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Athens 2004
Notebook

What We Liked and Didn't at the Olympics: Notes and Photo Links

By Outsports.com

This is a rolling log, with the most current day on top, so keep on scrolling for some great notes and photos and our Hot Jock Alerts.
 

July 2005 update: We have moved dozens of still-active photo links HERE

   Related: 11 gay and lesbian athletes out in Athens gay jocjockstrap athletes workout gear underwear gay lesbian

NOTES

Day 16 of competition / Aug. 29

We just want to say what a pleasure it has been to present this rolling log for the past 16 days. The feedback has been incredible and we’ve had a terrific time writing it. A huge thanks to all those who contributed and to all of you who read it. We are planning a “best of the log,” along with new photos in a couple of days (but we need to sleep first).

We’ll toot our horn a bit and reprint an e-mail we received Sunday from Dallas:

“Just a note to y'all from a gay man who has been introduced to your Website for the first time because of your Olympic coverage. I'm one of those guys who as a gay little boy was mercilessly belittled about my lack of sports skills in grade school and high school -- to the point that I have had practically no interest in sports (other than for some of the photos!) for all of my adult years -- until now.

“You guys helped me to change that mindset and open up to my Inner Sportsman. I appreciated your intelligent and perceptive take on the various events at the Olympics. Your reports were fun to read too, with a gay twist that had me laughing at times, and a little sad at other times. Anyway, thanks for making my experience of the Olympics not only richer, but in a way kind of life-changing!”

We’ve been saying for a month what huge water polo fans we’ve become after covering a major pre-Olympic meet in Southern California last month, and how much we anticipated the Olympic competition. It lived up to our hype, with the Italian women beating the U.S. in a semifinal thriller, then holding off Greece for the gold.

On the men’s side, pre-tourney favorite Hungary did it again, winning its eighth water polo gold with a dramatic, 8-7 comeback win over Serbia and Montenegro. In the U.S., water polo is a fringe sport, so to put the men’s final into context, think of Hungary as the New York Yankees and Serbia and Montenegro as the Boston Red Sox.

Like the Yankees to baseball, Hungary is water polo royalty. Not only have they won more gold medals than any country, in the past eight years they have been in 11 major international tournaments and won nine. Like the Red Sox, the Serbs have had some success (winning back-to-back golds in 1984-88), but in recent years they have been foils to the Hungarians. In 2004, the teams have met six times, with Hungary winning five. Like those of the Red Sox, Serb fans figure their squad will find some way to lose.

Sunday’s final was emblematic and eerily mirrored Yankee-Red Sox classics, especially last year’s American League Championship Series.

  • S&M led 3-0, and then 7-5 heading into Sunday's final period, raising hopes among their fans. In 2003, the Sox led the Yankees in Game 7 of the ALCS, 5-2, in the eight inning before blowing it.
  •  A key Hungarian goal was scored by Tamas Vargas, a role player who was in the pool less than half the game. In 2003, Aaron Boone, a midseason pickup, hit the series-ending home run for the Yankees.
  • S&M had four power-play chances in the final period and put up goose eggs. One of the chances was on a two-man advantage. In the deciding Game 7 in 2003, the Red Sox left 13 men on base.
  • A move that will live in Serb water polo lore left many shaking their heads, much like Grady Little leaving Pedro Martinez in too long for the Sox. Hungary was clinging to a one-goal lead and Serbia was on a power play with less than 10 seconds left. They got the ball to Alexsander Sapic, the world’s top scorer, and he readied to shoot. 8 … 7 … 6. The crowd was screaming and whistles were coming from all over the stands. Sapic, thinking a referee’s whistle had stopped play, turned and faces the crowd. The clock kept ticking. 5 … 4 … 3. One imagined all of Serbia and Montenegro screaming in unison: “Shoot the #!@&% ball!!” Finally, he let one fly with 2 seconds left, it bounced off the Hungarian goalie’s chest, and once again the Yankees had beaten the Red Sox.

This picture after the match of Serbia and Montenegro's captain Vladimir Vuasinovic says it all. As does this of Hungarian coach Denes Kemeny getting a post-game bath.

Hot jocks alert: Russia's Olympic champion Buvaysa Saytiev in 74-kg wrestling; Cuba's Yandro Miguel Quintana in 60-kg. (Reuters photo)

Our readers speak on the Closing Ceremonies:

“I found the closing ceremonies good, but there were a few too many Greek songs. No doubt these performers were well known in Greece, but did they each have to sing several songs? A couple of them were quite good-looking, though, including Sakis Rouvas. Just wish I could understand what they were singing.) By the end it seemed like half the athletes had abandoned the field. Already looking forward to Beijing in 2008!”

”I thought they were fantastic. It looks like the athletes and audience had a great time. The world gets a chance to enjoy old and modern Greek music. And, yes, Greek music is usually sung in Greek. It's nice to enjoy another country's culture. If you wanted songs with English lyrics, you could have turned to the MTV Music Awards.”

“I love the presentation by Beijing! Who was the guy, the martial-arts dancer in the white? He was incredible! I thought the little girl was adorable even though I don't speak Chinese so I couldn't understand her. The costumes were beautiful too. All I have to say is great job Athens!!!!”

We’ve always maintained that religion and sports don’t mix. Why should God care who wins an athletic event? We had two more examples Sunday in Athens.

By now, everyone has heard about Cornelius Horan, the drunk, seemingly deranged and defrocked Irish priest who ran onto the marathon course and shoved leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil into the crowd. Horan was wearing a sign touting the second coming (“Israel Fulfillment of Prophecy Says the Bible”). This is the same bozo who ran onto a Grand Prix course last year and spent 20 seconds dodging cars going 200 mph. His message then: “Read the Bible — the Bible is always right.”

The second example came in the boxing ring and showed the Eye Of The Tiger has been replaced by someone a little more fearsome. Andre Ward of the U.S. had just won the light-heavyweight title and was being interview by NBC. We wrote down what he said: “I have to give honor and glory to God my personal savior; without him it wouldn't be possible. Rap-a-lot records ... Tiffany baby, my wife and kid back home. I'm bringing home the gold like I said I would.

”It was the strength God gave me. I got thumbed in the eye and I saw a devil. And I never experienced nothing like that before. But I remember what I told god no matter how I win just give me the victory, and he did that."

The Bible? The Devil? What is this, a Mel Gibson movie? We suggest that Ward hire Horan as his ring man when he turns pro; they’ll be unbeatable.

Like everyone, we felt bad for De Lima, the Brazilian marathoner. There is no doubt that the assault had an effect on him. But we disagree with the Brazilians saying he should get a duplicate gold medal. There is simply no way one can say what would have happened had he not been attacked. There were still four miles to go and De Lima’s lead had been slipping. We applaud the IOC for giving him a special sportsmanship award. De Lima should realize that he has the world’s sympathy and pushing too hard for a gold will erode that.

  We love
this item we saw in the London Guardian: The attack on De Lima “ was a reversal of an incident that had taken place here during the inaugural Olympic marathon in 1896 when a runner attacked a spectator.

“On that occasion the race was won by a Greek, Spiridon Louis, but only after he had passed the leader Edwin Flack, a London-based Australian accountant who had earlier won the 800 and 1,500 meters.

