2008 Olympics: Opening Ceremony goes well and with a hitch
2008 Olympics: The Amazing Race
2008 Olympics: The Amazing Finish
2008 Olympics: NBC's dirty pool
2008 Olympics: Lucky Eight for Phelps
2008 Olympics: Down goes Franco! Down goes Franco!
2008 Olympics: Usain Bolt - A bolt of lightning or steroids in a syringe?
2008 Olympics: Final Thoughts
U.S.A. Volleyball teams dominate
The U.S.A. volleyball teams were dominant, winning three gold medals and one silver medal in the men's and women's indoor and outdoor competitions. U.S.A volleyball fans fell one victory short of nirvana as the women's indoor team came up short in their gold medal match against Brazil. Although it was entertaining to watch the U.S. women enjoy an official home court advantage as their coach was Chinese volleyball legend, Jenny Lang Ping, nicknamed "the iron hammer." Lang moved to the United States to avoid the Michael Jordan level of notoriety she lived with in China. The
Thin Beast and The Professor prevail, win the gold in men's beach volleyball
When watching U.S.A volleyball the first thing that jumps is the 6'9" Phil Dalhausser. They call him the Thin Beast, but with his round head and easy going mannerisms he looks more like a gentle giant ready to mow down any team that stands in his way. But it is his veteran teammate, Todd Rogers that set the tone for the Americans.
Following an opening game close loss to Latvia (their only loss), Rogers told the sideline reporter that the Latvians played their perfect match. But in a reality check that most people might consider arrogant, Rogers said they played their D game and had they just played their B game they would have won.
Rogers lived up to his brash words. Dalhausser's play was steady and at times his blocking game altered the opponents play. Alhough the renowned server gave away many gains on serving errors. But it was Rogers who constant play on digs, sets, kills and finesse shots that anchored the American's subsequent dominant play.
Misty May and Kerri Walsh become the best women's beach volleyball duo in history
Just as they did in the 2004 Athens games, Misty May and Kerri Walsh did not lose a set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (in seven matches). They have now won 108 straight matches. May, nicknamed 'Six Feet of Sunshine' covered the net, while May had almost flawless secondary coverage; consistently reaching many balls and making many digs that the rest of the field simply could not do.
The U.S. men's volleyball team wins one for the proverbial Gipper
Eight was a lucky number for Phelps and eight is a lucky number for The U.S. men's indoor volleyball team. They went 8-0 on their way to winning the gold. And just as Phelps played out the Disney script, so did the U.S. team, winning after their coaches father-in-law was murdered and his mother-in-law severely injured by an attack from a Chinese citizen on the night of the opening games.
The U.S. team won their first three games without their coach, Hugh McCutcheon. The team truly was the United States of America team. Although, Clayton Stanley was named the team's tournament MVP, it took many heroic efforts from each player to get the gold. The biggest effort came from David Lee, who was making all the right hits and blocks in accounting for the the team's last four points in their victorious 15-13 fifth set.
U.S. Basketball: Despite what you heard, this is not redemption for the 'Redeem Team'
Winning gold in the 2008 Olympics does not erase the U.S. team's losses in the 2002 and 2006 World Championships and the 2004 Olympics. Although U.S.A. Basketball did reestablish their dominance, this does not redeem their past ineptness.
In 2002, the U.S. team lost three of their final four games on American soil, to finish in 6th place. Paul Pierce was the only player that consistently scored as the U.S. team front court featured the 33-year-old Antonio Davis (who was not even an aging perennial all-star), Raef LaFrenz (surprise, he's not Canadian), the young version of the immature Jermaine O'Neal, a still budding Elton Brand and Nick Collison and Ben Wallace, two players that cannot throw the ball in the ocean. That is right, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were too cool to be wasting their time on being part of the passe Dream Team concept. And it was mildly excusable, since their was not to much doubt that the U.S. c-team could not beat the international competition that featured teams that rarely sported five NBA quality players.
By 2004, our proven winners like Shaq and Kobe were just too selfish to be a part of the 2004 Athens Olympics team. The U.S. organizers still, underestimating the competition, did not make the sufficient efforts to get their best player, Pierce back. The U.S. team also featured only one NBA champion, Tim Duncan and a total of three players that even had been in an NBA Finals.
