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STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Day 1 of the Olympic experience! Beijing has just turned on the boosters and gone into overdrive in the last day or two. All the teams have started arriving, as have the Heads of State, Ministers, VIPs, stars etc. The excitement here is building and the tangible buzz in the air is amazing! Flags, flowers, volunteers by the thousand, security, VIP convoys zooming around, weather improving - all this helps to build the atmosphere and the tension as Friday and the Opening Ceremony approach. Went to the airport today to meet my national team - what an amazing feeling to be standing in front of stars previously only seen on tv and seeing them as flesh and blood - and my god but are these guys and gals in the buffed, fit and toned shape of their lives! Great day to be alive! 
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| August 6, 2008, 12:20 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
I'd love to have an opportunity and the experience, from the opening, to watching the sporting events... I get goosebumps just thinking of it. Bok, have fun, and enjoy!
xox
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| August 6, 2008, 12:46 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
You've done a fantastic job of describing something I would have certainly thought to be "undescribable!!!"
The atmosphere and mood there must be absolutely electric.
Tell us more when you can!
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| August 6, 2008, 15:22 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Day 2 - already the first major upset of the Games! Soccer started last night and the defending gold medal champions, the USA women's soccer team, lost 2-0 to Norway!! Bummer for those readers from the States. Attended the dinner reception tonight for my national team. What a buzz to be surrounded by all my country's sports leaders and the cream of the sporting youth of my nation! Amazing to see the fire and excitement in their eyes as they talk of their determination and all that has gone into their preparations over the last four years or more. All concur that it is the best athletes village ever provided at an Olympics. Saw President GW Bush arriving at his hotel tonight also - quite a thrill, but I will reserve my comments on what I felt so that I don't hurt any feelings (or heaven forbid, get shut down by Chazzy for being too political!!). Tomorrow night is the Opening Ceremony - do yourselves a favour people and watch it - it will blow you away and will be the spectacle of a lifetime.
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| August 7, 2008, 13:48 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
You got to attend the dinner reception! Well, just how freakin' cool is that! Way cool I say!
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| August 7, 2008, 15:58 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
I hear that the US swim team is getting some static about their new high tech swim wear. It looks like a body suit but it's feared that it gives the wearer an advantage that other countries swimmers won't have.
I'm sure we haven't heard the last of this controversy, especially if and when the US swimmers end up on the medals podium. 
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| August 8, 2008, 07:40 |
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Liberalwife
47 / female
north, England, UK
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
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| August 8, 2008, 08:42 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Quite correct Liberalwife. 8 is the luckiest number in Chinese numerology, therefore the start was at 8 minutes past 8 on the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008!
Voyeurbill, don't worry, almost every team will be wearing the new Speedo LZR Racer full-body swimsuit (some even breaking existing sponsor contracts and paying fines to do so), not just the USA! It has been a bit controversial, but FINA (the world swimming body) has approved them. 47 world records have been broken by swimmers this year since the introduction of the suit! Hoepfully it will help Michael Phelps become the first person in history to get 8 golds (8 again!!) at a single Games and break Mark Spitz's record.
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| August 9, 2008, 06:02 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Day 3 - I have had a dream for 36 years, since I saw my first Olympics (Munich 1972) at age 6 on tv, to attend an Olympic Games Opening Ceremony live. Last night the dream came true and it surpassed everything that I dreamed of. There are no words to describe the 4 hours that I spent in the magnificent Birds Nest Stadium last night!! Brilliant, awesome, fantastic, mindblowing, stupendous - none of these can do justice to the spectacle and the atmosphere of what the Chinese put on last night. I was in tears 4 times - during the first sequence, when my team came out (led by a woman who is the first Paralympian in history to qualify for an able-bodied Olympics - she has one leg and is in line for a medal in the swim marathon!), when Yao Ming (the NBA basketball star) led out the Chinese team accompanied by a little boy that had personally rescued 7 other kids during the Sichuan earthquake, and at the lighting of the flame. Only the birth of my little boy and my wedding day have been more moving in my life. Did any of you watch it - what did you think??
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| August 9, 2008, 06:14 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
I'm already glued to coverage, and will (fingers crossed) be a volunteer at London's 2012 Olympics.
