Just…. wow. 17 Swims in the past 9 days. 16 Medals. 14 of them Gold. And now, 8 Gold medals from a single Olympics, more than any other person in the history of the Olympic Games. And they showed Ian Thorpe watching it. He had said he didn’t think Michael could do it, that he didn’t have it in him. Guess he needs to eat some words, eh?
At this point, honestly, all I can say again is…. Wow.
Congratulations Michael Phelps.
Finally, the US managed to take the podium in Gymnastics away from the Chinese. I have nothing against China, in fact, I would just love to visit there some day, it has some of the oldest historical sites in the entire world, and an amazingly rich history. But we have some amazing gymnasts, and they completely deserved to win the Gold, and Silver medals.
Nastia Liukin won the Gold medal. Nastia was born in Russia, and is the daughter of Valeri Liukin who won Gold in the 1988 Olympics in Men’s Gymnastics, and Silver in the 1988 Olympic Men’s All-around. Natsia’s mother was a world champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics, a sport that is more artistic and graceful than athletic, and Nastia’s lines and her style shows the influence of both parents strongly. Shawn Johnson, whose coach was born and raised in Beijing, won the Silver medal. Well done, both!
(Semi-biased rant below, stop reading if you want to think everything is peaches and cream, all roses and birdies singing at the Olympics.)
However, there were constant questions with scoring. How, for instance, could Nastia’s vault, which had no visible flaws, a completely stuck landing, perfect position in the air, perfect pre-flight, get nearly a full point taken for execution? Where did they get nine tenths of a point in deductions. Watch it in slow motion, there is not a single thing you could even deduct for. And yet, there it is, her score was far too low, and the announcers, and Bela Karolyi agreed. At first, it was just chalked up to a fluke. But then it continued. While the Chinese athlete bobbled and wobbled through her beam routine, making visible errors, balance checks, arms swinging wildly to stay on the beam, she scored an amazing number, with minimal deductions in execution. And yet, Nastia, whose performance was again flawless, with a stuck landing, gorgeous acrobatics throughout, no visible balance checks, gets nearly another full point removed. From what???
And when her score on Uneven Bars was again, much lower than she’d seen, even though the only error was a small step on the landing, it occurred to me that there may be a trend here.
From the beginning of these games, it has seemed that the press, the on-site reporters, the IOC, and pretty much anyone involved in the Olympics, was going out of their way to turn a blind eye to anything negative, and waxing rhapsodic about everything with regards China as host. Some of the more vocal blogs out there have mentioned the odd “slant” with regards to the news reporting since the games began. The severe air pollution, which can actually damage these athletes’ lungs, is nearly completely ignored, the political issues are absolutely taboo, and even the lip syncing issue has not gotten the press you’d expect.
Why? Because everyone seems to be utterly terrified of “offending” China. God forbid someone speak the truth. How does this relate to the judging? I’m getting there. 
Historically, the host city had the most judges, and the host team nearly always got higher marks than anyone else. It was always an issue, and when they re-vamped the scoring system, they put in place a system to combat this. There are multiple judges for artistry, technical execution, and other areas, and they come from all countries. Judges are not allowed to be from the country of the competing Athlete. Therefore, for example, there are no US judges for the US gymnasts, just as there are no Chinese judges for any Chinese gymnast. But this brings up other problems. The judges often come from countries who have no elite level gymnastics program, and have very little clue how to judge elite athletes. Sometimes you will end up with 6 out of 8 judges from countries who have never even once had an Olympic medal in gymnastics. How can they possible know what to look for, what to deduct for, and what to reward when they don’t even fully understand the sport? Finally, there is a “head judge” who is called with any questions, and no score can be posted without their approval. (Interestingly, for the All-Around competition, this was Nelli Kim, who is quite famous if you know much about Gymnastics.) The current scoring system may have fixed some issues, but it most certainly created a huge amount of new major flaws, and really needs to be scrutinized and revamped.