“Flack entered the marathon despite never having run further than 10 miles before. He eventually became delirious with dehydration and his companion asked a Greek spectator to help keep him on his feet.

“But Flack was so confused he attacked the spectator and pushed him to the ground before being bundled into a carriage and taken away for treatment by Prince Nicholas of Greece.”

  Before these Olympics, much of the talk revolved around what a disaster they'd be. How disorganized. We heard much of the same from people before the Sydney Gay Games in 2002. Yet, both events came off very well, leaving participants and spectators with far more awe and wonder than anything else. We imagine that, with all the things being said about Montreal's OutGames and Chicago's Gay Games in 2006, they will come off very well and, just as in Athens, all the participants will come out of them smiling.

Holding these games in Athens were meant to bring a sense of history to them. With all the wonderful ties that the organizing committee and NBC made to Olympics of past centuries, mission accomplished.

  Here are a few more blasts from the past for you. Two weeks ago, Michael Phelps was going to break Mark Spitz's record of seven golds; while he missed, he did a damn good job trying. Two weeks ago, the U.S. had the best men's basketball team in the world; now, it's Argentina. Two weeks ago, white men couldn't jump; now, they've swept the Olympic high jump.

  Sunday was the first time we took in any boxing and agree with those who praise the insightful commentary of NBC analyst Teddy Atlas. He is streetwise, funny and candid, all wrapped up in a New York accent.

Here is Atlas’ take on the controversial computerized scoring system used in Olympic boxing: “There’s nothing computerized about it except the wires in it. It is human beings that are pushing the buttons. They came up with a way of still stealing fights and not leave fingerprints. It’s a joke.”

And this gem when Atlas ripped the patronage-heavy U.S.A. boxing federation. “They need to get rid of the people that don’t know a left hook from a fish hook.”

We found ourselves sucked into watching the two overtime periods and dramatic penalty shootout of the Denmark-Korea women’s handball match (yes, we have officially lost our minds). It was awesome; the score was tied 14 times and the teams laid it all out, playing with great style and emotion. After Denmark won, there was an amazing sight of their players rolling on the ground, hugging, kissing, hugging some more, rolling some more, kissing some more. It was a straight guy’s fantasy.

With all of America's adoration of superstars, in sports and entertainment, one of the things we take away from the Olympics most dearly is the heroism of the common man. That guy who has been practicing archery for so very long, with no hope of major endorsement, for the love of the sport. That woman who got back to running 12 miles a day just a week after giving birth so she might some day race in the Olympics. They are the real heroes of these games, and we thank them for enriching our lives, if only for two short weeks.

Day 15 of competition / Aug. 28

Yeah ... competitive walking! Something I practice going through airports, not something I expect to watch at the Olympics. But there I was, in the middle of the night, watching a 50K race walk--an oxymoron if ever I heard of one in my head. But watching the athletes maintain their stiff form under the glare of the rising sun and steaming humidity made me start to pay attention. The commentators did a great job of adding detail along the way with the combination of helicopter, motorcycle, crane and handheld cameras zooming in on the stilted gait, that demanded each racer maintain contact with the ground at all times, their legs having to be raised in a stiff fashion before striking the pavement once again. [To add more poignancy to the proceedings, they told how many of the racers were dedicating their efforts to the memory of Al Heppner, a race walker who took his own life after failing to make the US Olympic team]

As the hours went by, the extreme heat conditions started to take their toll on the competitors. But not Robert Korzeniowski from Poland, the Carl Lewis of race walking. At 36 he was going for his third gold medal in a row, and after more than 3 1/2-hours, with the stadium in sight, his closest competitor, 23 year old Russian  Denis Nizhegorodov, was left increasing in the distant undulating heat. And yet Korzeniowski had to maintain his form with incredible discipline, as one false step could result in instant disqualification, even within sight of the finish line in the stadium. So in he strode, having maintained a faster pace walking than even most competitive runners, smiling broadly, grabbing a Polish flag with his teeth, as if he had just finished his morning constitutional.

In contrast with his fit-as-a-fiddle finish, the cameras turned back to Nizhegorodov, who by now had his head at an extreme tilt in front of his body, a bobble-headed death stare locked onto his ghostly cherubic face, his arms flailing like a broken-winged goose to maintain his balance as he lurched towards the stadium. To the alarm of the commentators, he was haphazardly bumping into the curbs, dazed and depleted beyond belief, yet unwilling to give up before arriving at his destination.

As he made the final curve entering the tunnel, he managed to swing back to see that his nearest competitor was still behind him, before making his excruciating final steps onto the track, past the orange coned landing strip towards the line where he fell face-forward down onto the track with no medical personnel in sight.

But there was yet more drama--the cameras turned back towards the third place competitor, Yu Caohong of China, who was just 100 meters from the stadium tooling along without any apparent difficulty, when out of nowhere, another Russian, Aleksey Voyevodin, blasted past Yu like he was standing still. At the finish line Korzeniowski greeted him and they hugged, then looking on with alarm at Nizhegorodov, still writhing on the track without any medical help, deciding finally to pour some of their water on him.

It was hard to beat the drama, the athleticism, the sheer determination under incredible conditions, the thrill of victory, the agony of a last minute defeat after so many miles.

Sure--it's an event you'll only get a chance to see every four years. Which is a good thing--it'll give me time to get in shape to watch the gut-wrenching spectacle again!  

Brent Mullins

Hot jock alert. Occasionally (editor’s note: Occasionally? How about all the time when it come to rowers?) we have seen an athlete who piques our curiosity and we turn to the official Athens 2004 website to see their bio. One was German canoeist Andreas Dittmer, who won a gold and silver at the Games.

He’s 32. He’s single. He's got a great bod. His hobbies: “Traveling, cross country skiing, theater, musicals, fishing and sailing.” Theater? Musicals? Now, we're not saying he's gay, but one can always hope.

Another vote for hot jock came in for a reader for Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie "He is an absolute DUH-REAM BOAT," the reader said.

Saturday was an awesome day for Argentina, a country that has suffered a tremendous economic collapse the past few years. First, the Argentine men won the soccer gold. A few hours later, the men’s basketball team roared past Italy to win the gold. Two golds on the same day after the country had gone 52 years since it finished first in any Olympic event. 

There is no greater praise in basketball than to be recognized by John Wooden the legendary former UCLA basketball coach. As he watched the U.S. women’s basketball team win its third consecutive gold, the “Wizard of Westwood” told AP’s Steve Wilstein what he thought of their performance. 

''The women play the purest basketball,'' Wooden said from his home in California, his voice strong, his eye for the game still keen at 93. ''Their fundamentals are much more sound. They don't have the athletic ability of the men. They're not as big or as strong and can't jump as high. They play below the rim, not above it. But there's a harmony to their game. It's the way basketball should be played.'' 

Let the inevitable comparisons begin between the way the U.S. women play and the way the men do. It may be comparing apples to oranges in some ways, but it will be a theme hard to totally ignore. 

The U.S.-Lithuania men’s basketball bronze medal game was delayed 49 minutes when the U.S. equipment manager brought the wrong-colored uniforms. As the crowd sat and waited it was cool to see Diana Taurasi and other women’s players race around the court area and mingle with the fans. Taurasi wore a mini-hoop contraption on her head and invited fans to take a shot with what looked like a foam ball.

