Bookworm

Short people got no reason to live - Salon Olympics Daily - Salon

"Bolt's race was one of the freakiest events in the history not just of the Olympics but of track and field. The 6'5" Jamaican simply redefined speed. Not only did he destroy one of the fastest fields in Olympic history and shatter his own world record, he did it with a gut stuffed full of Chicken McNuggets, with one shoe untied and while signing autographs, blowing kisses and taking a nap during the last 20 meters of the race. As the great retired Trinidadian sprinter Ato Boldon, winner of four Olympic medals, said during NBC's broadcast, "This has never been seen before in Olympic history."  [Salon]

I think I already posted about this elsewhere, but thought this vibrant description deserved to be shared.  This was one of the most entertaining events of the Olympics so far.  We rewound the broadcast three or four times so we could watch it again. 

Some Favorite Events from the Olympics So Far

Keeping in mind that I'm currently one broadcast day behind (I haven't watched anything broadcast by NBC yesterday), and I do tend to be U.S.-centric in my rooting, here are some of my favorite things so far: 

• The Opening Ceremonies: As I wrote on Twitter, I was completely blown away by the ceremonies. There was beauty, ingenuity, and amazing technology such as the giant LED screen in the floor of the Bird's Nest stadium that displayed the scroll.  I couldn't believe that the blocks with the characters on them turned out to be people-powered!  The fireworks were awe-inspiring.  How did the tai chi performers manage to be so powerful and graceful, and not bump into each other as they ran in concentric circles? 
  
• The American women's beach volleyball team, May & Walsh -- I just enjoy watching them play.
  
• It's got to be said -- Michael Phelps! Michael Phelps! Michael Phelps! I don't know how his races last night went -- I think there might have been one or two finals -- but this man is just flabbergastingly good.  
• The 4 x 100 men's freestyle swimming relay -- that was incredibly exciting -- I was hollering in my living room when Lezak caught Bernard for the win. 
  
• Men's gymnastics -- So glad the U.S. got the bronze in the team competition.  Jonathan Horton seemed to really be rallying the team together.  That one guy totally pulled off his pommel horse routine to give them the points for bronze and then did a great job in the individual all-around (shown two nights ago, but I just watched it last night).  Some of the falls that occurred in the all-around were quite terrifying to watch -- the Japanese gymnast fell off the rings and the German gymnast fell off the high bar.  (I'll update this post with the names at a later time -- I'm afraid of having the women's results "spoiled" if I go out and look for them right now.)
• Women's gymnastics -- The U.S. women won silver in the team competition.  As I wrote on Twitter, I truly hope that Alicia Sacramone doesn't let two mistakes haunt her for the rest of her life.  Gymnastics is such an unforgiving sport and it's very possible that even if she had scored her expected scores on beam and floor, that the Chinese would still have won.  I'm very excited to watch the all-around tonight (on my DVR). 
  

Tragic Accident for Chinese Dancer

"A talented, 26-year-old Chinese dancer was seriously injured during a rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games just 12 days before the show, and faces the prospect of being paralyzed for the rest of her life."  [Behind the Opening Ceremony, a Paralyzing Fall - NYTimes.com]

Former Gymnast's Point of View

"As a former athlete, I understand what it means to compete at an international level in a way an armchair fan cannot. I know what it feels like to stand alone at 16 years of age on a 4-inch-wide plank called a balance beam, carrying the heavy burden of personal and parental expectations, not to mention the unthinkable heft of a coach's dreams and a country's misplaced political fervor. I know what it's like to stand before that beam, legs shaking, throat closed with trepidation. To feel choked with the fear of letting people down, not least of all yourself. To have your mind race with visions of a wasted half-lifetime of brutal training caused by a split-second misstep -- a wobble, a fall from the bars, a foot out of bounds on the floor. To banish that dastardly vision to make way for one of victory. And then to go." [Why watching the Olympics is torture for me - Salon Olympics Daily - Salon]

Jason Lezak, Jason Lezak, Jason Lezak!

What a thrilling, thrilling race!  I'm bleary-eyed today from having stayed up so late to see it, but it was worth it.  I'm still feeling chills over it. 

