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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 rowing event, won by Denmark. After the race, the second Danish rower climbed to the back of the boat to greet the fourth rower. No. 4 pulled No. 2 down by his head and kissed the top of it. No. 2 then hugged him and returned the kiss on No. 4’s cheek. It was hot and endearing at the same time.  

We talked to a former rowing Olympian after the U.S. men’s eights team won gold. Turns out he had a role in picking the coach for the team. At one point, the rowing powers that be had decided the coach needed to go, but our friend demanded they stuck with him. Good decision.

There has been a lot of talk of history surrounding these Olympics in Athens. From the - shot put event harkening back to the ancient games to the events surrounding the stadium that was the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896, all the way up to these games which have been checkered with world record, history has pervading seemingly every sport. But none more so than the women’s marathon.

We have been amazed in the last couple days, talking to friends and readers, to find that a lot of people don’t realize the history of the marathon. In 490 B.C., according to Greek legend, a man named Philippides ran from the Greek town of Marathon to Athens to tell the Athenians of a military victory over the Persians. That trek ran 26 miles and, upon delivering the news, Philippides collapsed dead. The 1896 Olympics decided to commemorate the run with a race from Marathon to Athens that drew 25 participants. “And now you know … the rest of the story.”

Watching the women’s marathon (or, rather, the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes) we were overwhelmed with the amazing feat these people accomplish. It almost seems their gold medal should be bigger than some other athletes. To run 26 miles in under 2 1/2 hours (that’s 26 straight miles averaging under six-minute miles) takes years of incredible dedication and personal physical torture.

American Deena Kastor gave us a great moment as she ran to a bronze medal in the women’s marathon. Realizing she was going to medal, Kastor was sobbing as she finished the final lap. She said later that going through her mind were all the people who helped her and all the hard work it took to get to that spot. She is the first American women’s marathon medalist in 20 years. The worst commentator award for NBC’s Athens crew goes to Nancy Newman. In an interview with Kastor before the race, she bumbled and stumbled through the questioning, asking bad questions to begin with. It gives great hope to everyone else hoping to become a TV sports commentator.

The favorite in the marathon, Paula Radcliffe, had a much different experience. As she faded to fourth, she simply stopped and quit with 3 ½ miles to go. She tried to start again, then sat on the curb and burst into tears. It’s unclear why she dropped out, but she was too distraught to speak afterwards. A huge crowd of Brits at the stadium sat stunned as they saw her drop out on the giant TV screen. Said ex-running star Steve Cram to the BBC: “I feel so sorry for Paula Radcliffe but she must have been in absolute turmoil when she made the difficult decision to pull out of the marathon.” 

Some out lesbians at the Games have seen their hopes dashed.  Like Germany's Imke Duplitzer in women's saber.  he had been German and European champion, as well as world military champion, and consistently high in world rankings.  But Duplitzer was beaten 15-14 in quarterfinals by Maureen Nisima of France.

Amelie Mauresmo came to Athens with high hopes too.  She told the press, "I’m feeling good about everything.  There’s such pride in being at the Olympics, it's a more emotional tournament than any other event I play."   As she played another lesbian player Spain's Conchita Martinez, her backhands were so spectacular that the usually quiet tennis crowd applauded.  She beat Martinez, 6-1, 6-4. 

But the feel-good ended when Mauresmo got dusted by Justine Henin-Hardenne, 6-3, 6-3.  "She started very, very strongly," Mauresmo told the press. "She didn't give me a chance to play my game."  Watching Henin-Hardenne break up Mauresmo's game, it was hard to believe she was coming off a four-month hiatus because of a virus.

Patricia Nell Warren

What a shame to see Gail Devers go down with an injury in the 100-meter hurdles. A great Olympic champion, it, unfortunately, was the way too many athletes end their careers when they try to sty too long.

Matthew Emmons made perhaps the bonehead move of the Games. Emmons, an American who had already won one gold medal in rifle shooting, blew a chance for  a second when he shot at the wrong target! Emmons went from first to last after firing at a competitor's target. "Crap happens," said the 23-year-old accountant. "I'll live to shoot another day." After his debacle, Emmons said he was ready for a beer; we bet he had more than one and hope he didn't drink out of the wrong bottle.

What is the point of having women’s softball in the Olympics? The U.S. has won all eight games by shutout and is so dominant that another team scoring a run would be an accomplishment. Softball does not have much interest worldwide and it barely kept its Olympics status in 2002. There is nothing more boring than watching a lopsided softball game, which is why we’ve fast-forwarded through all the action this week. 

If they are going to allow sports where one country dominates, we suggest Buzkashi, the Afghan version of polo, where they use a goat’s head instead of a ball. We’re certain it would establish a cult following. 

NBC can’t be bothered to show water polo games in their entirety (there are only four seven-minutes period) but can show us the entire 1-0, eight-inning Japan vs. China softball game?  They show only four high jumpers and a total of eight jumps but can show us the entire Japan vs. China softball game? Gee, they must have had at least 5 people in the U.S. who cared. We defy anyone to sit through watching a 1-0, extra-inning softball game, men’s or women’s. Softball’s a fun sport to play, OK to watch in person but deadly dull on TV.

Watching Sweden’s Stefan Holm clear 7-8 ¾ was amazing. In high school, Outsports' own Cyd high jumped a whopping 5-10 in the high jump. The event is probably the most psychological in track and field, along with pole vault. They’re the only events that end with, at most, one person clearing a particular height or distance and everyone else hitting that hanging bar.

We're over with gymnastics. The eye candy is nice, but enough already. Why do they have to have performances for the team; then different performances for all-around; then different performances still for individual events? Just lump it all together for crying out loud.

Then there’s the haphazard scoring in Sunday’s floor exercise. Canada’s Kyle Shewfelt and Romania’s Marian Dragulescu ended the event with identical scores. To the thousandth of a point. The same. They got the same score. Yet, “due to procedures blah blah blah…,” Shewfelt gets a gold and Dragulescu gets the silver. It turns out that the organizers didn’t want any ties, so they created a secondary board of judges to break ties. Pathetic.

The lack of judges is one big advantage for track and field. There is no question, no matter how close, who won. In both a women’s 100m hurdle semi-final heats, and the men’s 100m dash final saw the top four runners finish within four hundredths of a second of one another. Now questions. No mystery. No talk afterward about how someone got screwed.

Watching the gymnastics, Romania's Marius Urzica is a dead ringer (no pun intended there) for Freddie Mercury, no? Didn't those mustaches go out in the '80s?