Anyway, it almost seems to me as if, regardless of what nation the judges were from, they were all again, afraid of “offending” China. The Chinese gymnasts got far higher scores than they would have in any other competition, and deductions were blatantly overlooked. For example, one Chinese gymnast did not “connect” two moves on the beam (meaning you go from one move to the next, without a visible pause - she paused for at least 2-3 seconds, because of an arm-waving balance check) and yet her start value was not deducted, nor was the technical score affected. That’s just wrong. When something happens once, you chalk it up to a mistake, a fluke, a glitch. If it happens twice, you raise your eyebrows, and wonder if the judges are blind. When it happens 3, and 4 times in a row, something else is at work here.
Now, of course, we’ll never know what really went on, where they got all the massive deductions they were taking from the American athletes, how they turned a blind eye to major mistakes by the Chinese, but it sure does make you wonder how “fair” this sport is, even with these major changes in the scoring.
But you know, I still cannot get over the age issue. Google “Gymnastics age”, and you will come up with thousands of results, documenting the ages as reported over the last year or two of these girls, and all showing that at least 3, if not 4, of the Chinese athletes are not 16. And yet, suddenly in March, they are issued new passports, and POOF! They qualify. What a crock.
I’m sorry, I don’t care if you are the host country, it doesn’t give you the right to cheat. And yes, I have no doubt after watching the Team finals, and the All-around finals, that these kids are not 16 years old. There is just no way. Yes, body types vary, yes, Asians are typically built slighter than we are, but no, there’s no way that these little children are 16.
And I think what bothers me the most about this is if there was any suspicion at all of drug use on the part of a gymnast, it would be scrutinized, and double, triple, quadruple checked by the IOC. And yet, falsifying ages, having athletes that are 2, 3 years from legitimate competitive age, is okay?
The IOC accepts these “passports” from a country that has never hid the fact that it controls information. They control what is reported in their “government newspapers”, what is said on TV, what is printed in magazines, heck they even control what their people can see on the Internet, so of course they can fake a passport. Good grief. How is it that the IOC, or the Gymnastics Federation is not completely outraged by this? This is absolutely cheating, just as bad as, if not worse than, doping. Most of the reporters all agree that there is no way these kids are 16. Marta Karolyi doesn’t think they are 16, and even calls them “the little babies”. Most of the former gymnasts interviewed don’t think they are 16.
And yet, nothing will be done. Nothing. This is just wrong. And worse, it just feels… icky, watching these little kids (some of whom don’t even have their adult teeth yet!), in skimpy leotards. It makes my skin crawl, knowing all the pedophiles out there are basically getting their kicks off watching this. It is just sick.
It is really too bad that the major accomplishment put forth by Nastia and Shawn (never before has the United States had a Gold, and Silver medal in Women’s Gymnastics All-Around in the Olympics), has been eclipsed by this age issue. But perhaps it will take something like this, to make some changes in the way either ages are verified, or in the way the age limit is set.
The individual apparatus medals are still to come, in both Men’s, and Women’s Gymnastics. I just hope that the scoring is done fairly, giving credit where credit is due, and deducting where obvious, visible errors occur. Let’s hope the US athletes can up the medal tally!
Michael’s quest continues. He has now tied Mark Spitz with 7 Gold medals in a single Olympics. All but one of them done in World Record time. Total Gold medals: 13.
If you were lucky enough to see tonight’s race, the 100m Butterfly, you were probably on the edge of your seat, just as I was. I honestly thought he was not going to make it, but once again, Michael’s body surpassed that of Milorad Cavic, out-touching him by 0.01 seconds. Um… wow? Yeah. Michael’s fingers just reach for that touchpad, his last stroke put him into position to hit the pad first. And his mother, watching in the stands as always, did not think he did it. She was holding up two fingers, as though to say “Second place”, and once the times were on the board, she just sat there stunned, shaking her head. It was one of the most amazing finishes in Swimming I’ve ever seen. Now, granted, I really don’t watch swimming like I do some of the other sports (until this year, that is), but I’ve watched several races over the decades, and I don’t remember ever being this amazed.
