Beijing Olympics 2008

1. Opening Ceremony Redux: In a previous post, I mentioned how I really enjoyed watching the opening ceremony. Even so, I must admit that I'm disappointed in the Chinese officials who decided to allow a girl to lip-sync the "Ode to the Motherland" while the real singer was kept behind the scenes. Of course the most disappointing thing is the reasoning given: the real singer "wasn't cute enough." Here's a quote taken directly from CNN.com: "The reason was for the national interest," said Chen Qigang, the ceremony's musical director, in a state radio interview. "The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects." The CNN article can be found right HERE.

2. Chinese Women's Gymnastics Team: Prior to the start of the Olympics, there were allegations that some members of the Chinese Women's Gymnastics Team were too young to compete this year. The USA Today article can be found HERE. According to the rules, gymnasts must turn sixteen during the same calendar year as the Olympic games. At one point, there was evidence that showed one of the Chinese gymnast's birthdates as January 1, 2004, making her fourteen this year and thus ineligible to compete. On the other hand, her passport says that her birthday is January 1, 2002. So, the International Olympic Committee considers the matter closed. I realize it's not an exact science to judge someone's age based on his or her appearance, but I would say that the Chinese gymnasts definitely look younger than 16. I'm making this assessment based on watching them on TV as well as taking a look at the picture on the National Post website HERE.

Addendum: Never a stranger to outspoken commentaries, Bela Karolyi, the world-renowned gymnastics coach, sounded off on this issue a few days ago. Check out his comments HERE.

3. Michael Phelps: Clearly, Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer to ever compete in the Olympics, and his accomplishments are unparalleled-- but I disagree with the media's description of Phelps as the "greatest Olympic athlete of all time." Certainly his record-breaking accomplishments and his collection of gold medals warrants bestowal of the title of "Greatest Swimmer in Olympic History," (even over Mark Spitz)-- but "Greatest Athlete?" Not so fast.

Although swimming requires extraordinary physical skill and rigorous training, the fact is that swimming doesn't punish an athlete's body as much as other events. Take, for example, boxing, hockey, weightlifting, or even gymnastics, sports in which the athlete's body is under an enormous amount of physical stress. Compare that to swimming, where the very nature of the sport requires the athletes to glide through the water with the least amount of resistance.

Am I claiming that it's easy to become an Olympic-class swimmer? No, surely not; it requires intense focus and dedication, but swimming is low-impact compared to many other sports, thus allowing swimmers to recuperate more quickly and compete in numerous events over a series of days. It's also worth noting that many of the other Olympic sports don't incorporate a multitude of events like swimming does (e.g. 100m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly, 100m Backstroke, etc.). An interesting commentary about this issue can be found HERE.