There was a marvelous race in the men's 5,000 meters, won by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj, who sprinted past Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele down the stretch to win the gold. What made it special was that El Guerrouj had won the 1,500, Bekele the 10,000, so this was a true duel of champions. With the win, the Moroccan became the first man since 1924 to win the 1,500 and 5,000 in the same Games.

Our vote for most sexually suggestive Olympics ad goes to Coke. One of their spots has a woman surfer showing up a man. Later on the beach, he approaches her trying to angle for a date. She grabs a bottle of Coke and opens the cap on his belt buckle as the camera zooms in to his crotch. If a company did the same ad with two guys, there would be howls of protests, but we guess it's OK if it's between a man and a woman.

Baton-passing should be stressed for both the U.S. men's and women's 100-meter relay teams. A botched pass DQed the women on Friday, and two shaky passes doomed the men, who finished .01 behind Great Britain on Saturday. The great Maurice Greene, who ran the anchor leg, almost made up the difference but the passes left him too far behind.

NBC track reporter Bob Neumeier did a great job in asking the four U.S. sprinters what went wrong. They all gave decent answers, then seemed to imply they were satisfied. Meumeier then asked: You can't be happy with the silver? The same guys who a second ago had implied they were, quickly uttered a chorus of "no's" It was the type of obvious followup that reporters often fail to ask.

It's confusing about what constitutes a "sport" these days.  On Friday I was watching two of the controversial ones, and it got me to thinking.

Synchronized swimming?   Wellll...maybe.  But why women only?  Do we have the Sports Illustrated swimsuit-issue factor here?   Was this one added to the Olympic program to  give a welcome visual diversion from all those grim muscular dames in track & field?  If Esther Williams could come back for one press conference, and we could ask her if her thing was sport, what would she say?

Rhythmic gymnastics ... another maybe.  No offense to the talents of the fantastic femmes who compete in this one.  But isn't this the kind of thing you go to the Cirque du Soleil to see?  On the other hand, Olympic medal-winning gymnasts try for jobs at the Cirque and they wash out.  The Cirque performers are fabulous athletes.  They should get platinum diamond-studded medals, because they do things that Olympic gymnasts can only dream of. 

Some sourpusses question why shooting and archery are on the Olympic card.  But they've been there since the start, so tradition is hard to argue with.

I draw the line at poker.  There are reports that poker may be admitted into the Olympics.  The argument  is that poker has more mass participation than many sports already on the program.  Nuh-uh.  Celebrity poker works on Bravo, where filming on an intimate set can give the viewer those peeks at the cards.  We also get to hear the witty repartee among the celebs (we're led to believe it's ad-libbed, not scripted.)  But poker translated into stadium logistics will lose all its entertainment value, not to mention that there's no physical exertion whatever.  Boring.  

Ditto chess, which is also trying for Olympics acceptance. Last year, the IOC recognized chess's international federation, which is the first step.  No.  Please, no. 

And there are major sports that don't want into the Olympics. Hard to blame them.  Aside from the fact that their athletes don't want to put up with the doping scrutiny, they might get lost in the shuffle.  The summer Games are already so  big that it's hard for a spectator to focus on any one event in the way that it truly deserves.  Even the TV watching maxes you out, especially when you stay up nights to watch favorites.  I admit to nodding off during the show-jumping finals. What level of exertion does it demand to be a live spectator trudging around Athens in the heat, to this and that event?  Going to the Games should be declared a sport!

The golf people stay away from the Olympics.  After all, they can have the global media spotlight all to themselves during big tournaments, and they get plenty of chances to play for their countries.  Yet IOC chief Jacques Rogge wants to have golf in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.  Judging by comments I've read, leading players are not thrilled by the idea.

Horse-racing?  It doesn't need the Olympics.  It has its own infrastructure, its own global circuit, its Breeder's Cup World Thoroughbred Championship every October.  It even has its own media networks.  You wanna sit in L.A. and watch horseracing in Australia in the middle of the night?  Turn on HRTV.  Besides, how would the Olympics deal with the gambling part of it?  Big can of worms.

There are sports that should be in the Olympics.  Where is cricket, I ask you?  This most British of sports is also passionately popular in India, Australia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies.  There are 32 nations in the International Cricket Council.  Cricket has been beating on the IOC's door, but the IOC says that cricket doesn't qualify because it must have mass participation in dozens more countries. 

Which leaves me wondering how many dozens of countries have mass participation in rhythmic gymnastics?  

My personal vote for new faces at the summer Games is X sports. Bike stunting and mega-ramp skateboarding and the rest (well, maybe not surfing).  It may take them another Olympiad or two to get there.  But they will bring the young spectators who think track and field is boring, and give the Olympics a new lease on life.   ESPN was a visionary to launch the X Games.  Snowboarding at the winter Olympics was a monster success.

Adding new sports is definitely in the Olympic tradition.  After all,  there were the B.C. days when only sprints were on the card.  Then they added other stuff.  And finally they brought in the big mama of sports ...chariot racing.  That must have been controversial in its day.  Imagine bringing NASCAR to Athens. 

Patricia Nell Warren

 

Day 14 of competition / Aug. 27

For the first time since NBA players were allowed to play, the U.S. will not win the basketball gold medal.  This was guaranteed after the Americans were outplayed from the start by Argentina and lost, 89-81.  

What’s weird is that this has not caused must anguish in the U.S. Almost everybody we know was rooting against the Americans, seeing them as a bunch of overpaid, pampered jocks who stayed on a luxury yacht instead of the Olympic Village. That’s a bit unfair in that the players conducted themselves with class during the tournament; they weren’t Ugly Americans, just ugly on the court. As Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post wrote: “The U.S. team has A-plus determination but only C-plus skills.” 

The reality is that the best players are in the NBA, it’s just that a lot of them play for other countries. Argentine star Manu Gionobli (San Antonio Spurs), China’s Yao Ming (Houston Rockets) and Spain’s Pau Gasol (Memphis Grizzlies) were the biggest reasons their teams advance.  

In contrast, the American team was missing some of the best NBA players, many of them weenies who blamed the threat of terrorism for staying away. Those no-shows deserve more contempt than those who came to Athens, did their best and in the end came up short. After losing only two games in all past Olympics combined, this American team lost three. 

We love watching Ginobli play and watching Ginobli in general. He was the epitome of class in the NBC postgame interview, referring to one key basket of his as a “lucky shot,” and expressing understanding of the frustration felt by Spurs teammate Tim Duncan. We hope he takes home the gold. 

A lot of credit goes to the NBC basketball announcing team of Mike Breen and Doug Collins. They weren’t homers for the U.S. and pointed out often that the officiating throughout the tournament was mediocre for all teams involved. 

Hot jock alert: Our own Brent Mullins has this to say about the following photo of German canoeist Tomasz Wylenzek: The hottest sports picture. Ever. Check it out for yourself. We still like this one from Athens better, and realize many readers think we’re both insane (yeah, but it’s our blog, so there!). 