In a really poor move, the Serbian federation filed a written protest to FINA (swimming’s world governing body), contesting the result. How is that for poor sportsmanship? Talk about sour grapes! Good grief. First of all, this isn’t a matter of subjectivity. There are pads on the wall of the pool, tied into electronic timers, and they register who touches first, and they are highly accurate. Second, a representative from the company that makes the timers, and the touchpads, was on hand, and reviewed the data, and the replays, and underwater replays clearly show Phelps’ fingertips touching while Cavic’s were still inches from the wall. There was no question Phelps was the winner, and yet the Serbians were going to dispute such technology? Sorry, no. The FINA officials wouldn’t accept the protest, and rightly so.
Now, in Cavic’s defense, he disagreed with the protest. “If it was up to me, I would just drop the protest,” said Cavic, “I’m stoked with what happened. I don’t want to fight this.” So kudos to him.
Mark Spitz teleconferenced in to speak with Phelps, telling him, “What you did tonight was epic, I never thought you were out of that race. That is a tribute to your greatness. We’re so proud of you. I am happy to keep company with you.” Mighty powerful praise.
And the final test comes tomorrow night, Sunday in Beijing, when Michael participates in the 4×100m Medley Relay. While the US team is favored to win, it is a relay, and there is no controlling it for Phelps. He can only do his part. A false start on the part of any of the others, could disqualify the team, and there goes the 8th, and record-breaking Gold medal for Michael.
Let’s all cross our fingers. This is truly an historic time.
I didn’t doubt it would happen. History was made last night. Michael Phelps won the 200m Butterfly in World Record time, and helped the US team win the 4×200 freestyle relay, earning him the 4th, and 5th Gold medals of the Beijing games, and his 10th, and 11th Golds overall.
Just…. wow. Seriously. Not only is he five for five, but he has won all his races in World Record time. That’s just mind blowing. The team finished the relay in under 7 minutes, something no team has ever done. Mighty impressive.
In his 200m Butterfly race, Michael’s goggles filled with water, making it nearly impossible for him to see, and couldn’t use his vision to judge the turns. He had to rely on his intuition of where the wall was, and in a post-race interview, he admitted being disappointed with his time. “I’m disappointed because I know I can go faster, but there was nothing I could do. I handled it the best way I could.” The instant the race ended, Michael took off his cap, and basically ripped off his goggles and threw them on the pool side, with a disgusted look on his face. After he got out of the pool, he told his coach “I can’t see anything”. Anyone who has gotten chlorine in their eyes, sure knows what that feels like. Ouch.
And yet, doesn’t it just prove that even with his eyes closed, Michael is far faster than anyone else in the world?
The silver medalist, Laszlo Cseh, was .67 seconds behind Michael, which is a pretty close second, especially when Michael is the one in the lead.
When asked about breaking the medal record, Michael said: “I’m almost at a loss for words, to be in the same group with the greatest Olympians who ever lived, to have the most golds in history is unbelievable.”
Still to come: the 200m individual medley Friday; the 100m butterfly Saturday; and the 4×100m medley relay on the final Sunday of the games.
He has his third Gold medal. Michael Phelps won his third race on Tuesday morning, breaking his own world record in the 200 meter freestyle race.
He now has 9 Olympic Gold medals, with five more races to go. It is almost unthinkable that he could lose all five of his remaining races. While the press is marking 9 medals as the career Gold medal record (held by 4 others), if one were to get technical, the record is actually 10 Gold medals, held by Ray Ewry, but because two of his medals were in the Intercalated Games, held in Athens in 1906. While medals were given out, the IOC does not officially recognize them as “Olympic medals”, so his “record” is not seen as the highest career Gold medal count record. Ewry does hold the record for most individual event Gold medals, with his 8 from the Olympics, and Michael could surpass this by winning all five of his individual races in Beijing.
Tonight, Phelps will have two chances to break the career Gold medal record, and continue on the streak of record-breaking wins.
In the mid 1990s, I took a two week trip through Utah, visiting the National Parks, and taking many pictures in the process. One picture that ended up being my favorite, was that of the gorgeous Arch in Arches National Park. The one you see in every travel magazine, every web article about Arches National Park, you know the one.
