Day 5 has already started, but there are a few Day 4 storylines to wrap up first.
SWIMMING: Mark Spitz, the U.S. swimmer who earned a record seven golds at the Munich 1972 meet, is peeved that the IOC, NBC-TV and world swimming body FINA all forgot to invite him to Beijing. Basically, he has to buy his way into the Watercube, just like everyone else. Here's a scenario that would fix everything. Anybody who's seen an Olympic medal ceremony knows that past champions often present gold medals. If Michael Phelps wins eight golds, the image of Spitz putting the eighth one around Phelps' neck would be the iconic image of the Olympics. He's in Hong Kong now, so all FINA has to do is call him up and invite him to be a presenter later this week. C'mon, let's get this done.
CANOE/KAYAK: Benjamin Boukpeti is Togo's new national hero... even though he hasn't been there for over two decades. The world's 56th ranked K-1 kayaker stunned the field with a bronze medal performance yesterday. The "stranger", virtually unknown in Togo, lives in France, and lobbied for admission to Togo's team (citing a bloodline on his father's side) when there was no spot available in the French delegation. Frenchman Fabien Lefevre earned silver ahead of Boukpeti by .15 seconds.
BASKETBALL: The best game of the day on the men's slate was the Spain-China battle, which went overtime and featured a giant Spanish burst in the extra session. The 85-75 win featured plenty of subtext, as the Spanish team posed for a "slit-eye" advertisement photo before the Olympics.
ATHLETICS: The world track body IAAF removed the 2:54.20 world record in the men's 4x400m relay, following American Antonio Pettigrew's recent admission under oath to doping. Pettigrew's relay team from Sydney 2000 lost their gold medals two weeks ago. The IOC has taken over doping controls now that the Olympics have started, and is testing a record 4000 athletes over the 16 days. But is it too much? Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell said yesterday that he's given so much blood that it could affect his performance next week.
"I'm almost sure I might be tested again. I don't know about anyone else but they're really doing it in my case and with my team-mates Michael Frater and Usain Bolt," he added. "They're saying they're doing about 4000 tests. It's just very difficult to catch everyone but I hope they can do it and make this Olympics clean."
The AP published a list of all 52 athletes who have been caught cheating with dope ahead of the Games. Greece had 15 cases, Bulgaria 12, and Russia 10.
An Olympic mystery: who is "Second Brother on the Right," the man who ran alongside the torch all over the world and fought off protesters? Even though nobody knows his name, girls think he's "hot." SBOTR is not just a Chinese Jonas brother, he's tapped into the zeitgeist.
Second Brother's popularity has tapped into two cultural under-currents in China -- anger among many that foreign protests, mainly in favour of Tibetan independence, have tarnished their Olympics; and weariness with quickly-manufactured domestic pop and TV stars.
The sport pictograms used by the organizing committee are based on 2,000-year-old bronze carvings. Putting them together was a challenge in a country that had no word for "graphic design" two decades ago. In other Olympic art news, organizers unveiled a 367-foot mural painted by a father-daughter pair called "Ode to the Olympics."
A video look at Omega's Olympic timekeeping, a study in thousandths of seconds.
Are you overwhelmed by the Olympics yet? Dial 12355.
China's Chen Yibing, Huang Xu, Li Xiaopeng, Xiao Qin, Yang Wei and Zou Kai (L-R) jubilate during the awarding ceremony for gymnastics artistic men's team competition of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, August 12, 2008. Photo © Icon SMI.
 |
Sportswriter 