"At the final turn, a thousand thoughts flooded Jason Lezak's brain, a thousand images, a thousand memories. And one awful, cold fact: the fastest swimmer in the world at 100 meters, France's Alain Bernard, had already made his flip, was at least a half a body length ahead with 50 meters to go. "I swear, all these things were in my mind in a couple of seconds," Lezak said. "And then I realized, 'This is the Olympics. Let's go.'" . . . From where the other three members of this relay team stood, they watched along with everyone else inside the Water Cube as Lezak -- self-described "late-bloomer," a 32-year-old graybeard in a peachfuzz sport -- hauled off after Bernaird, the chatty Frenchmen, for what was surely a fruitless pursuit, what was sure to be a prophesy fulfilled. After all, it was Bernard who'd proclaimed defiantly in the days leading up to this showdown: "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." And that's what they were surely about to do. Except a funny thing happened. That half-body-length lead? In about 10 seconds it was down to a quarter-length. And then the width of a head. And then nothing. And then, remarkably, amazingly, astonishingly, inexplicably, Lezak's fingers touched the wall, exactly 8/100ths of a second before Bernard's did. Weber-Gale exploded. Jones admitted, "I nearly fell into the pool." Phelps emitted a primal scream that tried to lift the Cube's ceiling clear off its hinges. . . "His last 50 meters were absolutely incredible," said Phelps. "He had a perfect finish." . . . Lezak covered the final hundred meters in 46.06, which is nearly a second and a half faster than the existing world record. "I've never had more adrenaline in my life," he would say. . . What drove Lezak was the silver he won in 2000 in this event, and the bronze in 2004, and a knowledge of the history of American success in this event." [FoxSports]

Kwan says thanks, but no, to NBC's offer

"Michelle Kwan won't be on the ice, and she won't be behind a microphone either. Soon after an injured Kwan bowed out of the games, NBC executives courted the athlete they had banked on being its biggest draw, hoping to lure her into the broadcast booth.

But Kwan turned down the job offer, saying she didn't want to be a distraction for remaining members of the U.S. Olympic figure skating team, NBC Sports spokesman Michael McCarley said Sunday.

The star withdrew from the Olympics on Sunday because of a strained groin muscle, ending her quest for her first gold medal in what was expected to be one of the most compelling stories in Turin." [USATODAY]

Michelle Kwan in Torino

"Michelle Kwan cut short her first practice because of a sore groin Saturday and left open the possibility of withdrawing from the Olympics if she’s not 100 percent healthy.  The five-time world champion stopped short of saying she was considering dropping off the U.S. team. But asked directly, she replied: “I really have to pay attention to how I am feeling these days. Dropping out, it’s not something I want to do, but I have to listen to what my feelings are.”  Kwan said a long plane ride and marching in the opening ceremony caused enough problems for her to skip a run-through one day after arriving in Turin. She planned to practice Sunday after getting treatment for the groin injury, which kept her out of last month’s U.S. championships and forced her to get a medical bye into her third Olympics. “Physically, if I’m not able to skate, I would give my spot up,” she said.  If she drops out before the Feb. 19 draw for the women’s event, then Emily Hughes, the third-place finisher at the national championships and younger sister of 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes, would take her place." [MSNBC]

Should Michelle Kwan Go to Torino?

My personal opinion: If a mechanism existed for petitioning to join the team, then Michelle was within her rights to make the petition.  I have loved watching her skate during her amateur career.  If she is fully healthy and feels she has a legitimate shot at medaling, then she should go, but only after thinking long and hard about whether it might be time to give someone else a chance.

"Kwan. . . petitioned the United States Figure Skating Association. . . for an injury waiver onto the Olympic team after injuring her groin. . . [T]he United States Figure Skating Association. . . by a vote of 20 to 3. . . named Kwan to the U.S. ladies' figure skating team on Sunday morning, along with Sasha Cohen, who earned her berth by winning the ladies championship, and Kimmie Meissner, who finished second. Kwan will have to undergo another evaluation before the end of the month, however, before the USFSA is convinced she will be fit enough to skate in Torino.  By placing Kwan on the team, the USFSA was forced to bump Emily Hughes, younger sister of 2002 Olympic champion Sarah Hughes, to the alternate position. Hughes's fate is one Kwan herself experienced in 1994, the last time a female figure skater was granted an injury waiver onto an Olympic team — that time, Kwan had to make way for Nancy Kerrigan, who had been clubbed in the knee during a practice session at Nationals and was forced to withdraw from the event. "When I heard the news, of course I was thrilled, but I also know what Emily is going through, because I can relate, because I was in the same position in '94," said Kwan by telephone from her home in Los Angeles after the announcement. Kwan will perform a run-through of both her short and long programs for a five-member USFSA monitoring panel by January 27; that committee will make the final determination on whether she is ready to skate at the Olympics. The United States Olympic Committee sends its final team roster to the International Olympic Committee by January 30. Kwan said Saturday night that if she is not fully recovered and ready to compete by the deadline, she will withdraw from the Olympics. "If I don't believe I'm 100% at my best, I don't think it would be good for me to go," she said." [Time]