Today, it is gone.
Wall Arch collapsed sometime late Monday or early Tuesday, a victim of erosion, and gravity. The iconic image is now something the generations of the future will only be able to see in pictures.
Wall Arch, 33 feet tall, and 71 feet across, was discovered in 1948, and was 12th in size among the park’s 2,000 arches. Its collapse is the first loss of a major arch since Landscape Arch fell in 1991.
Michael Phelps. Some say he’s the greatest swimmer, ever. Many say there is a very good chance he will be in the 2012 Olympics. He won 6 Olympic gold medals in Athens (and two bronze), which tied him for the record of most medals at a single Olympic games. He has been World and American Swimmer of the Year so many times, I bet even he has lost count.
The record for Gold medals at a single Olympics is held by Mark Spitz, with 7 (a record that has stood for 36 years), and the record for most lifetime Olympic Gold medals is 9: Larissa Latynina (USSR), Paavo Nurmi (Finland), Mark Spitz (USA), and Carl Lewis (USA).
Michael has two in Beijing, so far. He is scheduled to race a total of 8 races. Qualifying for that many is a huge accomplishment on its own, and he probably could have qualified for 10 races, but to win all 8? That would put his Gold medal total to 14, and make him the single most prolific gold medalist in Olympic history.
Can he do it? Many people thought it wasn’t possible. Many people call him the “Next Mark Spitz”, and to this, Michael says: “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again - I want to be the first Michael Phelps, not the second Mark Spitz”. Spitz himself has gone on record with the press, saying he would enjoy seeing Michael break his record, and he believes Michael has what it takes to make a new record for Gold medals in a single Olympics.
In Athens, his main rival was Ian Thorpe, who has since retired from competitive swimming. Thorpe doesn’t think Michael has what it takes to win 8 Gold medals. Scathingly, Thorpe has said to reporters, “He won’t do it,” he said of Phelps. “Why not? Because of this thing called competition.” Phelps used that quote to make him work harder.
The main area the analysts agreed Phelps could lose that goal was in the 4×100 meter relay, because he would be counting on three others, and it wasn’t all up to him. The U.S. team was the underdog, to be sure, and the favorite, France, had been mouthing off in the days prior to the race, saying they would “smash” the American team. Without that team Gold medal, Michael would not be able to make the goal of 8.
Well, last night was one for the record books. Literally. Smashing not only the Olympic, and World records, the American team fought the whole way, with Michael leading off, in the end, the oldest member of the team, Jason Lezak came from nearly a full body length behind at the final turn, to overtake the French at the last second. Literally. The American team won by a mere .08 seconds. They also “smashed” the records, by nearly 4 full seconds. 3:08.24 is the new record.
What a race. Wow. And that was Michael’s second Gold medal of these games. The analysts are now saying nothing can stop him from getting all 8, and I bet Ian Thorpe just might be eating his words pretty soon.
We will see.
Almost shocking that this is here. It seems I’ve been waiting for this for years. Four, perhaps… I’ve always loved the Olympics. I remember watching Nadia in 1976, and just wishing I could be like her. And, for a while, I guess most little girls in Romania wished the same thing, because they were most certainly the dominant team and athletes for decades. Then, Octavio left coaching, and now, they have a “kinder, gentler” coach, who hugs the girls if they fall, and encourages them even after abysmal failures.
I’m not saying the rough style of Karolyi and Octavio was the right way to coach little girls, but there certainly is no denying, that style of coaching brings about huge sports stars. China still coaches that way. Push push push until the girls cry, then berate them for crying and remind them that they have the weight of their country on their shoulders, and they’d better suck it up and hit every routine.
Sadly, Romania no longer is even a remote contender, either for the team medal, or any of the apparatus medals. Their gymnasts are not as physically fit, they aren’t as mentally focused, and there aren’t as many to pick a team from. Little girls now never saw Nadia compete. They never saw the amazing 1.00 score go up to the utter astonishment of the crowd and the reporters, who didn’t at first know what to make of it.