Interesting to see though how the weather in China is affecting performances... turbulent water and no wind on the sailing, rowers experiencing breathing problems. I sense there will be few records broken in the Bird's Nest stadium with the current volume of smog, which is a shame.
Still... i'll be waiting for some GBR medals.
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| August 9, 2008, 06:47 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Thanks for your personal description of what's happening there. I and am sure everyone here greatly appreciates this. 
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| August 9, 2008, 08:07 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
I planned on watching it, but my plans got to hell real quick most of the time...as they did last night...
But I do look forward to you report everyday, bok!
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| August 9, 2008, 10:09 |
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funlovingpair
59 / couple
Frozen Tundra, Minnesota, US
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
What we seen on T.V last night was awsome.
Ma
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| August 9, 2008, 10:14 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Days 4&5 - Competition started yesterday and the China-USA race to be No 1 is in full flow. They are 8 each in total medals at the moment, but China is ahead 6-2 on gold medals at this early stage. Nice spread of medals over a number of countries yesterday and today (even UK got a medal Innocentivory!!).
I went to watch the swimming at the magnificent Water Cube tonight - another awesome experience. Saw a number of Olympic records and the USA 4X100 Freestyle team set a new world record. Find it very difficult to wrap my head around the idea that I am sitting there watching in person a group of human beings swimming faster than any other human being has swum in the whole history of humankind!! In the morning, there were 2 World records and 2 Olympic records - those bodysuits are having a big impact! Michael Phelps set off on his gold run today winning gold medal No1 in a World record time. Saw him tonight - the man is enormous, what a talent. Other big swimming story is that Dara Torres won a silver medal today. She is 41 years old, competed in her first Olympics in 1984 (a year before Phelps was born!!) and this is her 5th Olympics. Her nickname is "Supermom", she has 4 golds, 2 silvers and 4 bronze medals over the years now. She is 15 years older than the next oldest member of the US swim team. What an inspiration to us over 40's!! Lastly, USA beat China tonight in the basketball - seems they have overcome the arrogance that led to them being beaten by lesser teams at the last Olympics. Well done. 
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| August 10, 2008, 14:05 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
My husband and I watched the Opening Ceremonies in High Def on our big screen television. It was breathtaking. I thought about you being there and told him that I knew you through these forums. I know that it had to be incredible. Keep on keeping us posted and thank you.
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| August 10, 2008, 19:59 |
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Re: Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
QUOTE (irishwoman @ August 10, 2008, 19:59)My husband and I watched the Opening Ceremonies in High Def on our big screen television. It was breathtaking. I thought about you being there and told him that I knew you through these forums. I know that it had to be incredible. Keep on keeping us posted and thank you.
Same here Irish! I too, saw the opening ceremonies on Friday in HiDef. Man, it looked incredible....a little too long but incredible!!!! 
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| August 10, 2008, 23:45 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Days 6&7 - Big story of today is that the little African country of Togo won its first medal (bronze) ever - in canoeing of all things. I find myself watching everything under the sun during Olympics - stuff that I normally would never watch, but I cannot get enough of it during Olympics. Phelps continued his march to immortality picking up 2 more golds and 2 more world records. In the China/USA rivalry, USA now has 21 medals in total to China's 20, but China is ahead in the gold medal stakes 13-7. They were absolutely fantastic in the men's gymnastics today (I cannot believe what these guys can get a human body to do!!), and they are close to a clean sweep of the diving gold medals (Britain's 14 year old diver unfortunately did not do very well, but Great Britain continues to get medals you will be pleased to hear Innocentivory!). Talking of clean sweeps, S Korea won the archery again here and have not lost since archery was introduced to the Olympics in 1988!! Another touching moment was when the Georgian and Russian medal winners in the air pistol embraced each other despite their countries currently being at war in South Ossetia. The war, taken with the stabbing death of an American in Beijing and the coup in Mauritania, is sad considering that there is supposed to be a peace truce in place during the duration of the Games! Lastly, watched some great weightlifting (told you I watch everything - so much for being in the office supposedly working!). 
