If you missed Usain’s incredible 100m sprint, here’s the video. Even though it’s taken from the BBC feed, it probably won’t be online for long because NBC is being run by a bunch of morons. Enjoy the swag while you can.
I’m in the middle of a real busy weekend, but I had to take a second to post about Usain Bolt’s electrifying (yes pun) performance in the men’s 100m sprint yesterday. It wasn’t even that he broke his own world record (from 9.72 down to 9.69), but it was how effortlessly he ran all throughout the competition. He won every qualifying heat so easily that he actually let up with 30 meters left each time. When the final came, everyone anticipated that he’d finally have to run the full race at top speed.
[Charlie Murphy] wrong…WRONG. [/Charlie Murphy]
From the start of the race, it was clear that Bolt was surpremely confident. He bounced around and struck poses before getting in the blocks. While everyone else wore hi-tech singlets, hoping to shave every possible split second off their time, Usain rocked some shorts and a normal little tank top. Oh, and his left shoe was untied:
(are you kidding me?)
After a decent start and first 40 meters, Bolt turned it on and absolutely blew out his competition. So much so that he let up again, this time throwing his arms out and beating his chest in celebration, a good 20 meters before the finish line:
As the 7 other fastest people on the planet strained towards the line, Bolt glided past it and continued on into his victory lap. In between talking with his family and grabbing a Jamaican flag to show off to the world, he danced and broke out the classic ‘airplane’ move:
Again, it wasn’t just that he ran 100 meters faster than any human in history. It’s that he did it so easily and so relaxed, almost as if it was a mere formality. Apparently, it was. Truly, a display for the ages and one worthy of instant inauguration to the Swag Hall of Fame.
Looking at the pictures doesn’t do it justice, but thanks to NBC’s draconian restrictions on archived video from the Games, you’ll have to watch it on their site here. If you’re outside the US, NBC hates you and you’ll have to find it on your local Olympics carrier instead. Their coverage has been pretty good (aside from Bob Costas repeatedly mispronouncing Beijing), but the lack of archived video is killing me. In any case, find a way to watch the race and look out for Bolt running his real specialty in the 200m. This dude is unreal.
Also, some guy named Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal over the weekend. Yeah…that was kind of cool too. The Olympics are incredible!
(Yang Peiyi on the left, Lin Miaoke on the right. Both look adorable to me.)
I’m really enjoying the competition so far, but stories like this and the racist Spanish basketball advertisement are starting to take away from the Olympic spirit. Granted, there are also the tiiiiiiny issues of human rights abuse, pollution, and censorship that the Chinese government has failed to address, but is that really surprising? Not so much. This, however, is.
China’s made no secret that the 2008 games are their welcoming party to the table of world superpowers. To that end, they’ve controlled every last aspect of the presentation, crafting the exact image they want to project to the world. This happens everywhere – currently evident in Vancouver’s ongoing efforts to force their homeless outside of the city in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics – but it’s almost always troublesome. In this situation, the Chinese deemed a 7 year old singer named Yang Peiyi “not suitable” to perform at the opening ceremonies, even though they wanted to use her voice in a key part of the festivities. Apparently she wasn’t cute enough to represent the country on the world stage. So what to do? Simple, they found 9 year old Lin Miaoke to lip sync the song. Miaoke has since gone on to become an international celebrity, while the controversy over the decision just broke in the press. You can read the full story here.
At the moment, both girls and their families seem to be ok with the whole situation. That’s good, and I hope they continue to feel that way, but it doesn’t fix the larger problem here. The fact that a country would blatantly attack the self-esteem of one girl, and consequently, a whole generation, is appalling. China has all the tools to be a world leader, but there are certain areas where they’re failing miserably.
If you missed the historic men’s 4×100 freestyle relay in the Olympics yesterday, you missed one of the best races ever. It was so dope, I actually had to post about swimming on TAOD. That’s unheard of.
Our oldest swimmer on the team, Jason Lezak, anchored the race and somehow erased almost a full body length deficit in the final 50 meters. On his very last stroke, he edged out France’s Alain Bernard at the wall and kept Michael Phelps’ dream of 8 gold medals alive. At the same time, he ethered the trash talking Bernard, who earlier said the heavily favored French team would “smash” the Americans. Ouch.
Since NBC’s being a bit egomaniacal about its Olympics coverage, I can’t embed the video. You can, however, watch the race in all its glory right here.
Other observations from the first 3 days of the Olympics:
Last night’s show and interview with Wyclef coming soon, but for now…*Outro*
Fireworks light the sky over the National Aquatic Center (L) and the National Stadium.
The Big Picture posted some incredible shots from the Olympics Opening Ceremony, which is set to air here on the west coast in about an hour. I can’t wait to see it live, but in the meantime, check the amazing pictures right here.
(if our military used promo pictures like that, i’d sign up in a heartbeat)
The Big Picture recently posted up a lot of ridiculously cool pictures of the Chinese Anti-Terrorism units preparing for the Olympics. They really aren’t playing around. If anything pops up, they’re breaking out the flamethrowers and Segway scooters. I kid you not. Check out the rest of the pics here.
Saw this in the NY Times today and I thought it was equal parts heartbreaking and infuriating. I generally prefer to keep sports and politics separate, but I really hope that the world uses the upcoming Olympics to put pressure on China’s government. Between their human rights issues and the intense censorship of the press and their own people, something has to change. Sheer economic numbers won’t make China the super power it wants to be. At some point, its ethics need to catch up with the times.
When the final numbers are in, this earthquake will have killed over 100K people. We always think less of these tragedies when they happen abroad, but just imagine if we lost that many people here. To put it in perspective, Hurricane Katrina killed less than 2K. It’s insane.
Also, the audacity of the Chinese government to “have begged parents to quiet down and accept financial compensation for the loss of their children” is unbelievable. They don’t want money. They want their children back. And since you can’t provide that, you damn sure better give them some answers.
Chinese Stifle Grieving Parents’ Protest of Shoddy School Construction
DUJIANGYAN, China — Police officers here on Tuesday surrounded more than 100 parents protesting shoddy school construction and mourning the deaths of thousands of children during the recent earthquake.
The police dragged away several crying mothers and removed some journalists trying to report on the event, according to witnesses and photographs of the protest.
The attempt to snuff out the protest was the strongest sign so far of the government’s growing impatience with public airing of grievances over unsafe school construction.
A standoff between the parents, many carrying framed photos of their dead children, and the police officers, dressed in black uniforms, lasted for several hours. In the end, the parents walked away.
Read the full article describing the protest in detail and all the censorship these people are facing here.