The most moving moment we saw on TV these Olympics occurred during the medal ceremony for Germany’s gold-medal winning C2, 1,000-meters team (canoeing) of Christian Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek (he of the “hottest sports picture ever, above.) Gille had lost racing partner Thomas Zereska to leukemia this spring, an event that shook the entire German rowing delegation. He wore a black armband in his honor. 

On the stand, as the German national anthem played, Gille looked stoically ahead. But Wylenzek was crying uncontrollably, perhaps in memory of Zereska and perhaps with the realization that he was honored to take his place. We got tears in our eyes watching it. 

Hungary will play Serbia and Montenegro for the men’s water polo gold, a rematch of their world championship game just a month ago in Long Beach, Calif. (see photo). We didn’t see the Serbs beat Greece on Friday, but loved what we saw of the Hungarians beating the Russians in the semis. In a sport filled with rifle-like shots, the Hungarians used finesse on two goals. On one of them, Tamas Kasas (maybe the best player in the world) was facing a defender and the goalie about 5 feet from goal. The goalie was a bit forward in his position, so Kasas, instead of trying to fire one by him, literally tossed a soft, overhand lob that hit the water about 2 feet from the goal and drifted in. It was a thing of beauty.

If it’s not one thing it’s another. Medal-winning New Zealand athletes will not be allowed to bring their victory wreaths back into the country, lest they contain material that could threaten the farming sector.

"Our understanding is that they are made out of olive branches, roses and chrysanthemums -- this is plant material and it is considered to be a biosecurity risk," Agriculture Ministry official Veronica Herrera said. Any athlete who brought a wreath in would see it incinerated. Neighboring Australia has told its athletes  they will have to give up their wreaths for disinfection.

Yellow men can run fast, according to Liu Xiang. All Liu did was win the gold medal in the men’s 110-meter hurdles in a world record-tying 12.91 seconds. He became the first Chinese man to win a gold medal in a track event. 

"Don't think in the old way that Asians are always weaker than European and American runners in the sprint events. My performance showed that yellow-skinned athletes can also outrun black athletes," said Liu. 

Here is how China Daily online reported Liu’s feat: “Chinese fans in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai burst into hysteria and many cried out when the national television station CCTV broadcast the event live, when brave Liu Xiang dashed to the line in arms and legs far ahead of his rivals, in the early hours Saturday morning Beijing time.

The paper also reported “after a bone test showing that he will not be able to become a tall man, Liu [as a child] was asked to give up sports.”  

The Washington Post’s Bill Grant handed out his award for the worst behavior during a completion. His winner: “No coaching rudeness compares with the un-Olympic-spirited antics of a South Korean judo coach, Suh Joung-bok, who was expelled for hitting one of his athletes after she lost a bout. This guy just plain needs help.”  

We think “Suh Joung-bok” is Korean for “Bobby Knight.” 

Bruno Grandi, president of the International Gymnastics Federation sent a letter to American gymnast Paul Hamm, suggesting he give up his Olympic all-around crown to Yang Tae Young of South Korea, saying the world would view the gesture as "the ultimate demonstration of fair play.'' 

Hamm should tell Grandi to do a long vault off a short pier. What gall. FIG judges screwed up the scoring in the first place and are now placing the burden on Hamm. No athlete should be held accountable for a ref’s blown call. FIG could have given both gymnasts a gold medal, but instead they try to make the issue about Hamm. We would feel the same way if the roles were reversed and Yang was being asked to give up the crown. 

U.S. Olympic Committee officials had the right response. "We have reviewed the action of the International Gymnastics Federation and we think it's deplorable," said Peter Ueberroth, U.S.O.C. chairman. "They are deflecting their own incompetence. I don't know of any comparison in any sport where you crown an athlete, crown a team and then say: 'Oh, that was a mistake. Would you fix it for us?' ''

The last we saw of British runner Paula Radcliffe, she was sitting on a curb after dropping out of the marathon (where she was favored). She vowed a better effort in the 10,000 meters. It was more like the same effort, as Radcliffe pulled up 8 ½ laps from the end of the 10,000 meters.  

"My legs just gave way," said Radcliffe. "It is not the same thing as Sunday, my legs were just too beaten up after the marathon.”

British fans were depressed. One, who had paid $135 to scalpers to see the race, told the Scotsman, “Everyone was cheering and clapping her and chanting her name, but as the laps went by and she fell further behind, more people were saying, ’Oh no, it’s going to happen again’. … When she stopped running, I was almost in tears, so imagine what she feels like.” 

Radcliffe's legion of fans back home are still supportive, the Scotsman said. Claire Peet, 31, who has run with Paula for the past 20 years said: “She is world champion, she is Commonwealth champion, and she is the world record holder. If anyone dares call her a loser, they had better strap on some running shoes and give it a go.”

 

Day 13 of competition / Aug. 26

These Olympics are starting to drag. It's been almost two weeks and there are still a couple more days of competition. Even many of the athletes have already left Athens.

Two of those athletes are the Hamm brothers, gymnasts Paul (left) and Morgan. Paul departed Athens with the men's all-around gold. They made a pit stop in New York City on Thursday, and we were there to talk with them. Unfortunately, their PR firm didn't let us. Was it homophobia? Stay tuned for more on this story tomorrow.

Cyd Zeigler Jr.

We’ve heard of Ugly Americans, but this time we had an Ugly Spaniard. Mario Pesquera, the head coach of Spain’s men’s basketball team, totally embarrassed himself after his team lost to the U.S., 102-94, during medal round action.  

Pesquera was upset that U.S. coach Larry Brown called a timeout with 23 seconds left and the U.S. up by 11. Pesquera thought he was being dissed, but Brown was well within his rights to do what was best for his team. Also, under international rules, a team must put in for a timeout ahead of time, which Brown did, when the U.S. was up by eight. By the time the timeout took effect, the lead has grown to 11. 

As the game ended, Pesquera refused to shake Brown’s hand. He did go up to shake the hand of U.S. assistant Roy Williams and had a discussion with assistant Gregg Popovich. But when Brown came over, Pasquera poked his finger at him and kept making the “T” signal with his hand for timeout. They squabbled back and forth for a bit until both men walked away off the court. 

Pasquera wasn’t backing down after the game. ''I had -- and I stress the word 'had' -- a lot of respect for Larry Brown,'' said Pesquera at a news conference. ''Dean Smith would have never done anything like that.'' 

He also complained that the U.S. was given favorable treatment, saying, ''I think this game was played under NBA rules, not [international] rules,'' he said. 

Brown took the high road, saying, “Hopefully I'll learn to handle these situations, which are new to me, a little bit better.'' 

He has nothing to apologize for. Given the way the U.S. has struggled, Brown needed to do everything he could to ensure his team wouldn’t blow the lead. Pasquera, we think, is most upset that his previously unbeaten team was given a bad draw by having to face the U.S., a much better team than their 3-2 mark would indicate. He was also outcoached by Brown, but he'd rather blame everyone but himself. What is Spanish for "jackass?" (A helpful reader adds: Literally "burro", but the tone that you're looking for might better be expressed by "maldito" or "hijo de puta.")

Hot Jock Alert: We were fast-forwarding through early-morning coverage when we came across the 211-pound class of Greco-Roman wrestling. We were stopped by the sight of Egyptian Karam Gaber. The 6-footer has an "impressive, lean-muscled physique, incredible speed and agility (especially for a big man), and exciting, high-amplitude throws."