 

Day 8 of competition / Aug. 21

It was one of the most touching and adorable moment we’ve seen at the Games, and it came during the medal ceremony for the men’s single sculls rowing, won by Olaf Tufte of Norway. CNBC showed the entire ceremony (bravo!) and we saw Tufte try to keep his composure as he was handed flowers and his gold medal and a laurel wreath was placed on his head. 

But tears starting welling up on this man, the tenderness belying his strong, muscular body. Suddenly, the silver and bronze medalists hoisted him on their shoulders and he smiled. Then he did a quick double biceps flex (show us more!) and was lowered down. His national anthem started and so did the tears. He cried with a smile and it was very moving and uplifting. Sometimes sports gets it right. 

Michael Phelps won by not even swimming. Phelps, who gave up his spot on the 4x100 medley relay team to Ian Crocker, won his sixth gold medal because he had swam in the prelims of the event. His move was classy but also good PR and NBC showed about as much of him during the race as they did the guys in the pool.

The relay was a measure of redemption for both Crocker and Jason Lesak, each of whom had an Olympics that were less than they expected. Lesak (photo right) had been a disappointment in his individual freestyle events.

Do the gods and goddesses know something we don't?  The ancient Games were pretty gay-friendly, and heavy on equestrian drama.  Today, the Olympic horse events enjoy growing popularity ... and four of the 11 out athletes in Athens are dressage riders.  

Yesterday and today, in the team competition, Robert Dover on Kennedy, and Guenter Seidel on Aragon, turned in good enough rides to boost the U.S. into the team medals (bronze, for the fourth straight time).  Great Britain's Carl Hester and his Escapado scored high enough to place 4th on the first day, though his good ride wasn't enough to put his country into the medals.

Outsports has learned (thanks to readers) that New Zealand eventing rider Blythe Tait can be added to the list.  Make that 4 out of 11 out athletes who are Athens equestrians.  The gods and goddesses are smiling tonight.

Tait is one of New Zealand's most distinguished riders, with four Olympic medals and a world championship to his credit.  He enjoys the same respect and honor in N.Z. that Robert Dover does in the U.S.   At 43, Tait says that Athens will be his fourth and last Olympics.  He told the press: "Who knows, if I miss it badly I might have another crack but I'm not getting any younger and I'm not performing like I used too."  Tait will be shifting gears into Thoroughbred breeding and racing.

In Athens, Tait's final bid for eventing medals was nixed by severe nervousness by his horse, Ready Teddy, a Thoroughbred.  In the individual rankings the pair placed 18th in stadium jumping. 20th in dressage, 33rd in crosscountry.  Yet his gallant efforts did contribute to NZ being 5th in the team rankings.

Of course nobody mentions the G word out there.  The network commentators aren't saying, "And now Robert Dover of the U.S. is entering the arena on FBW Kennedy, and by the way, he's gay."  But the fact is -- these 11  are out in high profile, and the sky doesn't fall.   The dressage judges don't seem to be showing any prejudice against these three  guys in the scoring.  It's all about how much of an athlete you are.  And that's the way it should be.

--Patricia Nell Warren
Read Warren’s excellent profile of out rider Robert Dover

Hot Jock Alert: Check out France's Olympic champions Sebastien Vielledent and Adrien Hardy, the best in the men's double sculls final. 

The U.S. losing in men’s basketball to Lithuania isn’t a huge shocker. It's clear that much of the rest of the world is catching up with the US in their ability to field an international basketball team. With so many top stars (read: Laker losers) opting out of the Olympics, the US has been stuck with fielding a less-than-perfect team. If the US is interested in winning a gold medal in the coming years, they should abandon this "dream team" idea and have the NBA Champion that year head to the Olympics. If the Detroit Pistons took the court this year, they'd take it as a team - not like the patchwork of talent this team seems to be.  

Lithuania was led by Sarunas Jasikevicius's , who made 9 of 14 shots, including 7 of 12 3-point attempts, scoring 28 points. But he hasn’t gotten much attention from NBA scouts and he thinks he knows why. "That I'm a slow, fat white guy. The international scouts come to see me, but they don't have much pull," he said.

Jasikevicius attended the University of Maryland, and his English is pretty good. He was interviewed on NBC after the game and basically shouted out props in Lithuanian to his people back in the States; it seemed to catch announcer Craig Sager by surprise.

The U.S. women’s basketball team could give their male counterparts some pointers. They are 4-0 and in group play and are the odds-on favorite to win gold.

There was shocker at women’s pole vault when defending Olympic champion Stacy Dragila failed to qualify for the finals. Dragila has gotten a lot of press for her athletic skills and hot bod, which she never minded showing off. 

We wonder why water polo isn't a more popular sport. After watching the great game between Russia and the US today (which Russia won, 9-7), we'll be watching more closely for water polo matches on the schedule in the next few days. And it's not just because the men are beautiful with beautiful bodies. As we've mentioned, it's a brutal sport. Sans the ice, stick and puck, it's a lot like hockey - with quite a bit more scoring and quite a bit less clothing.

The U.S. loss was a killer to their hopes of reaching the quarterfinals. To qualify, they need to beat Serbia and Montenegro and get some help. The Americans looked a bit flat against Russia, after playing so crisply against Hungary.

The controversy surrounding Paul Hamm's gold medal (a Korean gymnast was scored incorrectly and would have won the gold) is case-in-point why the luster on judged events doesn't shine as brightly for us as other events. Gymnastics, like diving, rely on human interpretation - and, thus, bias and human error. We wish we had a better way to score the events – for now, we'll all just have to live with errors and opinion-driven medals like Hamm's. 

Some may say that Hamm’s medal is tainted, but we disagree. He did all he was asked and it’s not his fault that the judges didn’t live up to their standards. NBC’s Tim Daggett was terrific in explaining that on review there were dozens of instances where perhaps the right degree of difficulty was miscalculated, and that focusing on the error that cost Yang Tae-young the gold medal would open a Pandora’s box.  

The South Koreans recognize the touchy nature of the controversy. "We want this misjudgment to be corrected," said Yoo Jae Soon, an officer from the South Korean delegation. "But we do not want to break Paul Hamm's heart and take his gold medal away. He is a proud Olympic champion. If they share the medal, that would be better." We’re not sure this is an ideal solution, but it could be a compromise all can live with. 

For the first time since 1980 (when the U.S. did not compete), an American woman is not the 100-meters champion. That honor goes to Yuliya Nesterenko from Belarus, who broke 11 seconds (10.93) for the first time and won the gold medal.