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| August 12, 2008, 13:29 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
I read about the stabbings, but ya know, I don't believe such a huge event can happen without some tragedy striking...
I did see some highlights of the opening ceremony...how anyone could witness something so spectacular and grand live, without peeing your pants...I dunno...
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| August 12, 2008, 14:54 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
You're doing a great job reporting all the awesome events with the Olympics. Thank you!!
... xox
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| August 12, 2008, 19:12 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Day 8 - went to watch field hockey today. What a disaster - my team got completely obliterated!! Oh well - pick myself up and on to the next event! Mr Phelps became a living legend today and continues his march to immortality! He won anothet two golds and destroyed another two world records. In the process, he became the greatest Olympian in history overtaking Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz, Paarvo Nurmi and some gymnast or other to become the only person ever to win 10 Olympic gold medals. He still has another three to go to get 8 in this Games alone!
Another big story was that an Indian won the air rifle gold, becoming the first Indian ever to win an individual gold medal (they have won a few team golds for hockey in the past). Quite incredible that it has taken this long considering they have a population of 1.1 billion people! The Chinese women (make that girls) took the team gymnastics gold, just as their men had done yesterday. China still ranks ahead of the USA on 16 golds to 10, but is behind 24-27 on total medals. Kirsty Coventry continues to be a one-person nation - she has won three silver medals in the pool this Games to go with her gold, silver, bronze at the last Games in Athens. She competes for Zimbabwe, a nation that has only ever won one other gold medal in 1980 for women's hockey (it seems that I cannot get away from references to hockey today!). Overall, World Records continue to tumble left, right and centre across all sports. Damn but it feels good to be alive at the moment!
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| August 13, 2008, 16:10 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Days 9-12: History has been made in Beijing!! Last night I was in the Birds Nest Stadium to witness Usain Bolt become the first man in history to break through 9.7 sec for the 100m sprint. The amazing thing was that he was easing back as he crossed the line! I was reduced to tears of joy for the umpteenth time during these Games. To put it in perspective, measure out 10m, see how far it is and remember that Bolt runs each of those 10m in under 1 sec!!This morning Michael Phelps achieved what everybody thought to be impossible - 8 golds in one Olympics, 7 in world record time!! He has been called "the icon of the Games" and the "beyond adjectives swimmer". "Supermom" Torres won another silver at age 41! On the other side of the spectrum, a Cameroonian girl became the youngest competitor at the Games, swimming a race at age 12!! Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe added a gold and a world record to her three silvers.
As I have been watching over the last few days, I have been thinking about why some countries seem to dominate certain sports. China's women won every weightlifting gold on offer. They have a clean sweep of the diving medals and are likely to do the same in table tennis and badminton. Only a Chinese archer prevented S Korea from winning every archery medal, as they have done since 1988, while two American girls prevented a Chinese sweep of the gymnastic gold medals. Africa's Games have now started as the athletics began on Friday with the first gold going to Ethiopia in the women's 10000m. Why is it that East and North Africans win all the long distance medals at every Games while West Africans and their descendants in the Caribbean and North America win every sprint medal? There are many other examples of country specific dominance. On the other end of the spectrum, some countries never win anything, eg India (although they did dominate hockey for decades). In this regard, Mongolia won their first gold medal ever the other day.
Lastly, some controversy entered the Games with a couple of positive doping results, allegations of unfair/cheating judging in wrestling, boxing and a few other sports, and an ugly incident in the Cuba-USA baseball game. A Swedish wrestler was so upset at the results that he stormed off the podium and threw his bronze medal on the ground before the medal ceremony had been completed.
China still ahead of the USA 26-14 on gold medals, but behind 41-46 overall.
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| August 17, 2008, 00:59 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Thanks bok! I don't bother reading the CNN Olympic reports...you do a much better job at the reporting!
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| August 17, 2008, 08:14 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Days 13-16: Michael Phelps was the story of the first week of the Games, as was the number of world records in the pool (25 WR's broken). Week 2 and the world records continue to fall, even in distance events - so much for the pollution factor (eg 3000m women's steeplechase, women's pole vault, 20km walk, hammer etc.) But the biggest story of Week 2 is Usain Bolt of Jamaica - he has now won the 200m and broken the world record, the first person to do the 100/200 double since Carl Lewis in 1984 and the first ever to do the World Record double - and he only turned 22 today (the crowd sang him Happy Birthday!!). Another big story was the pulling out of the Games with an injury of China's greatest sporting hero, Liu Xiang, from the 110m hurdles (2004 gold and 2006 world record).
