1 per 191,616), or the British (1 per 183,486). Ultimately we give more of our athletes the opportunity to at least experience the Olympic dream. Not winning any medals in the first 4 or 5 days does not diminish us. You calling attention to what you perceive as our failure does diminish you. It's the Olympics - aren't there enough positive stories to write about?
And by the way, my congratulations to Togo, Mexico, Vietnam, Georgia, Zimbabwe, India, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as well as to all the other nations and competitors. Good on you - enjoy!
Thanks for the beefcake. It's about time.
Whoa on the Woe, JDubs--- the Canucks might not let you back in for Vancouver Games or another Pemberton.
Canada-America's Hat