Belarus is a downtrodden country overshadowed by its neighbor Russia. The kinds of amenities that elite U.S. athletes take for granted are often not available there. For example, Nesterenko credits part of her success to the ability of her husband, the 400-meter runner Dmitriy Nesterenko, to moved out of her parents' house and into their own apartment, the New York Times reports. Living with the folks can certainly put a crimp in things.

It was a cute moment when 20-year-old American Lauryn Williams, who finished second to Nesterenko, was heard saying: "I'll take the silver."  

 

 

Day 7 of competition / Aug. 20

Gary Hall Jr. holds the title as the fastest man in the pool, by beating Croatia’s (and the University of California’s) Duje Draganja by one-hundredth of a second in the men’s 50-meter freestyle. Hall didn’t swim below 21.5 seconds, as he had boasted about before the Games, but don’t think he’s complaining. 

Hall is a great showman, who flexes and preens in pre-race warm-ups. He’s quotable and funny, and while he pisses off some of his competitors (who see him as arrogant), Hall realizes that sports need an element of showmanship. He also takes time to enjoy life. 

“He has cast aside the conventional methods of training, and holed up in Islamorada, Fla., inviting elite sprinters from around the world to migrate to the Keys,” the Washington Post said. “They swim some, spear fish some more, box each other - whatever comes to mind, as long as it generally steers clear of the drudgery normally associated with training to be an elite swimmer. ‘It's OK to have fun,’ “Hall said.  

Draganja, the silver medalist, who trains with Hall, said: "I don't know, maybe some people hate him. But I love him for this. I love the way he is. He's a guy with an open heart - and he's special."  

(Gary Hall photo by Brent Mullins / Outsports.com. Taken in June in Long Beach)

There was a funny article in the Wall Street Journal on Friday about how athletes dread the random drug test, where testers can barge in almost any time. Hall recounted a recent experience:

Mr. Hall … was eating dinner recently in his Florida home with a visiting British lord and some other British dignitaries when the doorbell rang. His wife was serving her specialty; they'd uncorked a fine bottle of Pinot Noir.

The drug testers were friendly but insistent. "They set down their paraphernalia on the table next to the Cornish game hen," Mr. Hall recalls. The testers lingered at the candlelit table for a half-hour or so, bantering with guests about real estate, as Mr. Hall guzzled several glasses of water.

"Any time people are waiting around for you to pee in a cup, it's awkward," the swimmer says.

Hot Jock Alert 1: Vicente Escobedo, a 132-pound boxer from Woodland, Calif., lost his second-round match on Friday. Too bad. We wouldn't have minded seeing more of him. Besides, what has happened to U.S. boxing? So many of the American hopefuls have fallen so early, you'd think they were the Miami Dolphins. 

Hot Jock Alert 2: French kayaker Benoit Peschier. What arms! 

It’s kind of odd, but it seems that Michael Phelps is getting a bit less coverage than one would have expected for someone who has won five gold medals (four individuals) and two bronzes. What happened was that all the incredible pre-Olympics hype focused on Phelps tying or passing Mark Spitz’s mark of seven gold medals. When this goal became unattainable early in the Games, it seemed as if much of the media moved on.  

Had there been little of the buildup, the media interest would have built as Phelps kept winning. It’s not that Phelps is being ignored (NBC interviews him after every race), it’s just that the media and public attention waned once it became clear Spitz’s mark would stand. It’s probably been good for Phelps, who has come across as more relaxed compared to the first day or so of competition. 

Friday, in the 100-meter butterfly, Phelps came from behind to edge American Ian Crocker. Phelps was obsessed with beating Crocker, waking up every day to a giant poster of Crocker staring at him over his bed. In looking at Crocker, we think it’s something that might catch on, even among non-swimmers. 

Phelps did a classy thing by giving up his spot in Saturday’s 4x100 medley relay to Crocker, to give him a chance to win gold. Phelps will also get whatever medal is won, since he swam the race in the prelims. As our astute colleague Brent Mullins points out, there’s little downside to Phelps’ actions: 

Phelps may be giving a gift to Crocker, but I think it's a pretty shrewd PR move as well. Crocker--healthy--is within a hairbreadth of Phelps in that swim, and the U.S. is heavily favored for the relay. So if the U.S. wins gold, Phelps still gets another gold medal AND appears to be a generous guy too! A PR coup! And if for some reason the US doesn't win, the implication is always there they would have won with Phelps.

Phelps doesn't have to prove anything at this point, so why not humanize himself and go out with that point being made in capital letters at the end of his run? It sure beats spinning his Escalade wheels again for the camera!

Greek Olympic organizers don’t think sex sells. They have gone to court to stop newsstands from selling the latest edition of Playboy (they were unsuccessful). They are upset by headlines such as "2004 seconds of ecstasy" and "Go for a Sexathon gold," saying they corrupt the Olympic image.

Give us a break. The original Olympians competed naked, and in 2004 the beach volleyball game all feature scantily clad dancers who perform during breaks. In addition, while the male beach volleyballers must wear shirts (unlike on the pro tour), the women are required to be in a bikini. On the wire photo services, we’ve seen about as many tight close-ups of female players’ butts as we have them in action. What’s Greek for hypocrisy?

Speaking of beach volleyball, Mullins, a devotee of the sport (and a great photog), is critical of the way the U.S. awarded Olympic spots, based on an arcane point system. This was especially noticeable with the team of Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard, who lost all three matches and weren’t speaking to each other on or off the court.

I think that the yearlong point system they worked out doesn't take into account which team is hot at the moment, and can come through during the really big matches,” Mullins said. “I think the top 16 players or so know each other so well, that almost any of them could be paired up and you'd have a great team.  Maybe they should have either a much shorter qualifying period, or do the gymnast kind of thing where they have one picked that way, and the other team picked from a qualifying pool.  It's just going to be embarrassing if Dax Holdren and Stein Metzger don't win considering it's a U.S. sport.”

Holdren and Metzger, the 12th seeds, are psyched after beating a fourth-seeded German team in the quarterfinals. Their success, though, still doesn’t compensate for the odd selection system.

When NBC track and field commentator Tom Hammond was on the screen, we thought, "since when is Harvey Fierstein doing Olympics commentary?" Hammond may look like Fierstein, but the color analyst doing judo sounds like Harvey’s twin. We expect him to break out in a torch song. 

We were watching Day No. 27 of women's gymnastics and were suddenly taken back to third grade gym class. Trampolines? Since when is the trampoline an Olympic-caliber event? The balance beam is bad enough. 