On my dominance theme again, Jamaica is the other big story linked to Bolt as they are cleaning up in the sprint events. Along with Bolt's medals, Jamaica got gold, silver, and bronze in the women's 100m and also won the women's 400m hurdles and silver in the women's 400m. China reigned supreme in the gymnastics events - along with the other events that they have dominated that I referred to in an earlier post. I was lucky enough to be there "live" to see the women's 100m and the last day of the gymnastics (loved watching Shawn Johnson of the USA). The United Kingdom have dominated the sailing and the cycling and constitute another big story of the Games, as they are coming third overall behind China and the USA ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London (and ahead of Australia - shock, horror!! - who dominated women's swimming). Germany dominated the horseriding events and the East Europeans continue to dominate the Field events. Africa continues to dominate the long distance events and Kenya have now not lost the 3000m men's steeplechase since 1984.
Another great part of the Olympics is the "feel-good, inspiring" story. For example, the South African girl competing in the 10km marathon swim with only one leg, the world's strongest man (German who won the super-heavyweight weghtlift with a combined lift of 461kg!!) who won to honour his wife killed a year ago in an accident, the US swimmer who competed with cancer, the Aussie cyclist who won silver having broken her neck 7 months ago, the Iraqi's, Palestinians, Afghani's and Georgians who are competing despite coming from war zones and in some cases training with no facilities and dodging sniper bullets to train!! Afghanistan won their first medal ever in Taekwondo (bronze) and Georgia has 2 golds and a bronze. To top it all, my country finally got a medal after what has been a pretty dismal Games for us by our standards!
It is clear that China will now win and overtake the USA as the world's strongest sporting nation with 45-26 Gold medals so far, although still trailing 79-82 on total medals.
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| August 21, 2008, 04:33 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Last medal count check.. on my end of the world.
USA- 101
China- 88
We dominated beach volleyball. I knew May and Walsh would take it but I feared for Rogers and Dollhausser (sp?). I have yet to see how our women did with indoor volleyball but I do know that the men's team will be playing in the gold medal match.
The controversy about the Chinese gymnastics women is playing out like I had hoped it would. They're digging deeper and finding things out. If "things" are revealed, our gold medal count will go up and theirs down.
I believe we'll win at least 3 more gold medals... men's and women's basketball and in softball.
I'm loving it so far! 
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| August 22, 2008, 09:52 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
bok, I'm curious to know what you think about the tie the other night between Nastia Luiken and the Chinese gymnast on the uneven bars.
Without bias, looking at is as just one competitor against another, Nastia's routine was better AND she stuck the landing.
They made a point that all of these judges were from countries that have never produced a gymnastics champion and that their judging experience, so to speak, was not up to par. I could think of several other ways to put it, but I won't go there. With all of that said, the judging was definitely off during the whole gymnastics run, to say the least.
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| August 22, 2008, 09:57 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Another thing that got to me.... The little girl that sang during the opening ceremonies... it's being said that she wasn't the original singer of that song. It was a recording and they used her because the girl that actually recorded it had crooked teeth. If that is in fact true, that just seams so sad to me.
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| August 22, 2008, 10:04 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Thanks for your replies MoonHowler (and to ashkats for his thread re the Cuban taekwondo man).
Re the medal count - see my comments that follow in the next post!
Couldn't agree more re the Nastia/Chinese gym tie - I also thought Nastia was better. The new scoring system has not been a success and even coaches and competitors have found it too complicated. I prefer the old system of perfect 10's etc (what the hell does 16.437 mean to the average fan?!!) Nadia Comenici became famous because of her perfect 10's in 1976 - would'nt have had the same impact if she had competed under this new system. Another result that I didn't agree with was the men's horizontal bar, where I though the Italian and the German were much better than the Chinese winner.