Worse, the team featured cancerous ball hogs like Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury and Carmello Anthony. The team also featured soft bigs like Lamar Odom and Shawn Marion. The U.S.A. organizers still foolishly believed that the sum of the parts were equal to the whole. It came as no surprise that Lithuania, Puerto Rico and Argentina put the U.S. team in their place as the U.S. went 5-3 U.S. team that featured Carmelo Anthony shooting 7-28 (in the Olympics) looked nothing like a Dream Team at any point.
The media loved to talk about how the rest of the international community had caught up. And surely they had made great strides. But it was clear that the U.S had the wrong players and were not prepared to win.
At the 2006 World Championship, there was still no Kobe or Pierce or Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan. But certainly a team led by a by then polished Lebron James and Dwayne Wade was in a good starting position. But again, mentally the team was not there. Following their semifinal loss to Greece, in the post game press conference, U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski could not even call any of the Greek players (including the Greece League MVP) by their names. He instead referred to them by their numbers.
On a positive note, the 2008 team does deserve to be in the collective consciousness of 'Dream Teams' past. But let us not think that winning a gold medal erases the arrogance of the past. We hear players saying that nothing beats the feeling of winning a gold medal. But that flies in the face of the egocentric NBA. Nobody on the U.S team was overcome with joy in the way that Pierce and KG were when they won their first NBA championship.
And can we really blame NBA players for valuing winning an NBA championship more? Quite frankly it is a harder accomplishment and therefore brings more joy on that level. But we can blame these players for overselling their patriotism through lies. I will not call out any individual player's patriotism. It is certainly possible some of them do value a medal more. But in no way if that were generally true, would we have lost in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
Other countries' players do highly value their need to contribute to their team. Manu Ginobili went out on a bad ankle to defend Argentina's gold medal. Yao Ming was under intense political pressure, but it was his love of country that allowed him to play in every game with a broken body.
The 'Redeem Team' was a catchy slogan. But it really only reinforces how the U.S. team loves to rest on it's laurels. Congratulations on the great tournament, but is it redemption? Tough call. They certainly righted the ship.
Softball gets the boot, why not baseball?
Softball came up one vote short of being a sport at the 2012 London Olympics. Conspiracy theorists (or maybe realists) believe that the U.S. dominance led to it's discontinuance. I cannot speak to any exact truth in that matter, but we should not be so naive as to believe that their is not significant geo-political sentiment agains the U.S.A. that does not adversely affect American athletics at various times. My argument is why softball and why not baseball? I am a baseball fan and am hardly a softball fan to speak of. But at least we are seeing the best female athletes compete in softball. I believe that if baseball is unwilling to send their professionals to the Olympics than we do not need to see the c-teams compete for the prestige of a gold medal.
Lolo Jones
That was some serious drama, watching Lolo lose an inevitable gold medal, when she stumbled on the second to last hurdle. It is amazing how years of work can go up in smoke so fast!
Chinese gymnast scandal
There is significant evidence, that three of the six Chinese gymnasts did not meet the minimum age of 16 to compete. The IOCC is sitting on it's hands regarding evidence that He Kexin is only 13! Shots Heard smells some serious bribery. Considering the corruption has deep roots in the communist Chinese government, it would seem that nobody will be officially exposing this scandal. But we all know the truth.
For those that do not follow gymnastics, it can be quite an advantage for a younger, lighter, more agile gymnast to perform certain tricks. Shame on the IOCC for being spineless. But this reminds us of the bigger shame that is communism. An oppressive system that installs fear in it's people has left a 13-year-old girl with no other choice but to accept lying for her country.
Men's Long Distance Walking: You fake the call
Picture 1: Jenny Lang Ping, USA Volleyball Coach and the 'Michael Jordan' of Chinese sports
Picture 2: USA 2008 men's beach volleyball gold medalists, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers
Picture 3: USA 2008 women's beach volleyball gold medalists, Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor
Picture 4: USA 2008 men's indoor volleyball gold medal team
Picture 5: USA 2008 men's basketball gold medal team, 'Redeem Team'
Picture 6 + 7: USA women's track hurdler, Lolo Jones
Picture 8: Presumably underaged Chinese gymnast, He Kexin, age 13 (14), not the stated 15 (16)
Picture 9: 2008 Chinese Women's gymnast team.
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