The cadence of the starting gun in some of the initial track and field sprint heats was strange. You generally expect a good two seconds between "set" and the gun. Instead, they were giving some of the sprinters half that. At that level, the officials really should be conforming to the accepted standards.

 

Day 6 of competition / Aug. 19

Austrian swimmer Markus Rogan is our Olympic hero. Rogan finished second to American Aaron Piersol in the men’s 200-meter backstroke. But a judge disqualified Piersol and, until the judge was overruled and Piersol reinstated, Rogan was an Olympic champion.

But Rogan, who swims for Stanford and who was totally gracious when we saw him at the Janet Evans meet in June (see photo right by Brent Mullins), knew Piersol was the better man and had won fair and square. He told Piersol after the initial ruling that it was unfair and should be appealed. Afterwards, he was happy with his silver and made a quote that we love:

"Aaron is a very honest person,” Rogan said. “I am sure he swam fairly. For a moment, I thought about gold and the idea was just beautiful, but after all, it's fair like this. No medal is as beautiful as a friendship."

Stanford has a page devoted to its students who are competing in Athens. With three medals won to date, Stanford jocks have won more than those from Brazil, India, Portugal or Brazil. Stanford has three silvers in swimming, two by Rogan and one by Jenny Thompson.

The Hungarian men’s water polo team is the Green Bay Packers or New York Yankees of the sport. They've won tons of  title and are the standard that everyone shoots for. Their fans are rabid and travel well. There were a bunch of them out in Long Beach, Calif., in July to watch Hungary win the world championships.

They were out again in force Thursday in Athens as their team beat the U.S., 7-5, in a terrific game that was close to the end. The arena was rocking in the best team event we’ve seen so far. Tamas Kasas (photo right), probably the sport’s best player, rifled home a penalty shot, and the U.S. was doomed by its poor 3-of-11 performance in power plays.

The Hungarians have got it going on, from their great red warmup robes to their hot, black swim trunks to their inspired play in the pool. And after Thursday’s win, they kissed each other, a cool thing to see even though we know it’s not gay, just European. We saw this in Long Beach and we were impressed then.

The U.S., though, feels very good about coming close, and has a great shot to make the medal round. They are aware of the aura surrounding Hungary ("They grow up playing water polo from when they're 5 or 6 years old," Tony Azevedo said), but know they can hold their own. As for Hungary, only the gold will do. "In water polo, second place is always a disappointment for Hungary, because the sport is so big back home," said Gergely Kiss.

If you haven't already, check out our terrific water polo gallery. These picture by Brent Mullins were taken at the world championships in July and have great images of the Hungarians, Americans and four other countries.

Further proof of the popularity of water polo in Hungary comes from this entry on the USA Water Polo wesbite: By the way, the best Hungarian players really have the star status that in the U.S. is reserved for larger sports.  [In Budapest]  in the market I saw toothpaste with Kasas Tamas (Tamas Kasas) on the box.  I bought a tube as proof to any doubters. 

Water polo, despite its genteel name, is a brutal sport. The best article we’ve read about the Olympics this week, by the Washington Post’s Peter Carlson, dealt with this. “Water polo is a combination of swimming, soccer and basketball, plus wrestling, boxing and mugging,” Carlson wrote. “The players are phenomenal athletes who perform amazing feats of speed, grace, stamina and ball-handling. They also perform amazing feats of kicking, punching, scratching, clawing and choking. And that's just the men. The women are also fond of tearing each other's bathing suits off.”

(Check out this awesome shot from the Washington Post that shows what goes on underneath the water.)

Carlson’s article is both informative very funny, and closed with this anecdote from a recent game: “A Russian player appeared to be giving a Serb player a big bear hug. The Serb hugged him back. For a split second, it looked like one of those heartwarming moments of Olympic brotherhood. Then the two men started trying to drown each other, and you realized it was just another heartwarming moment of Olympic water polo.”

One of the most noticeable differences between Olympic-caliber athletes and your average Joe can be seen in serving a volleyball. We're lucky if our underhand tap makes it over the net and lands inbounds. These guys start 10 feet behind the line, jump 2 feet into the air and send a rocket that we'd probably dive out of the way of.

At the risk of offending devotees, we just can't get into women's gymnastics. Or, rather, girl's gymnastics. So many of these little dolls are teenagers with more make-up than Parris Hilton. It looks more like a cheerleading tryout than an Olympic event. The emotions are real and the gymnasts are wonderfully athletic, but there’s something a tad creepy about it (did you happen to catch Carly Patterson’s coach hugging her again and again, then hoisting her on his shoulders?).

Russia’s Svetlana Khorkina was a total (rhymes with rich) in losing out in the all-around gymnastics gold to Patterson. "I know exactly what I'm going to say: I'm still Olympic champion," the Russian diva said at the post-match press conference with Patterson sitting next to her. A total lack of class.

Khorkina at 25 is ancient compared to Patterson, 16, and the other pixies of the sport. She did have a great line about her age earlier this year: "Age isn't important to me," she told The Times of London. "You know they say a man sometimes prefers older women because they can satisfy him more. It's the same in gymnastics."

Hot Jock Watch: The rowers from Czech, the rowers from Denmark, the rowers from Canada, the rowers from Germany, ...

We get letters: This Olympic blog has been quite popular, but it has managed to piss some people off.

We heard from two Australians who accused us of being too pro-American, mainly because we mocked a headline Down Under that called the Aussie 4x200 men’s swim relay team “courageous” for winning the silver. This despite the fact that Australia hadn’t lost this race in six years and was the favorite. To us, it was like calling the L.A. Lakers “courageous” for taking the Detroit Pistons to five games.

Then there was the Canadian who was offended that we wrote that U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm had “the body of a Greek god and the voice of a Munchkin." The reader asked: "Is that kind of homophobic remark really necessary? Sometimes our "humor" is our worst attribute.”

The Hamm joke may have been cheap and may not have been funny to some, but the one thing it wasn’t was homophobic. Sometimes our “sensitivity” is our worst attribute.

Finally, from the mail bag, came this from Mike: “Your website, that I found by mistake, is disgusting in the way it portrays sex in the Olympics. It should not be played out that way by sexually describing the athletes. Yes you have a right to your choice, and it is a choice, not a trait, or sickness. God is a perfect God, and therefore would not go against His word in the Bible. Homosexuality is an abomination to God, and unless you repent, confess your sin to Jesus, and become born again, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. …”

We’re glad Mike assured us that he found the website “by mistake.”