And now China is the one to be reckoned with. They are in their home country, and although they typically have “choked” (The China Syndrome, the press calls it) in Olympic competition, one has to believe that being on their home soil, will make things different. Although, it is also much more pressure on these children, most of whom, despite their “passports” saying they are 16, are not a day over 14. The government-run newspaper reported He Kexin to be just 14, earlier this year. Now suddenly she has a passport that says she’s 16? Gee… how quickly they grow up.
Are we living in a soap opera? One day, the child is in diapers, the next day, they are graduating from High School. It seems that China has the ability to simply choose the age of their citizens, to fit whatever they want. What bothers me most about this, is that the IOC is simply turning a blind eye, saying that “the passports show these girls are of competitive age”. Well, duh… that is because they are fake. Helloooo?? Why don’t they go look at the birth records for pete’s sake? I mean, anyone who has seen a teenager, is going to know damn well that some of these Chinese girls are nowhere near 16. One of them barely looks 12. And that’s WITH make-up on, which makes girls appear older than they really are.
Tonight, we have the poor US Men’s gymnastics team, trying to eek out a medal, against really, pretty bad odds. Without the Hamm brothers (and what a real shame that was, for them both to have to pull out due to injuries, so very sad) and with athletes who are less than consistent, (sorry Artemov, I know you come from great gymnastics blood, but you’ve let us down so many times we can’t trust you), I’m just not sure they have even a shot at the Bronze medal. The one bright spot is that Raj FINALLY got to go to an Olympics. He was completely robbed 4 years ago, he totally deserved to be selected over 3 other athletes, and wasn’t. Crappy move on part of the selection committee, and again, this year the same thing. But, with Paul Hamm pulling out, Raj, as alternate, was in. This is a great thing.
I will have many more rants over the course of the next two weeks, and comments, and discussions (with myself, since nobody reads this, ) and first up I think I will comment on Michael Phelps.
The Olympics. Four years, which seems both an interminably long time, and so brief it flies. But these Olympics have been in the planning for over 7 years now. That’s a long time, and at least with regards to the opening ceremonies, well worth the wait.
The opening ceremonies were simply… amazing. No words really can properly convey the scope, the work, and the time it must have taken to put them together. The one with the printing press doing all the waves, and the Chinese symbols, was just phenomenal. About halfway through it, I started looking closely, to see exactly how these blocks were being manipulated, if it was hydraulics, or what. About 2/3 of the way through, I was certain, without a doubt, that they were big rectangles, with people inside them who were either crouching, or standing tall, to make the patterns. And sure enough, at the end, the tops popped open and the people stood up and waved. That was truly impressive.
The lighting of the torch was just… amazing. Truly. All the work they did prior to that with the wires, that was amazing as well, but that final run around the entire arena, and the fire rushing up the inside of the tube and around to the torch at the top, just… WOW!
Now, granted I don’t remember the opening ceremony of the Athens games, or any other games for that matter, and I don’t know how long I’ll remember this one (although I do have it recorded), but it sure was something to see!
Well, I realize it has been a while since I updated this, but I guess other things too precedence. Wimbledon this year was… well, I cannot argue that it was an awesome men’s final match, but I am still bummed by the outcome.
The news agencies are of course, making this out to be disaster, the sky is falling, Roger is no longer the “King”, blah blah blah. Honestly, don’t they have any idea what Mono can do to a person? And the match was absolutely up to the last second, it was sheer luck that Rafael won.
Perhaps I wouldn’t be so bitter if I could somehow find a way to actually like Rafael Nadal. As it is, he simply irritates me to no end. He needs a haircut. Badly. His hair always looks greasy and icky, when he could look so much nicer if he’d simply cut it off. And I’m sorry, but he really needs to either get some new trousers or get better underwear, because truly, I am very sick of seeing him pick his butt every single service. Even the networks got embarrassed by it, and have started either showing his opponent while Rafa goes through his interminably long pre-serve silliness, or showing his shoes, or his hair, or something. They don’t want him picking his butt on national TV any more than we want to see it!