Also agree re the little girl singer - very cute girl, but sad to hear that she was lip synching for another little girl who she replaced because she was said to be not photogenic enough due to chubby face and crooked teeth - what crap!!
The age of some of the Chinese girl gymnasts is indeed still being investigated, but the documents for them do seem to be all in order at this point in time - we shall see! I personally don't see what the big issue is about age and why 16 is a limit in gymnastics. There were other younger competitors in other sports, eg 14 year old British diver, 12 year Cameroonian swimmer and nobody made any fuss about them! If you are good enough to win gold at age 13 all power to you I say!! My country had a girl who broke a swimming world record at age 12 in the 1960's - good for her!
You were right about the USA winning men's and women's basketball, men's and women's beach volleyball, and men's volleyball, but wrong about women's volleyball (Brazil beat the USA) and women's softball (in one of the biggest upsets of the Games, Japan beat the US team who were unbeaten in 108 straight matches since 2000 and had won every Olympic gold since 1996).
In terms of the other story that ashkats posted about the Cuban taekwondo guy, you were right that he was disqualified for taking too much time in the injury timeout rather than because of his broken toe. He and his coach have now been banned for life for him kicking the umpire in the head (with his broken toe of all things!!).
PS: I see from your profile that you are a great admirer of Native American culture. So am I. Recently read two great books on this - "50 Nations" and "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee". Particularly love the Souix, Cheyenne, Commanche, Apache, Kiowa, Nez Perce, and Iroqouis histories.
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| August 26, 2008, 04:46 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Days 17-20: I write this with a sad, empty feeling as the Olympics have come and gone for another 4 years! I had tears of joy at the lighting of the flame on 8 August and tears of joy and sadness at the extinguishing of the flame at the magnificent Closing Ceremony on Sunday night. The Ceremony was a happy, joyous ocassion to celebrate what the IOC President called "a truly exceptional Games". The only bit I did'nt enjoy was the 10 minute London 2012 segment by the Brits - what a mess.
In the final analysis, China beat the USA by 51-36 Gold medals. Sorry MoonHowler, but the ranking of nations at Olympics is always based on number of gold medals won, not total medals - which the USA won 110-100. As one USA athlete said "it's gold or bust"!! 87 nations out of 204 (the most ever) won medals (the most ever), 43 World and 120 Olympic Records were broken (the most ever) and more countries than ever before got their first gold or other medals. Apart from the USA and China, the other big winners were Russia (once again dominating wrestling, rythmic gymnastics and synchronised swimming - which I went to see), the UK (best showing in 100 years), Germany, Australia and South Korea. My country on the other hand completed its worst Games ever (1 silver, where normally we get 5 or 6 medals including gold).
China's gold rush was spearheaded by a clean sweep of table tennis and badminton golds, 7 out of 8 diving golds, gymnastics, weightlifting and shooting. They also achieved first ever gold medals in sailing, rowing, archery, boxing and swimming. China becomes only the third nation after the Soviet Union and the USA to top the medal table since WWII.
Africa were the other big winners with 40 golds in total (the most ever) and the Kenyans and Ethiopians (an Ethiopian man and an Ethiopian woman were the first to both complete the 5000m and 10 000m double!)completely dominated the middle to long distances. Jamaica dominated the sprints, winning men's and women's 100m and 200m and men's 4x100m relay - a 3rd gold and world record for Bolt (another first ever). Their woman's 4x100 relay team were only denied a clean sweep by way of dropping the baton!
This was also the area of biggest failure for the USA with hot favourites such as Gay , Felix, Richards and Lagat all failing, and the men and women 4x100 relay teams dropping the baton. Not since 1912 has the USA not won a sprint relay medal and not since 1976 have they been shut out of the sprints. Redemption came in the form of the 4x400 men and women's relay teams winning, basketball and beach volleyball, women's soccer and Bryan Clay (decathlon) claiming the title "best overall athlete".
Cuba won the men's 110m hurdles and got 8 boxing medals, but no boxing golds for the first time since 1968. They also lost their baseball title to South Korea and had a person disqualified for life for assaulting an umpire. Hungary dominated men's waterpolo again and Argentina won men's soccer again.