 

Day 5 of competition / Aug. 18

Paul Hamm (right, file photo) made history by becoming the first American man to win the gold medal at the men’s all-around gymnastics final. But it didn’t come easy. Hamm, seemingly out of contention when he landed poorly on his vault and nearly hit the judge’s table, nailed a magnificent rings program to beat Korean Kim Dae-eun in the closest competition in Olympics history. 

``I dug down deep and fought for everything,'' said Hamm, he with the body of a Greek god and the voice of a Munchkin. ``It was the best performance of my life.'' 

To make a sports analogy, it was as if Hamm double-bogeyed on the 16th hole of the Masters and needed holes-in-one on the final two holes to win ... and he got them. Hamm was helped when the rest of the field stumbled and bumbled enough to allow him back into competition.

Ex-Olympian Peter Vidmar summed it up perfectly, telling the Washington Post: "I've been either competing or watching this sport for the last 40 years, and I've never seen anything like this before. This is the most bizarre all-around finals I've ever seen in my life."

Hamm finished with 57.823 points, beating Kim by .012. The previous closest margin in the event was .017 by Leon Stukelj of Yugoslavia over Robert Prazak of Czechoslovakia in the 1924 Games.

After listening to Hamm’s post-meet interview, a friend had this to say: “He’s not as cute when he opens his mouth.”

What an amazing night of Olympic broadcasts. It started with the deepest connection to the past--the shot put event from Olympia, a site of the ancient Olympic games. Football fans have Lambeau Field. Baseball fans have Fenway Park. For track and field fans like us, Olympia, an open field with no seats, no vendors selling baklava on the street, no camera trucks, no lights, no nothing but the athletes, the judges and big lead balls, has to be one of the great historic arenas to visit. Holding the event there was a wonderful concept ­ a fitting tribute to the games of old.

U.S. shot putter Adam Nelson showed class when he apologized for protesting the call that cost him a gold at the ancient stadium. Nelson was beaten on the final throw of the competition by the Ukraine's Yuriy Bilonog. On Nelson's last throw, his toss beat Bilong but didn't count because he had fouled. 

After the foul was called, AP reported, Nelson remained helplessly in the shot put ring for three minutes, pointing and pleading with officials. Nelson later sobbed on his wife's shoulder and covered his face with an American flag, his shirt caked with dust from the place where the Olympics were born 28 centuries ago. After seeing video of his last toss, Nelson conceded: "They were right and I apologized."

Before the shot put event, a friend watching the event with us said, “too bad they don’t do these events naked like they did back then.” NBC then showed the first of a long line of rotund shot putters. We realized we were lucky they don’t do certain events naked.

Talk about the agony of defeat. Slovakian canoeist Michal Maritkan lost a gold medal in the worst possible way—because of a clerical error. 

Here is what happened: Martikan, who won the gold in 1996 at age 17, was trying to avenge his 2000 Olympics loss in the C-1 canoe slalom to Frenchman Tony Estanguet. The Slovak, so famous in his home country that he’s on a postage stamp, put together a furious final run to apparently beat Estanguet by slightly less than 2 seconds. Martikan thrust his arms in the air and TV showed the Slovak fans going into delirium.  

But shortly after, the judges realized that Martikan had a hit a gate and should have been deducted 2 seconds, but the error failed to register on the electronic scoring system. Adding in the 2 seconds dropped Martikan to second, .12 behind Estanguet. It was a fair ruling but gut-wrenching coming as it did after Martikan had experience the euphoria of an apparent win. 

"He touched a gate, but we're at the same level. He is very strong and you couldn't say that I destroyed him. He is one of the masters of the discipline," Estanguet said. Those are nice words but small consolation to Martikan. 

Martikan wasn’t the only athlete to win only to find out he hadn’t. The German team in the three-day equestrian event was stripped of its Olympic gold medal, shortly after the quintet celebrated its victory. Deutsche Welle reported. Germany dropped to fourth place after team leader Bettina Hoy on Ringwood Cockatoo was penalized 12 points over her start.

The French team had protested the initial ranking, claiming Hoy, who was the last to ride for the German team, crossed the starting line twice during her first jump. The jury ruled in favor of the French team, and penalized Germany, forcing the team of Hinrich Romeike, Frank Ostholt, Andreas Dibowski and Ingrid Klimke to drop to fourth place, the news service said. France won the gold, followed by Britain and the US, officials said. And what kind of name for a horse is “Ringwood Cockatoo?”

Talk about a face job! Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima completed a sweep of Olympic breaststroke gold, capturing the 200-meter title in a Games record. Kitajima also won the 100-meter title but was dogged by complaints that he was aided by using an illegal “dolphin kick.” The complaints were pushed by U.S. teammates of Brandon Hansen, who finished second in the 100. Kitajima shut everyone up with his swim in the 200, and Hansen (the world record holder) finished third. 

"I don't care about this controversy,” Kitajima said. “I think it has pushed me to win this race. Nobody can say anything now, because I have won this race. This is the happiest time of my life." 

Greek sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou have withdrawn from the Games under a drug cloud. And it prompted a blogger in Athens to write this: “I guess they will have to take down all the billboards adorned with their images. As of last week, the city was covered with them. Now the Greek media can get back to important issues, like the price of potatoes (always a top story here).” 

 

Day 4 of competition / Aug. 17

“Fuck, yeah!” … “Fuck, yeah!” That exuberant phrase could twice be heard on NBC as the U.S. men’s 4x200 freestyle swimming team celebrated its dramatic gold-medal win over Australia on Tuesday. It sounded like they were uttered by Michael Phelps, who was primal (and dare we say sexual) in his lusty screaming and thrusting forward his arms in victory. 

This is the second time we’ve heard the f-bomb dropped on NBC. Two days ago, during the very heated Italy vs. U.S. men‘s indoor volleyball match, players from both sides went nose to nose across the net shouting: "Fuck you.” ... "No, fuck you!" and so on.

Given how prudish the FCC and Congress have become, it will be interesting to see whether NBC gets fined for a word that is such a common part of virtually any sport that its shock value has long been lost. Besides, Phelps (or whoever said it) was basking in a moment of total joy. 

The relay was an amazing event, with American Klete Keller holding off Aussie Ian Thorpe down the stretch for the win. It was interesting to see the cautious Phelps react like a 19-year-old and he seemed to take more delight in the team win than in either of his two individual gold medals. In all the articles we’ve read on him, it does come across that he’s fairly well-adjusted and not a prima donna.