Now, to give Rafael credit, yes, he’s a good player. He’s gracious, and seems to have no temperamental issues that are so frequently seen in tennis players. But he’s just… greasy, dirty looking, even in his press conferences when he obviously showered, he just looks gross to me.
And now we move on to the Olympics, where Roger and Rafael are in opposite sides of the draw, so the only way they could meet would be in the finals. Oy.
So, I’m watching Wimbledon, one of my favorite tennis tournaments of the year. And I just have to rant a little bit.
First of all, ladies, seriously, why do you have to scream at every single shot you hit? A few years ago it was just a few annoying girls who did it, and they often got warned by the umpires for it. Now, it seems to be something that’s the “in” thing to do, and everyone does it! It is so annoying. There’s no way that the first serve/point of a match is SO tiring that you need to scream to get up the energy to hit the ball, come on. Yes, I can see in a third set, on a hot day, grunting to get that energy needed, but to scream and grunt at every single point, no matter how much effort you expended? That’s unnecessary and annoying. I swear, I wish someone would shout out “SHUT UP” to Maria sometimes, she is just off the charts with the decibel level. And, I should add, I actually would enjoy watching her, and root for her, if not for her screeching and celebrating when opponents make errors. She’s a good player, but she has absolutely no class.
And players, take a lesson from Federer, would you? Roger doesn’t celebrate when his opponents make unforced errors, and he even applauds them when they make good shots. Maria, there’s absolutely no reason to shout “COME ON!” and pump your fists when your challenger mis-hits into the net, that’s uncalled for, rude, and flat out unsportsmanlike. Get some class, seriously.
I guess there is another “move” to have the clothing rules changed, to allow more “color” to be worn on the courts, but frankly I think this would be a big error. Wimbledon is about class, about dignity, about history, and the one way that it has not changed, is the “all white” rule, I think it should remain.
As for the new “Challenges” system that was put in last year in some of the Grand Slam tournaments, I think I’d have to go with Roger on it, while he uses it at times, he certainly doesn’t take advantage of it just for the sake of stalling or getting time to get his breath back, and that’s certainly what happens towards the end of sets by some players. That’s just wrong. While I like the Hawk Eye tech, and I think it is for the most part accurate, I also think the linesmen are just as accurate, as proven by the challenge success rate over the past year. The linesmen were right the majority of the time. However, from a fans-in-the-stand point, I can see the appeal, sort of like the big-screen instant replay in the football stadiums. So I guess you give a little, you take a little.
So, it is still early. Sad to see James Blake go, but he hadn’t looked on form at all this year, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. Hoping Roger will go on to his 5th consecutive title, that would rock.
You’re living in Poland. The year is 1988. Times are tough. Poland is, of course, a communist country, so you do what you can to scrape by, and provide for your family. The stores are bare, with a minimum of goods, supplies are limited… mostly tea, vinegar… and meat is rationed, so there is no “stockpiling”. This is how you’ve grown up, this is all you’ve known. Communism is a way of life for you.
Then one day… an accident happens.
When you wake up, it is the year 2007. Communism is gone. Poland is a free democracy. People walk around with tiny boxes next to their ears talking to other people… these are called what? “Sell phones?” What are these people selling? Bright colorful shop signs everywhere. Cars like nothing you’ve ever imagined roam the streets. Stores with shelves filled with items you’ve never heard of, all with colorful packaging…
This has to be a dream, right? This isn’t real, is it?
True story. Sad, but also amazingly happy, and gives hope to thousands of people whose loved ones are in comas.
Jan Grzebski grew up in communist Poland. He had an accident in 1988, and has been in a coma ever since. He was not expected to survive for much more than a few years at most. And yet, against all odds, he did. 19 years his wife cared for him, talked to him, played music for him, took him out to family events, even though doctors had told her he would never come out of the coma.
His wife didn’t give up. And evidently neither did Jan, who has vague recollections of places he was taken to, his family speaking to him. (Which, also gives hope that people in comas do hear and perceive.)
Mr. Grzebski now has a rather large family, his four children have all married, and he has 11 grandchildren. What a great wake-up present.
Hope lives.
None
The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones by Henry Jones
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