Those glowing terms aren't from us, but are on his personal Website; he was savvy enough to have it updated shortly after he won the gold medal, Egypt's first in any sport since 1948. He certainly is a showman, as described by the Sydney Morning Herald: "He flashed a V for victory sign, shook hands with each of the judges, wrestled his coach to the ground and was carried off shoulder high by another member of the Egyptian delegation."

Gaber, 25, is a better-looking and better-built Vin Diesel. He totally dominated his opponents, making them look like practice dummies. Afterwards, he had enough energy left to perform two full backflips. Word has it that he might join the U.S. pro wrestling circuit, though he said he hadn't decided. His flamboyant personality and his skills may make him a star. We also know he's single and owns a company that manufactures ladies underwear--perfect for pro wrestling.

Please, enough already of U.S. track athletes “thanking God” after they win a medal. Does God really care enough that he/she/whoever  caused an athlete from another country to trip over a hurdle, thereby ensuring an American win? Wearing one’s religion on one’s sleeve and claiming “no respect” are the two more wearisome cliches in sports. 

The U.S. women’s soccer team went out with a bang, winning a 3-2 overtime thriller against Brazil. It was the last game as a group for five American players who put the women’s game on the map during the past dozen years: Mia Hamm, Joy Fawcett, Julie Foudy, Kristine Lilly and Brandi Chastain (who famously stripped to her sports bra during a World Cup win a few years ago). The winning goal was scored by  Abby Wambach

By all accounts, the Brazilians outplayed the U.S. except on the scoreboard. As Mike Penner of the Los Angeles Times wrote: On this night, Brazil was stronger, faster, younger, better on the ball, more creative, more explosive, more of everything ... except those two final numbers on the scoreboard.  

Brazil’s coach Rene Simoes was philosophical.

”(Soccer) is the No. 1 sport in the world,” Simoes said. ”And I think one of the reasons for that is what happened here today. The better team did not win.

“So if you are a fan of one team that is not the best, you are (encouraged) to go to the stadium to cheer for your team when they play against a better team, a more famous team, a more strong team, because your team has a chance to win the game.

”That is fascinating. That is what makes (soccer) so loved.“  

So we think those judging controversies are the shame of the Games?  The ancient Games had their uproars too.  The worst one happened right during the competition in 364 B.C.  Two neighboring towns, Elis and Pisa, quarreled over which of them should control the Sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia.  The fighting involved thousands of people.  Greek historian Xenophon tells us:

"The horse race had been completed, as well as the events of the pentathlon which were held in the
dromos. The finalists of the pentathlon who had qualified for the wrestling event were competing in the space between the dromos and the altar... The attacking Eleans pursued the allied enemy ... The allied forces fought from the roofs of the porticos ... while the Eleans defended themselves from ground level."

Elis won, but the results of the entire Games were thrown into dispute because the Sanctuary had changed hands during the fight.

Wow.  And we think the fight over Paul Hamm's gold medal is pretty epic.

Patricia Nell Warren

It was pretty neat watching the chat session with NBC's Bob Costas and five of the women from the U.S. soccer team. As Costas said, many of these women were some of the pioneering "Title IX" women--and now examples to girls everywhere of what you can do if you put your mind to it.

The U.S. uniforms are uniformly awful in every sport.  Who the hell was the outfitter--Sportmart Outlet??  The women’s soccer players looked short and squat--when they're anything but--with bad colors.  In Athens, small countries operating on hand-me-downs have more attractive outfits. Even Marcello, the Brazilian beach volleyball cheerleader, had a better outfit than the Americans.

Brent Mullins

Kudos to NBC for showing the men’s triathlon, live and in its entirety. Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty of New Zealand finished 1-2. The visuals, especially the overhead of the swimming, were excellent, but the coverage lacked any quick profiles or voiceovers that could have been notched in the corner of the screen. For example, they kept referring to what a great Olympic spirit Aussie Greg Bennett had, but it would have been much better if they had tape of him talking about it while he was running. 

Bennett showed he had no hard feelings after finishing fourth behind the two Kiwis and Swiss Sven Riederer.  "We're inviting Hamish and Bevan,"  to his wedding, he said.

  The NBC crew made a point of showing one triathlete’s butt after he skidded off of his bike. His singlet had holes in the seat of the pants and we were shown an extended closeup. Also, some triathletes wore a singlet and others were bare-midriff.  “You have to wonder who likes Britney and who doesn't?” our Brent Mullins said.

  From AP: Britain's Marc Jenkins was last to finish in the triathlon, but he earned some of the loudest cheers of the day. He refused to drop out after a mechanical problem with his bicycle, and he carried and rolled the bike up a steep hill until he finally found help.

It was hard not to perk up when listening to the commentary during Greco-Roman wrestling, with constant references to "submissive/dominant positions."  It seems that within wrestling, they don't have as much of a problem with language and appearances as more well-known sports.  Can you imagine if they referred to centers in the NFL as in the "submissive" position?

Brent Mullins

Don’t play lawn darts with American javelin thrower Breaux Greer—he might be dangerous.  “I want to throw 200 meters (656 feet),” he joked after the qualifying round Thursday. “I want to hit somebody in the crowd.”

One of the most impressive performances of the Olympics came from China's Guo Jingjing in the 3-meter springboard final. She was nearly flawless for two or three turns, making us wonder what someone might have to do to get a 10 from the judges.

 

Day 12 of competition / Aug. 25

We’ve become huge fans of water polo and the men’s Final Four feature two great matchups. Serbia and Montenegro, which beat Spain on Wednesday, faces host Greece. In Friday’s second semifinal, favorite Hungary plays Russia in what will be a grudge match. The Hungarians are still pissed at being invaded by the Soviet Union in 1956. As we’ve said before, we became water polo converts after covering the world championships in July. These guys are amazing athletes, and also look great in Speedos. Our pre-tournament pick of Hungary over Greece for the gold is still alive. (Photos of Serbia and Montenegro players taken in Long Beach, Calif., in July by Brent Mullins. Click for larger view)

Got this from a reader: “Wow, did you see that kiss after the two Russian girls found out they had won gold in the duet synchronized swimming! That was no teammate kiss. Spontaneous, long, deep and hard right on the lips, right there on national TV. I would rate it a 10.0 for artistic and technical merit!” Maybe so, but we know Russians (one of us used to date one) and they do love to lock lips, even with friends.

Same-sex kissing is considered OK in Europe, if not in the U.S., as a gesture that has nothing to do with being gay. We saw that during the U.S. vs. Greece men's volleyball game. After a U.S. player made a great point, he was mobbed by his teammates, who patted him on the shoulder or embraced him, except for an recent Albania immigrant player who kissed him on the cheek. And we saw a Greek player kiss the ball before a serve.

Hot jock alert: U.S. runner Shawn Crawford. NBC interviewed his shirtless and has a perfectly sculpted body.

  It’s one of the oldest debates in sports: Should an athlete have sex before a competition? The Greek newspaper Ta Nea sought out answers and came up some conclusions: German physicians and Russian psychologists are in favor of sexual relations prior to a big sports event, but Israeli experts only approve of sex in the case of women athletes.