Our cover photo today is of Keller and relay teammate Peter Vanderkaay of the University of Michigan. It was shot in June at the Janet Evans Invitational in Long Beach, Calif., by Brent Mullins (click for larger view).

It all depends on your perspective: The U.S. relay win was the first time that Australia had been defeated in the event in six years. Yet the headline on the Australian swimming website said : "Silver to Our Courageous Men." Huh? What's so courageous about the favorites finishing second?

Even though there are no Americans in it, the men’s 100-meter freestyle final on Wednesday should be fun to watch. It’s basically a two-lap sprint that is always exciting, though we’ll miss the Russian Rocket Alexander Popov, who failed to qualify. 

Roland Schoeman of South Africa (and the University of Arizona) is the top qualifier. He will be joined by fellow countryman and Wildcat Ryk Neethling, and defending champion Pieter van den Hoogenbrand of Holland. One interesting sight was that of Duje Draganja of Croatia, who also qualified. He was wearing a swimming cap with “Cal” on it, in honor of the University of California, where he attends. 

A weekend Olympics concert featured reggae star Buju Banton, whose #1 hit “Boom Bye Bye” urges listeners to shoot gay men in the head, pour acid over them and burn them alive. The concert, put on by the Jamaican Olympic team and sponsored by sportswear company Puma, was open to all athletes at the games, 365Gay.com reports. It was held at outside the Olympic Village, at a chic beach club in the trendy coastal neighborhood of Glyfada, but it is understood that Olympics organizers approved the concert and the location, the news service reported.

"The decision of the International Olympic Committee to give a platform to a murder-music singer like Buju Banton contradicts the whole spirit of the Olympics – which is supposed to be about peace and brotherhood,” said Brett Lock of the gay rights group, Outrage. Indeed, outrage is the right word.

We stayed up late this morning to watch some of the women's and men's shot put, which was held at the ancient stadium in Olympia, four hours from Athens. To keep the flavor of the site, there were no stands and fans had to sit on grassy banks. There were also no concessions. There was also only one TV feed and NBC announcers Tom Hammond and Dwight Stones called the action from Athens by watching a monitor. The setting looked beautiful for the first competition in Olympia in 1,611 years. It was a cool idea and NBC did a great job of showing all the throws, perhaps a shot put first. We did, though, hear a cell phone ring once at the site; we believe the ancient Greeks still used landlines.

Shot put was not a sport in the ancient Games, which prompted U.S. thrower Reese Hoffa to quip : "I told my coach, 'I've got a chance to set the stadium record.' "

Hard as it is to believe, the U.S. men’s basketball team will have to fight to win any medal, let alone a gold. This was evident after the team’s 19-point loss to Puerto Rico on Sunday, and its too-close-for-comfort 77-71 win over Greece on Tuesday. The Greeks were playing without their top point guard, yet still were in the game until the end. The U.S. survived thanks to hustle on the offensive boards, grabbing 16 offensive rebounds to Greece’s 4. But the Americans still can’t shoot to save their lives and now are a combined 5 for 46 from 3-point range in the two games.

The U.S. struggles make this a very interesting tournament to watch, a far cry from the coronation the “Dream Team” enjoyed in 1992, when pros were first allowed in competition.

The only way to truly watch the Olympics is with a DVR (a digital video recorder ala TiVo). We have one and it makes getting through the coverage and commercials a breeze. Field hockey or soccer? Fast forward at 300x normal speed. The South African swim relay team? Super slo-mo over and over. We also have the advantage of living in LA and taping the East Coast feed of NBC. We started watching the four hours of coverage at 7:30 p.m. and were done by 9:15 p.m. Can’t say we missed much. It’s even better when watching MSNBC or CNBC, which will show an entire badminton match.

Watching some Slovenia-Croatia handball and we became intrigued by the speed and skill of the game. And our friend said one of the Croats was among the most handsome men he’d seen.

For the U.S. women’s gymnastics, winning a team silver was an achievement but still lacking. Unlike the U.S. men, the women have been an international force and expected to win the gold. "Everyone was probably thinking we were going to win the gold medal, but we didn't," Carly Patterson said. "I think all of us have had better days because we all had our little mistakes. But it's already done and we can't do anything about it." It’s always interesting in sports how expectations can color our perceptions of success.

It’s fast becoming the media storyline: These Olympics lack buzz. The New York Times sums up with is the prevailing tone from Athens: “Empty arenas and stadiums in Athens offer a bizarre television backdrop for the Summer Olympics - one that cannot be avoided by NBC, which has shown vistas of unfilled seats that have greeted athletes in gymnastics, boxing, soccer, table tennis and kayaking.

They are jarring sights that have not been seen in such quantity in recent Games, television executives say. There is less noise, less buzz, less color from fans cheering wildly for their countries.”

Despite the small crowds, TV ratings for NBC are higher than they were for the 2000 Games in Sydney. Monday night, for example, the network had a 20% higher audience than a comparable time four years ago (though those Games went up against regular season Monday night football).

“The lack of capacity crowds may not be hurting ratings, but it gives the impression that something is awry about the Olympics in their ancestral home, said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "This is the equivalent of turning on a sitcom and no one is laughing on the laugh track," Thompson said. "Those huge, gaping backgrounds seem to announce this isn't the place to be. It's bothersome. It makes it a little less of a full experience. It messes up the composition of the shots, but I haven't heard anyone say, 'I saw those empty seats, so yes, I can go out to dinner with you tonight.' ''

 

Day 3 of competition / Aug. 16

Michael Phelps is a failure. An underachiever. A flop. A loser. …. Of course, we don’t believe this for a second. Phelps is an amazingly talented athlete who has won three medals in three swimming events. But because he was hyped to tie or beat Mark Spitz’s record of seven golds, his inability to achieve this has led many to feel let down. He graced the cover of every magazine save for Artichoke Monthly and overwhelming success seemed preordained.

Phelps’ chance to keep pace with Spitz ended when he lost the “Race of the Century,” the men’s 200-meter freestyle and finished third behind Aussie Ian Thorpe and Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband. Now, he can "only" win a maximum of six gold medals. Phelps seemed to have everything in perspective, saying afterwards how much fun he was having. If we were 19, gorgeous, with a killer body and financially set for life, we’d be having fun, too.

An Outsports reader noticed this: "Van den Hoogenband and Thorpe's reception of Phelps after the 200 was so cold I thought I saw an iceberg floating between them. While Pieter and Ian practically smooched, Phelps barely got a handshake."

