OUTSIDE THE RINGS
Some Thoughts As Week One Comes To A Close
Believe it or not, Week One has come to a close. So here are seven random thoughts, one for each day of Week One:
Most Laughable Moment:
The claim from BOCOG that all the tickets are sold. I went to field hockey today right on the Olympic Green. Two popular teams, U.S. and Germany, were playing. Half the seats were empty. There is something wrong with this picture.
On The Surface:
In one 48-hour period, I saw swimming in water, Greco-Roman wrestling on mats, table tennis on wood, field hockey on artificial turf and indoor volleyball on some plastic-y rubbery floor. The Olympics are definitely multi-dimensional.
I love ’em at the Olympics. There is nothing better than the medal ceremony, which is as much dance and stage production as award giving.
Consider swimming, where Michael Phelps has taken the walk repeatedly and participated in the ritual. Music plays. The athletes march casually to the three-tiered podium at one end of the pool.
After the formal, baritoned announcement of the three medal winners, the national anthem of the champion is played. A select group of photographers is allowed to take shots about 20 feet in front of the podium.
After the music ends, the winner invites the silver and bronze medalists to join him on the top step. They each bring their medals to their faces for the photographers to snap.
They leave the medal stand and take a victory lap on the pool deck, stopping to give away their flowers to family and friends. They mug for the cameras, far more of them now on the side of the pool deck. Sometimes they bite the medal, as if to prove it’s not a giant piece of holiday candy. Trumpets blare. They walk off, victors of a higher kind.
Cynic I may be, but I get chills every time.
Best place to watch:
Peking University Gymnasium for table tennis. Eight tables going at the same time. Lighting is bright and crisp. Crowd is knowledgeable and noisy. You can watch and root for three or four tables simultaneously. It’s China’s game.
Smartest people:
U.S. women sabre fencers, who swept the individual medals in the event. The winner was a Notre Dame anthropology grad. Silver medalist is a Yale grad headed to Michigan Law School. Bronze medalist is going to be a Duke freshman. What a delight.
Best sound effects:
During video reviews of questionable goals, a syncopated, deafening gong can be heard over the loudspeaker at field hockey. It’s the sound of Godzilla jogging down Broadway in clogs. Scary as heck.
Most daring Olympic participants:
Beijing’s cab drivers. Merging into traffic is not an option. Elbowing in is the mode. No Beijing taxi driver concedes an inch. The road belongs to them. It’s dangerous out there and these men and women give new meaning to chutzpah, which is not a Chinese word.
I can’t wait for the next 10 days to unfold.