"If the athlete is conditioned by social or religious factors, the influence of sex is negative. But it has not been proved scientifically that sex before competing has a negative effect," said Tassos Stalikas, a Greek sports psychologist.

Bill O'Reilly is whining again. Tuesday night on his show, he beefed about how other countries provide state support for their Olympic athletes ... and this helps them get medals. Whereas the U.S. government doesn't do that kind of official funding, so (he says) our poor athletes are on their own.

Gosh, I thought the U.S. was doing OK on medals. As of today, we have 76, which is more than anybody else on the planet. The Chinese, who provide state support to their team, are runners-up with only 54 medals. Does Bill want the U.S. to get ALL the medals? Not a crumb left for other countries? Even the Iraqi soccer team?? And Mongolia, which got one medal (bronze) so far?

And O'Reilly is wrong to imply that our athletes are without resources. Maybe the U.S. government doesn't support them -- but U.S. big business does, big time. Like everything else in American life, our Olympic sports are becoming heavily "privatized." They benefit from millions of dollars, whether from the dozens of corporations who are suppliers to the USOC, or the private patrons of the U.S. Olympic Training Center and other facilities where athletes train, or pro sports that send athletes to the Games. In other words, comparing the U.S. to other countries is like comparing apples and oranges.

Patricia Nell Warren

The U.S. men’s indoor volleyball team made a comeback for the ages against Greece. Down 2 sets to 1 and 20-12 in the fourth set, the Americans rallied to win 25-20, 22-25, 25-27, 25-23, 17-15, to advance to the semifinals.

``I'm not going to lie and say I thought we had a chance to come back,'' Lloy Ball said, ``because I didn't.'' Said U.S. teammate Ryan Millar, “I not only have I never played in anything like this before, but I have never seen anything like it. You are down, 20-12, in a deciding set, you are dead. The word incredible doesn’t even work. More like impossible.”

What’s Greek for sore loser? Greece's captain, Marios Gkiouradas, didn't take the volleyball defeat well, AP reported. He angrily grabbed the net and motioned that an American blocker touched it on the final point -- before sprinting over to complain to one of the officials.

A few minutes later, Gkiourdas gestured and screamed at some local reporters for being too critical of him and not supporting the team enough. ``What on earth can I say?'' Gkiourdas said. ``Somehow, somewhere, the team started to give up and it went downhill.''

The "show tunes" of dressage is the freestyle finals, that set the horses dancing to music. The required elements of the dressage test can be choreographed in a way that shows off an individual horse's talents. Bravo broadcast the finals live, and got in the spirit of things with the song "Boogie Shoes."

Three of the four U.S. dressage riders -- Debbie McDonald and the two out gay men, Robert Dover and Guenter Seidel -- made it into the top 15 who comprise a Grand Prix final. Britain's openly gay rider, Carl Hester, also made it to the finals. Finals start with the lowest-scoring pairs from the semifinals, and work their way up -- which does give a psychological advantage to the highest scorers. Yesterday morning, barring interventions by the gods and goddesses, It became pretty clear that only the highest-scoring of the U.S. three -- McDonald -- had a shot at a medal. Her combined score, up to then, had her standing fourth.

The winds were still gusting, making some of the horses spook. When Dover first entered the arena, Kennedy seemed tense, but finally relaxed into his boogie shoes. The pair shot briefly to first, with a a combined final score of 74.713%. But as the higher-scoring riders logged their final scores, Dover was pushed down to sixth.

Afterwards Dover said: "My horse became a bit nervous in the beginning, because something bothered him at the back of the stadium. Then he lost concentration for a while. It is a pity because we could have had an 80% today. The way he moved was like he was flying."

I have to admit -- I rooted for McDonald too. It's her first Olympics. She got her Brentina as a young filly of 3, so she worked hard to develop Brentina into America's top-ranking Grand Prix horse. Personally, I thought that she and Brentina outboogied the Spanish pair,
Beatriz Ferrer-Salat and Beauvalais, who made more mistakes. For a few minutes there, it looked like the door was open for McDonald to nab the bronze, since only two more riders were left to go. But the judges saw it otherwise, and gave third to Ferrer-Salat.

After that, the fight for gold was between the two top-scorers from the previous round – Anky Van Grunsven and her Salinero (Netherlands), and Ulla Salzgeber and her Rusty (Germany). Salinero was brilliant, and provoked a wild ovation from the large crowd. Rusty went a tad less brilliantly, with a couple of mistakes. So Salinero won the gold with a combined winning score of 79.253%.

Medals or no medals, it's a tremendous achievement to finish in the top 10 in Olympic dressage. McDonald did that. So did our Dover. I was also proud for Seidel and Hester, whose final placings were 14th and 13th respectively. Each horse is a uniquely wonderful personality and athletic talent. Each of the riders invests tremendous hard work and passion -- some of them for decades, knowing that their faces won't be on a Wheaties box when the Games are over.

Patricia Nell Warren

Gal Fridman did something that no Israeli athlete had in that country’s 56-year Olympic history—win a gold medal. Fridman--who looks like a younger Jerry Seinfeld.  won his medal in windsurfing, an event we don’t believe was held at the ancient Games. "It's a dream come true, it’s unbelievable that I've become the first Israeli to win a gold medal," Fridman, 28, told a news conference. "I felt like the whole country was watching me and pushing me from behind."

"For us, for the people who live in Israel, this warms your heart," Gilad Mulyan, one of three Israelis among 250 on a boat who watched Fridman win the Mistral race, told the New York Times. "When Gal won, he came over to us and said, 'Hi.' The Greeks around us on the boat, they were all clapping and cheering for him, yelling, 'Go, Gal.' Everyone was together in celebration. It was a very special moment."

The U.S. isn’t the only place where winning athletes stand to cash in on their title. Israeli marketing experts say Fridman’s windsurfing gold will be worth a lot to him in advertising. "If Fridman has a clever lawyer, he will understand that his value will be very high next week, but it will drop as time goes by," the CEO of a major ad firm told the Haaretz newspaper. "The advertiser who features Fridman in his campaign will want to harness the deep emotions that many citizens feel about Fridman and what he represents, but he will want to strike the iron while its still hot.”

 

Day 11 of competition / Aug. 24

Tears. Hugs. Kisses. Were we watching the Olympics or Oprah? It was hard to tell on Tuesday, as emotion—both happy and sad—dominated the day. 

The track competition featured two top athletes who cried their eyes out for different reasons. In the men’s 1,500 meters, Morocco’s Hicham el Guerrouj had won every significant title in his event expect for one: Olympic gold. But he added that on Tuesday with a terrific home stretch run against Bernard Lagat of Kenya, the kind of race that makes Olympic track so compelling. 

After he won, Guerrouj collapsed on the track in exhaustion and joy, a far different feeling than four years ago when he won silver and felt he let his country down. He then started to sob uncontrollably. "Four years ago, I cried tears of sadness; today I cry tears of joy," Guerrouj said. 

Guerrouj was given a run for his money in the race for Kleenex gold  by Canada’s Perdita Felicien, the favorite in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Felicien approached the first hurdle and for some reason came up short. She clipped the top and went stumbling into the next lane, her hurdle taking out Irina Shevchenko of Russia. 