Thorpe, the jewelry-designing fashion plate who has assured us that he’s not gay (and whose handlers have threatened litigation against two artists that suggested otherwise), is proving to be the dominant swimmer in these Games, winning two golds. After his first gold, he did some kind of weird dance with his tongue, moving it out of his mouth then around. After winning Monday, he looked for a second like he was going to rest his head on Van Den Hoogenband’s shoulder, but NBC’s camera turned away. Thorpe is certainly a compelling figure in or out of the pool. (Thorpe photo by Brent Mullins / Outsports.com, taken at a meet in June. Click for larger view)

NBC takes a lot of hits for its coverage but they did a nice job with the men’s 200 meters. It was a solid buildup devoid of the sapping kind of feature we often get. The network also focused on more than just Phelps. This was in contrast to the feature on Natalie Coughlin, who overcame injury and disappointment to make the team. She was profiled with the requisite soft music and muted lighting. It was overdone and too sentimental for our tastes. Despite that, it was nice to see her win the women’s 100-meter backstroke. 

One of the great moments is watching the swimmers watch their times come up on the scoreboard. It always takes a few seconds for them to realize what has happened. Then, when they see their gold-medal-winning time, it's one of the few moments in these games when the cameras get the incredible transition from anxiety to elation in 1.2 seconds. 

Hot jock watch: China’s 137.5-pound weightlifter Le Maosheng has a beautifully sculpted body. And unlike most other lifters, he wears the singlet but not the ugly white undershirt. He also has a Mohawk that has led him to be called China’s David Beckham.

NBC’s commentators were talking about the U.S. men's gymnastics team as the camera watched them celebrate a good performance. Just then, a team came around the corner and the camera turned to that team. "The Chinese are energized," the commentator said. Then, realizing it wasn't the Chinese the camera had panned to added abruptly, "but the Japanese are coming up next." 

NBC did a great job of avoiding nationalism when showing the fleshfest also known as the men’s team gymnastics final. The commentators gave great info and comments on the other teams, especially China, Japan and Romania, in addition to the U.S. The network seems to be making an effort to not be jingoistic.  

U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm has muscles on top of his muscles, but in a post-match interview he sounded like a Munchkin. 

Quotable from men’s gymnastics (we’re not sure who the announcer was): "Jason Gatson he's got the biggest body in these Games.  He's one muscular, Hercules man." 

The Washington Post’s Peter Carlson has an interesting take on the sex appeal of beach volleyball: “Ah, beach volleyball! It's a beer commercial of a sport. It's a Jimmy Buffett song. It's a "Girls Gone Wild" video. It's a Dionysian tribute to the joys of sun, sand, sex, and escape from the wretched indoor world of offices and other places where you're actually expected to wear shoes and a shirt.” 

Of course, Carlson writes only about the women, who play with as little clothing as possible. The men, unlike regular tour events, all wear shirts (this must be a requirement of some sort). It’s hard to imagine a writer for a mainstream paper writing the same article but focusing on the men. To see how the men usually dress, check out our beach volleyball galleries.

Overheard on TV during the very heated Italy vs. U.S. men‘s indoor volleyball match, with players from both sides going nose to nose across the net: "Fuck you.” "No, fuck you!" And to think the Italians were part of the ‘Coalition of the Willing.” Howard Stern discussed the clip and sarcastically wondered how much NBC would be fined by the FCC.

One of the worst Olympic decisions was Jimmy Carter keeping the U.S. from the It 980 Olympics in Moscow. It was the ultimate anti-Olympic move, combining personal politics in a great event that should be about the world coming together. Carter's legacy lives on this year, as Iran's judo team has refused to compete against the Israeli team because of politics and religion. Judo's governing body is having trouble deciding how to punish the Iranian team. We have a suggestion: Suspend them from the games.

Hundreds of fireworks set off during a reception for heads of state at the home of the Athens Olympics chief also set fire to a nearby park. The fireworks sent rocketing into the air from the home of Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki set bushes and trees ablaze. (Herald Sun/Australia)

Ian Thorpe, right, accepts congratulations from Pieter van den Hoogenband after the men's 200-meter freestyle (New York Times)

Thorpe wears the laurelo wreath given to all medal winners (AP photo via Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Michael Phelps, lean and mean (AP photo via 790 the Zone)

This is a great image of Natalie Coughlin at the start of the backstroke (New York Times)

One of the rare out athletes: tennis player Amelie Mauresmo (AP photo via Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Intense Greece vs. France handball action (AP photo via Long Beach Press-Telegram)

Ouch! That must hurts (AP photo via Long Beach Press-Telegram)

 

Day 2 of competition / Aug. 15

Our favorite story to date involves a German cyclist, her middle finger and her girlfriend. 

Judith Arndt won the silver on Sunday in the women's road race, then popped the finger to the German Cycling Federation as she crossed the finish line. According to Deutsche Welle news service: Arndt was disconsolate with her silver medal following the race, accusing the German Cycling Federation of squandering a chance to win gold by excluding her girlfriend, sprinter Petra Rossner, from the Olympic team. "Of course we're happy to have won the silver medal, but actually, we've lost the gold," Arndt said after the race. "If Petra Rossner had been nominated, we could've had the gold. She would've been our trump card, because she's the fastest."  

Arndt, who will be fined for the gesture, expressed her regret later in a TV interview. "It shouldn't have happened, but I'm only human, and my emotions at that moment were overpowering," she said. Rossner, the girlfriend, is in Athens as a spectator. It's nice to see couples stand up for each other. Arndt is one of the seven out gay or lesbian jocks at the Games.

The South African men's 4x100 freestyle swim team was smokin', both in and out of the water. Anchored by Ryk Neethling, the South Africans set a world record in winning the gold medal in the race that ended Michael Phelps' quest to win eight gold medals. Phelps and the Americans finished eighth. 

After their stunning win, the South Africans hugged and flexed for the crowd. It looked like an A&F photo shoot. We were happy for Neethling (Brent Mullins photo left/click for larger view), whom we interviewed in June at a meet in Long Beach, Ca. He has model looks and a stunning body but he was very down to earth and unaffected as he talked about the upcoming Olympics. He was also featured in a Vanity Fair photo spread that romantically linked him to American Amanda Beard, but Beard said in Long Beach that she "ruled out boys for the summer." 

In some ways, you can say that Arizona, not South Africa, won the gold. Ryk Neethling, Roland Schoeman and Lyndon Ferns have all swam for the University of Arizona and train together. The fourth member is Darian Townsend. Neethling has his own website and comes across as American as Phelps. 

