The Olympic Review

This is the Claw, and I’m back with a vengeance so give you the updates on the world as well as my opinions to share so that (hopefully) you can share them back.

The biggest event of the summer was obviously the Olympic Games.  The huge criticism I had was that NBC did not broadcast the games, especially the Opening ceremony live.  Of course, most of us were probably sleeping while most the events were taking place, but I’m sure that many people would sacrifice some sleeping time to watch the games live.  If people did that for the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup, I’m sure they would’ve done the same for the Olympics. 

The United States and China were the biggest winners of these games.  The U.S. won the most overall medals with 110, but China clinched the most gold medals with 51 (100 overall).  Whoever the biggest winner was is still debatable. 

Michael Phelps is perhaps the single greatest Olympian of all time.  At 23, he has already clinched 14 gold medals, including 8 in these games (new record, surpassing Mark Spitz of ’72).  Even his 12,000-calorie-a-day diet was the talk of the town.  The USA Basketball team even took some time off watching Phelps breaking records.

Speaking of the Redeem Team, USA Men’s Basketball reclaimed gold after a surprisingly hard-fought battle against Spain (whom they defeated by 37 earlier in these games), losing by 9 at one point, but only to win by 11 to claim gold.  After lackluster showings in the 2004 games, and the 2002 and 2006 world championships, USA is once again number one in the world, but they must forever remain vigilant of the ever-increasing competition. 

Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh clinched their 2^nd consecutive Olympic gold medal at Beach Volleyball, winning their 108^th consecutive as a duo.  They’re still fun to watch.  Men’s Beach Volleyball also clinched gold in their division.

The Lopez family of Steven, Mark, and Diane of Taekwondo earned their medals of bronze, silver and bronze respectively.   It’s nice to see siblings actually working together for a common goal, instead of against each other.  In fact, their coach is the oldest brother, Jean. 

Perhaps the most inspirational of Team USA is wrestling’s Henry Cedujo.  Son of undocumented immigrants, now 21, he clinched the gold in the 55kg (121 lbs) weight division.  His father died when Henry was at a very young age, so his mother had to work 2-3 jobs to support him.  His mother obviously stressed the hard work and not to be a victim.  If she can only say that to the many Hispanics here in the U.S., who don’t do well in school, often dropping out. 

Another inspiration was swimming’s Dara Torres, the oldest Olympian (41) to win medals (she won 3 silver).  It’s a sad commentary to say, but I wonder on who’s going to bring up the HGH-card, giving that by her standards it’s nearly impossible to compete in that sport, let alone medal.  With steroid scandals of Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, and Roger Clemens, it wouldn’t be too surprising if someone were to accuse Torres of cheating.  Thankfully, it hasn’t happened yet.

The most disappointing was USA Track and field.  Back then you would hear stories about Michael Johnson and Carl Lewis (don’t forget Jesse Owens), but now you hear Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who broke the 100m world record (9.65) and even the 200m world record (19.30).  Some say that Track and Field is losing their popularity because of the Big Three in USA sports of baseball, basketball, and American football.   For whatever reason, the US just isn’t very dominant in that field anymore.

Baseball and Softball have officially been dropped because of apparent lack of interest in these sports.  Team USA finished third in Baseball, while surprisingly second in Softball.  I’m sure that Baseball will resurrect as an Olympic sport with the World Baseball Classic already intact.  Softball, however, is not so lucky.  The irony of the result was this: the IOC deemed it fit to discontinue the program, yet they lost the gold medal match to Japan 3-1.  Did the U.S. loss to Japan increase the debate on resurrecting the sport after 2012?  Maybe, but without another international event to back up that claim, it would be very hard for softball to return.  (You should’ve seen the faces of Team USA after losing the final game.  Hell, I need an excuse to see the stunning bombshell, Jeanie Finch, again).

Now, the Olympics wouldn’t be the Olympics without scandals.  Ara Abrahamian (Wrestling) of Sweden, dropped his Bronze Medal during the medal ceremony in protest that he felt the judges were unfair during the semi-final match.  The IOC later ruled that he was correct to protest the ruling (I’m still not sure on whether or not he would still receive).  Cuban Angel Matos of Taekwondo deliberately kicked the referee after being DQ’d for not recovering from an injury time-out (he needed a minute to nurse a foot, which was later diagnosed as a broken toe).  He and his manager will be facing a lifetime ban from the sport.  

Last but not least, was the Opening Ceremony.  It’s been a while since I saw this but the choreography was so stunning that London of 2012 will need a lot of catching up to do (Galaxy’s David Beckham was at the Closing Ceremony to symbolize the transition).   Steven Spielberg, at one point, was to be the creative consultant for the Opening Ceremony but resigned in protest because the China’s cozy relationship with Darfur.  Well, it turned out he wasn’t needed at all.