A horrified Felicien buried her head in her hands as she leaned back against the hurdle and started crying. An equally horrified Shevchenko realized her chance of a medal was sent sprawling by the clumsy Canadian. Felicien said, "I'm going to go home and bawl my eyes out." Hope she also apologizes to Shevchenko. 

Emotion wasn’t limited to the track. Americans Misty May and Kerri Walsh were dominant in winning the beach volleyball gold medal against Brazilians Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar. May and Walsh did not lose a game in any of their matches. 

After it was over, May and Walsh embraced each other on the sand, looking like a couple of Northampton, Mass., newlyweds on their honeymoon.  

Some are the best at what they do.  Some are the nicest at what they do.

That's why they have a Miss USA, and a Miss Congeniality.  It's truly rare to have them combined, and when it's comes to the #1 player in the world in beach volleyball, you've got them both in one person:  Walsh (right) teamed up with May, rated by most to be the #2 player in the world.

But you wouldn't know that when talking to the gold-medal winning MVP of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.  "She worked her butt off and showed the world how absolutely fabulous she is.  She's the best player in the world" Walsh said of May, her partner in winning 90 straight matches in the last year.

In watching Walsh on the court, she is disciplined, fierce and incredibly competitive.  She wants to win every point, and will do what it takes to win.  But she doesn't throw tantrums, she's generous to other players, and doesn't strut or give attitude despite being Queen of the Beach. 

Off the court, she is always friendly and unaffected with fans, humble and encouraging with other players, supportive of their achievements and empathetic with their failings. 

Now Walsh has a gold medal to go with her well-deserved golden halo.

Brent Mullins

Holly McPeak (photo, left) has won more career victories, tournaments and prize money than any woman in beach volleyball history.  Her previous partner was Misty May in the 2000 Olympics, where they finished 5th.  With the shortening of the beach court, blocking became more important, so she teamed up with the taller Elaine Youngs, resulting in more victories and a bronze medal, losing to Walsh/May in the semifinals.

Brent Mullins
Walsh, McPeak and Youngs photos by Brent Mullns

Hot jock alert: By popular acclaim from the Outsports message board, this honor goes to decathlon champion Roman Sebrle of Czech. How can you not like a guy who will pose literally butt naked. Said one poster: “Photos of Serble do not do his hottness justice.” Said another: “My God, that man is sexy.” 

One also can’t ignore the other two decathlon medalists, Bryan Clay of the U.S. (silver) and Kazakhstan’s Dimitry Karpov (bronze). Clay is of mixed ethnicity and stands about 5-10 and weighs 175. Karpov is 6-5, 185 with a skin color that is best described as translucent. They are all incredible athletes. 

Hot commentator alert: NBC News’ Richard Engel may have impressed us more Tuesday than any athlete. He is an excellent reporter who has excelled in covering Iraq, both before, during and after the war. On Tuesday, he was assigned to report on the Iraq men’s soccer match. Engel interviewed a player after the match (an Iraqi loss) and spoke to him in Arabic, then translated his answers back. It was impressive, considering many Western reporters and diplomats in Iraq can’t speak a lick of Arabic.

The U.S. women’s water polo team collapsed at the worst possible time, losing in the semifinals to Italy, 6-5, when Manuela Zanchi of Italy got a shot past Jacqueline Frank for the winning goal with only 2 seconds remaining. The Americans built a 4-2 lead, then rallied to tie the game at 5. It appeared headed to extra time when the Italians inexplicably scored.  

We loved this column in the Toronto Globe and Mail by Margaret Wente on the real reason people watch the Olympics: 

“Not everybody minds that the pure spirit of the Olympics has been diluted by the addition of women and all kinds of silly pseudo-sports. My husband, for example, rather likes it. He is an avid student of women's beach volleyball, which he thinks is a noble addition to the Games. He also loves the Amazons who run around the track. He adores the female wrestlers … Speaking for myself, I don't know beans about the men's backstroke or the fly, but I appreciate the broad shoulders and narrow hips of the swimmers and the gymnasts in their itty-bitty skin-tight suits. My husband swears that half of them are gay, but I think he's just being mean. …

“The real reason we watch the Olympics is to ogle the superbly formed young men and women as they slap their perfectly muscled young thighs and flex their rippling young biceps. Who cares who wins the medals? Not us. The whole point of the Olympics is to celebrate youth and beauty, eroticism and sex. The Greeks knew this. That's why they performed nude.”

Those many rows of seats continue to be empty because the threat of terrorism frightened tourists away, right?  Wrong.  There are several reasons for the empty seats, and terrorism is probably the least of them.  The new venues are extra-large, looking to a future that will hopefully bring more sports tourism to Greece.  This gave the organizers an extra challenge to fill seats.   Over the weekend, attendance did improve -- but only up to 78 percent for the popular events like track and field, beach volleyball and weightlifting.

But the biggest reason for empty seats is the average Greek can't afford the ticket prices!  There are 1.9 million unsold tickets, and the biggest immediate source for spectators is the Greek people.  With its suburbs, Athens has a population of 3.5 million.  But Greece is a poor country.  Some events cost $300, with most tickets ranging from $12 to $36.  Even the cheap seats are beyond the reach of most people.

Greeks have openly expressed their alienation from these Games, but you'll hear these comments only in the indie media, because the major U.S. media have ignored them. Tonight I was watching "Road to Athens" on WorldLink TV.  The producers interviewed a lot of Greeks -- taxi drivers, shopkeepers, etc.  Over and over, people said, "We're glad the Games have come home to Greece.  But the Olympics are for rich people, not for us."

As the Games draw to a close, the organizers have nothing to lose, so they should slash prices.   Paper the house if they have to.  Anything to get Athenians in the door, so they can feel a profound personal connection in these Games that supposedly reflect so much national history and pride.  But the organizers say they have no plans to discount tickets.  Shame on them!

Patricia Nell Warren

The ancient chronicles tell us how the gods and goddesses can make the winds come and go. During the games that Achilles organized for his lover Patroclus, the funeral pyre wouldn't burn until the deities sent wind to fan the fire.   Every part of the world has its seasonal winds -- the sirocco, the mistral, the foehn, the santa anas.  In Greece it's the meltemia, and it comes in August.

Now the divine Olympians have sent the winds to make things more interesting for the human Olympians.  We've watched the tennis and baseball players fighting the meltemia.  Javelin throwers and shooters have to calculate windage.  Rowers and kayakers and sailors were prepared to bail out. 

And wind will be the wild card in the dressage finals.  Horses are very sensitive to the changes in ionization produced by wind -- they get nervous and frisky. Medals will go to the riders best able to keep their horses quiet. 

Patricia Nell Warren

 

Day 10 of competition / Aug. 23

Scenario #1: It’s a football game and a running back goes 75 yards for the touchdown. But he is only awarded 5 points instead of 6 based on “technical merit.” 

Scenario #2: It’s a football game and a running back goes 75 yards but is tackled on the 1 as time runs out. The crowd goes nuts, booing wildly. The referees huddle, then change the spot and award the touchdown. 

The above is basically what happened Monday night during the men’s gymnastics high bar, and showed why ultimately the sport is lame. You have incredible athletes performing incredible feats, yet it all comes down to the addled brain of some judge who must have been watching “Pimp My Ride” instead of the competition. 