More inspirational stories emerged, such as the swimmer who won the men's 10km swim after recovering from cancer, the 33 year old gymnast winning silver to raise money for her sick son (in a sport where most participants are half her age), the Hungarian 1000m singles canoeist who dedicated his win to his team mate who died in training in July, and the two Dutch athletes who got engaged on the field in the middle of the Closing Ceremony!! One had to feel for the USA shottist who lost out on Gold by making a simple mistake on his very last shot for the second Games in a row (his wife is the Czech girl who won the very first gold of the Games). One also was moved by the USA men's volleyball coach's tears at the end (his father-in-law was murdered in Beijing at the start of the Games).
A last buzz for me was the chance to visit the Athlete's Village and see some of the world's sports stars in the flesh, eg I met Pele up close and personal.
Lastly, glad to see that the pollution problem never reared its head during the Games and that doping was relatively low considering the highest level of testing ever. Only six athletes and 4 horses were bust. Gymnastics, wrestling, boxing and taekwondo had scoring problems and some allegations of cheating, but all this was overcome by the Bolt's and Phelp's of these Games.
So endeth my story about the most wonderful 20 days it has been my pleasure to experience. I hope that I have been able to convey some of my passion and joy to you all, as well as a sense of the glory of the Games and of human beings showing us all what we can achieve and what pride we can feel in watching people showing us the very best the human race can offer - in contrast to the normal diet of dirt and horror that we endure in the media every day. Bye for now!  
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| August 26, 2008, 05:43 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
I will admit, it was a beautiful showing overall. I thought all of the venues were outstanding! The pollution issue did rear its ugly head at the onset, but I didn't hear anyone actually complain about it. I think they mentioned something about one of the marathon runners not wanting to compete because of that very issue. He missed out.
Winning silver in softball was a huge shocker, wasn't it? I stared at the tv for a while in disbelief. I hope they decide NOT to do away with the sport in future Olympics.
The story of the gymnast made me cry. "This is for my son." Very moving. As for the age in gymnastics... the younger the athlete, the more limber they are... less fear, less tension. They haven't yet acquired the notion of, "Hey, I could actually hurt myself really bad doing this." lol I know there are some exceptions. But that's exactly what they are, exceptions. Rules are rules and they should be followed. We'll see how this turns out eventually.
One thing I absolutely didn't like was the speech given to the woman from the US that won silver in the pole vault by her coach. What a jerk! I mean, my gosh, she just won second behind the woman that holds the world record! She did awesome in my opinion.
Overall, I think the inspirational stories are the ones that make the Olympics so special. Stories of tragedy, diversity, struggles to get where they are. It kind of makes you think about how small most of your troubles are compared to what others go through.
All in all, it was a great experience
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| August 26, 2008, 09:29 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
The marathon runner (Haile Gebraselassie from Ethiopia) pulled out of the marathon well ahead of the Games citing pollution as the reason, but near the end of the Games he apologised and said that he had made a huge mistake in doing so because he now saw what a vast improvement there had been in the weather conditions.
Glad you felt the same way re the gymnast and the other "inspirational" stories.
Softball was probably the biggest shock result of the Games. Both softball and baseball have been removed from the Olympics in 2012, but they are fighting to return in 2016.
I agree with you re the behaviour of the coach at the pole vault, but the US athlete herself has hopefully learned a lesson as she was talking "a whole lot of smack" about the Russian before the Games and had her nose well and truly rubbed in it!
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| August 28, 2008, 03:57 |
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dave2big
81 / male
somewhere, Nebraska, US
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
i have only one thought about the olympics,anyone that missed both the opening and closing ceremonies really lost out. they were indeed the most beautiful,spectacular,amazing sights i have EVER witnessed ! i understand about all the different medal races,but these events (for me at least) totally overshadowed all the political crap surrounding the proceedings. please dont get the wrong idea folks, i AM proud of the athletes from the U.S.,but the work and effort the Chinese people showed an amazing effort in all they did and i feel their fabulous effort should be recognized by all people, EVERYWHERE !!!!
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| August 28, 2008, 08:11 |
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Re: STORY OF THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
Good on you dave2big. I wholeheartedly support everything you have said!!
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| August 28, 2008, 23:01 |
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