The knives were out for the U.S. after their stunning third-place finish in the relay. Gary Hall Jr., who was bumped in favor of Phelps, didn't even show up to watch, and his agent ripped Phelps' selection. "Gary is one of the best Olympians of all time,'' said David Arluck, "I can't believe they kept him off the relay for some 19-year-old guy who is going after something that he's not going to accomplish anyway.'' 

U.S. coach Eddie Reese was also criticized for having Ian Crocker on the team, despite him being weak with a sore throat. Crocker swam a disastrous first leg, finishing eighth in his leg. Crocker was the slowest of all 32 competitors in the event.

Serbia and Montenegro played Argentina in a preliminary men's basketball game that was as good as any you'll ever see in an NCAA or NBA final. The Serbs rallied back from 12 down in the second half to take a late 3-point lead. Argentina tied in on a basket and free throw by Manu Ginobli, a star for the San Antonio Spurs (and for our money one of the hottest guys in the NBA). 

Serbia took an 82-81 on a free throw with 3.8 seconds to go and the Argentines had to drive the length of the court without a timeout. The ball wound up in Ginobli's hands as he was driving toward the basket. Off balance and falling backwards, he threw up about a 12-foot bank shot that dropped in as the clock struck zero and Argentina had an 83-82 win. 

The Argentine coach pulled his best Jim Valvano, running around looking for someone to hug. Ginobli lay on the ground, face down, arms extended in exhaustion and triumph. His teammates piled on top of him, with at least three of them reaching down, grabbing him by the head and kissing him. It was an awesome moment. When asked after what the plan for the final shot was, Ginobli answered: "There was no plan." It was sport at its best. 

What can one say about the U.S. men losing by 19 to Puerto Rico in basketball? It’s stunning on the one hand, but not so much on the other. The world is getting better and the days of the Americans walking on the court and dazzling their opponents are long over. The U.S. is now 109-3 in Olympic competition. 

Before he headed to Athens to cover the games, New York Daily News sportswriter Mike O’Keefe made a bet with Cyd. He said the U.S. men’s basketball team wouldn’t even win a medal in Athens. Ha! Knowing that the team hadn’t even lost a game in the Olympics since starting to use professional players in 1992, Cyd told him he was crazy and happily bet lunch. On Sunday, Larry Brown’s team ended that three-Olympiad undefeated streak. Cyd hope Mike eats cheap. 

While it’s strange to see professional athletes play in the Olympics, it feels the strangest with tennis. How is this tournament any different than the one that will start in New York City the week after these Games end? I’d love to see the Olympics roll back the pro-athlete admission to the games to certain sports. Venus Williams and Roger Federer don’t need yet another tournament victory under their belts. 

Watching the amazing female weightlifters, one can only say: So much for women being the weaker sex.

Listening to Katie Couric complain about the heat in Athens, you’d think the air conditioning in her personal trailer wasn’t working. She and so many in the press have made such a huge deal out of the 90-plus temperatures there, how people are fainting and how so many have to cake on 30 SPF sunscreen to protect themselves. Wah wah wah. Have they never considered that the original Olympians had no A/C, were subjected to the endless heat and sun with no protection and still didn’t get the million-dollar endorsement deals? 

Our vote for the most boring sports we’ve seen so far: women’s field hockey and men’s soccer. I guess we just don’t get field hockey and found ourselves quickly switching the channel. As for soccer, the Olympics are not a major event in the sport with the players in the 23 and under grouping. The play isn’t as skilled as a good league match in England or Germany, and having all 90 minutes on TV left us wondering why. 

We’re still pissed that CNBC blew off the men’s water polo match between favored Hungary and contender Serbia Montenegro. It was on the schedule but not a second was shown. But we did at the same time see more equestrian than we’d care to. Why not cut 20 minutes from the ponies and show the second half of water polo? 

From an Outsports reader: “Just caught a bit of the women's beach volleyball on NBC. Holy-moly, what skimpy outfits! Straight guys must be loving this!” Hey, lesbians aren’t turning away either. 

Wish we had decided to go to the Games: Far from there being too many people, there are too few. International Olympic Committee officials, worried by the television images being flashed around the world of athletes competing in near empty stadiums, have told the Athens Games organizers to give tickets away for free if necessary.

 

Day 1 of competition / Aug. 14

The Opening Ceremonies on Friday were spectacular in many ways, especially the whole water theme and ode to the Greek gods. Watching on NBC was often tedious, especially the high number of commercials. And what's with those US uniforms? As one Outsports poster wrote: "Tommy Hilfiger meets Samuel Jackson meets McDonald's circa 1980." Those cloth caps/berets were awful. They may work at the Winter Games, but not in Greece in August when it's 95 degrees. As usual, the Italians dressed the best.

As for the lighting of the flame, we totally agree with this blogger from Greece, who watched the ceremony on Greek TV: "The lighting of the torch was anticlimactic; lacking the visually sublime Barcelona flaming arrow aesthetics and the moving sight of Muhammad Ali in Atlanta, this felt a little flat and uninspired. It did not help that the windsurfer chosen to light the flame lacks any sort of emotional appeal to the country."

One of the hottest guy we saw was sprinter Kelsey Nakanelua from Samoa, who took his shirt off while marching in and looked like the proverbial Greek god.

U.S. swimmer Scott Goldbatt is keeping on online journal of his experiences, along with wife Colleen. Here is his view of the ceremonies (most of the swimmers stayed at their hotel since they had an early rise on Saturday): "It was actually quite boring if you ask me, but it is the opening ceremonies and cool to watch. I think most of us were asleep shortly after the U.S. walked into the stadium, and did not get to see the lighting of the flame."

And for those who ripped US commentators Katie Couric and Bob Costas, here is what the Greek blogger said about that country's hosts: "The Greek commentators were particularly appalling."

Michael Phelps is a stud. With all the pressure on him to win seven gold medals, he goes out in his first race, the 400 individual medley, wins easily and sets a world record. U.S. teammate Erik Vendt won the silver and it was cool to see Phelps scream, "Yeah, Vendt!" and raise his arm in triumph; you would have thought that Vendt had won. Phelps, in all we've read about him, seems like a fairly well adjusted guy.

We long for the days when TV would show all eight swimmers in a heat in a shot that panned the entire body. We now get closeups and only occasionally more.

Our favorite double-entendre from men's rowing's announcer Randy Rosenbloom on CNBC: "Greece is stroking to a sizable advantage."

 
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