The great Russian Sexy Alexei" Nemov performed what to us looked like an amazing routine. NBC’s announcers called it brilliant. The crowd oohed and ahhed and went crazy over the routine. The judges then award Nemov the lowest score of the competitors to date, basically because he slightly stumbled on his landing.  

The jeering (European audiences whistle and jeer, not boo) went on for 10 minutes, an amazing sight, the crowd pointing thumbs down and chanting. The cameras caught the head judge conferring with the other judges, basically trying to figure a way out. All the time the NBC announcing crew was heaping scorn on the scoring. 

Finally, the score was adjusted, but Nemov still was basically out of medal contention. The gold went to an excellent effort by Italy’s Igor Cassina, who beat out Paul Hamm on a tiebreaker. The Washington Post quoted a Russian reporter who said Nemov thought favoritism was at work. "He says that everything was decided before," the reporter quoted Nemov as saying. 

It did seem that Nemov was royally screwed by the judges, yet if they are the experts why let a crowd change the score? The head of international gymnastics would not comment. And their changes still didn’t seem to reflect Nemov’s brilliance and was made more baffling when Hamm was given a higher score for a routine that was nothing special. The whole thing is a mess. Bring on track, where we all know who won (at least until the post-match drug test). 

Say goodbye to the medal chances of the U.S. men’s water polo team. They were blown out, 9-4, by a tough Serbian and Montenegro team and will miss the medal round. The Americans played their best game against Hungary, losing 7-5 in a match they could have won. Since then they looked flat against Russia and overmatched against the Serbs. (U.S. team, photo shot in Long Beach, Calif., last month by Brent Mullins / Outsports. Click for larger view).

Hot Jock Alert: Igor Cassina, the high bar winner, looked amazing. As they played the Italian national anthem, he closed his eyes to keep from crying (it appeared) when the crowd started singing along. His effort on the high bar was wonderful and took some of the sting away from what had been a controversial night. 

Eminem won the men’s 400 meters on Monday night, leading an American sweep. Baylor’s Jeremy Warnier (he of the earring and shades) got the gold and there was no escaping a simple fact: he’s white. It was mentioned in dozens of articles about Warnier, and how he became the first white guy to win the race since 1964. 

It wasn’t just the press who noticed Warnier’s race. "I've never seen a white man run that fast," said Grenada's Alleyne Francique, who finished fourth. "It was a blazing race, man. The kid is good." 

Warnier would have none of the racial talk. "It's your ability that makes you - not what race, ethnicity, gender, whatever," Wariner said. "It's your ability and how you use it." Said silver medalist Otis Harris: "Race has nothing to do with it. I'm so glad when people take down stereotypes, that's one of the most important things in athletics and our attitude in our country, and that's what Jeremy's doing." 

It’s still sad that we continue to talk about race in sports, when it’s more about opportunity and attitude. Tiger Woods didn’t let his “race” stop him from crashing what had been an overwhelmingly white sport. One no longer hears that blacks can’t play quarterback. 

Attitude is also prevalent. We’ve heard NBA players praise white Europeans who come into the league for having none of the baggage that American-born whites often have. The Europeans simply don’t believe that “white men can’t jump.”

"Everybody seems to think there is a genetic superiority," Wariner’s coach Clyde Hart said recently when asked about the drought of white sprinters, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. "I'm just saying that in my opinion that's not true. The kids just aren't out there competing. I think a lot of white youngsters are discouraged. Somebody is telling them it's a black sport. It's not. It's a sport for anybody - black, white, red, Chinese."

The standing ovation for Greek weightlifter Pyrros Dimas, as he mounted the podium to claim a bronze medal, gives us something to think about.   It went on and on for many minutes, as the Greeks paid tribute to an athlete who became a legend in his sport and will retire after the Athens Games.  The gold and silver medalists had to wait for the uproar to run its course.

Sometimes even an athlete will behave as if gold bling is all that matters.  As if getting "only" a silver or bronze is a shame ...and getting edged out of the medals is the end of the world. By that standard Dimas finished his career with "only a bronze."  It's sad to see Russia's
Svetlana Khorkina throw her hissy-fit about getting silver instead of gold in women's all-around gymnastics -- there doesn't seem to be much support for her contention that the judges "cheated" her, and she puts a shadow onto the close of her own career.

Many GLBT sports fans get sucked into this obsession with gold medals.  We value the efforts of our out athletes only by whether they result in special achievements like Greg Louganis' run of golds.

Some out lesbians saw their hopes dashed in Athens.  Germany's Imke Duplitzer has been German and European champion, as well as world military champion, in women's saber.  She was beaten out in quarterfinals.  But that doesn't change the fact that she is a brilliant athlete.

There are those who might feel that Amelie Mauresmo won "just a silver" in women's singles tennis in Athens.  Or that Dutch swimmer Johan Kenkhuis "only" won silver in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay. Or that Martina Navratilova somehow let us gay folk down because the U.S. women's doubles team finished out of the tennis medals.  Corporate pressures, with gold medalists getting the endorsements and the job offers, and all other medalists being more or less ignored  --  are a regrettable influence here.

But it's important to respect the huge effort that it takes to get to the Olympics, and the overall contribution that top athletes make, that can't be counted just in bling.  Today the U.S.'s out riders Guenter Seidel and Robert Dover turned in good performances in the Grand Prix Special phase of the individual dressage medals, though the wind was making horses edgy. The finals are on the 25th.  Meanwhile Robert Dover had it right when he said simply, "My parents saw me doing a good job." 

Patricia Nell Warren

NBC’s annoying Jimmy Roberts did a feature on rivalries in the Olympics. What an awful segment! We never actually heard any current Olympic athlete talk about his/her biggest rival, or fans from other countries saying something like, "I root for France and whoever plays Germany." It was a waste of five minutes.

Opposing view: Yesterday we ripped NBC for showing the entire Japan-China softball game, saying it was deadly dull and a waste of air time. To our surprise, prolific Outsports poster Joe in Philly actually liked the game. “I have to tell you that late Saturday night while I was continuing my project of loading my iPod with songs from my CDs, I had the Japan-China softball game on in the background and found myself surprisingly interested. I ended up turning off the PC and watching the final couple of innings. … It wasn't bad, considering that it's not Major League Baseball and no hot guys were involved.”

The U.S. women's gold medal softball win had all the suspense of a Soviet election.

 

Day 9 of competition / Aug. 22

The Olympics have lost a tad of their luster now that the swimming competition is over. The events were all well contest with many countries having excellent swimmers. The U.S. won the most medals, but does not totally dominate the sport like it used to. 

We became even more interested this year after covering the Janet Evans Invitational in Long Beach, Calif. (click on these terrific images by Brent Mullins for a larger view. The swimmer at the left is Ryk Neethling, a gold medalist from South Africa). The athletes, most of them world class, were nonetheless polite and accessible. We had the same experience in covering the men’s world water polo finals, and have become huge fans of the sport. 

In Athens, the swimming featured some amazing individual and relay races. Our personal favorites were the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay, won by South Africa, and the 4x200 freestyle relay won by the U.S. 

Hot jocks alert: It was an awesome scene watching the men’s four without coxswain r