"To make its decision, the committee looked at results from nationals and five major international competitions in the past year. Kwan was fourth at the world championships last year. Hughes's best finish internationally was a bronze medal at the junior world championships last year.  "Emily is a wonderful athlete, she competed well. Michelle competed well at worlds last year," Horen said Saturday night. "There aren't numbers I can compare there, there are relationships." Hughes didn't help her cause in the free skate Saturday. She took a hard fall on a triple loop and cut a triple salchow down to a double, then stepped out of the landing. "It's disappointing for me, but I didn't skate my best," Hughes said. "Everyone's worked so hard and she's done so well for so many years. I feel they made a good decision, and we'll just see what happens." [AP/Washington Post]

"The USOC talks a good game about wanting to rid the various sports of "pipeline blockers" and preserving the movement's integrity. Pipeline blockers are athletes who have stayed in their sport too long and are just happy to "make" national teams and international trips.  Here you have a case of a skater hanging on too long in the amateur movement who is injured and trying to petition her way onto the team. Many say Kwan deserves to be on the team for what she has done for the sport. If this was swimming or track, it wouldn't be an issue. No trials, no Olympics. . . No one is denying that Kwan, plagued by hip and groin injuries since October, is the queen of U.S. figure skating, but it's time to make room for the up-and-coming stars who could medal or gain international experience." [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

"Kwan certainly has legacy and reputation on her side, along with silver and bronze Olympic medals. But there are several arguments in Hughes' favor, the foremost being that her sister, also 16 at the time, won the gold medal at the 2002 Olympics a month after finishing third at nationals. . . As for Kwan, having barely skated competitively over the past few seasons, having skated just once in her career under the new (and infinitely complex) international judging system, how realistic are her chances of medaling in Turin anyway? Japan will send three skaters capable of reaching the podium. There's also Russia's Irina Slutskaya, U.S. champion Sasha Cohen and Italy's Carolina Kostner – all of whom finished ahead of Kwan at the 2005 worlds. The ladies competition at the Olympics also has increasingly become the domain of little girls with big jumps. The last three gold medalists were 16, 15 and 16. The last two won with two triple-triple combinations in their long programs. Kwan, 25, hasn't landed a solo triple jump in public since March and hasn't landed triple-triples regularly in years." [San Diego Union-Tribune]

Updated 2/3/06: Michelle is going to Torino. 

London beats Paris to 2012 Games

"London won a two-way fight with Paris by 54 votes to 50 at the IOC meeting in Singapore, after bids from Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated.

Prime Minister Tony Blair called the win "a momentous day" for Britain. . . IOC president Jacques Rogge made the dramatic announcement at 1249 BST.

It will be the first time the Olympics has been held in Britain since 1948." [BBC SPORT]

Olympics Wrapup

Obviously I was not able to continue posting long, interesting posts about the Olympics as the days wore on. Primarily this is because I got behind in watching the coverage and still have not caught up. Yes, I know, the Olympics are over. I probably saw more of the events than I anticipated, given that we have a new baby and I'd just started back to work.

The most memorable moments, for me, were:
Paul Hamm coming back from what seemed certain defeat to win the men's all-around competition in gymnastics. Notwithstanding the judging controversy that came afterward, it was one of the most dramatic comebacks in sports I've ever witnessed.

The U.S. men's swimming relay that broke the world record

The race where Michael Phelps somehow came from behind at the very end of the race to edge his teammate Crocker

The marathon runner soaring to the finish line to win the bronze medal

The men's high bar event final

9/21/04 note: I never went back and finished watching all the coverage. I feel like I got a very good taste of the Olympics this year, but it's not an assignment. I "gave myself permission" to just delete the stuff I hadn't finished watching from our DVR's hard drive.