Nomination For Athlete of the Olympics: Manteo Mitchell

If you haven't heard of Manteo Mitchell, I wouldn't be surprised. I hadn't heard of him either. He's a runner for the US and was busy running the 4x400 relay in the heats. Mitchell ran his opening leg in 46 seconds.

That's not particularly remarkable.

He ran that on a broken leg.

Mitchell, who finished fifth in the 400 at the Olympic trials, had slipped on a stairway at the athletes' village earlier this week but didn't think anything of it.

"Three days ago I was going up the stairs and I kind of missed one and landed awkwardly," Mitchell said in a statement released by USA Track and Field. "I got treatment and I was fine. I did workouts, and when I warmed up today I felt really well. I felt I could go 44 [seconds]-low.

"I got out pretty slow, but I picked it up and when I got to the 100-meter mark it felt weird. I was thinking I just didn't feel right. As soon as I took the first step past the 200-meter mark, I felt it break. I heard it. I even put out a little war cry, but the crowd was so loud you couldn't hear it. I wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half."

Somehow, he kept going.

"I knew if I finished strong we could still get it around," he said of the baton. "I saw Josh Mance motioning me in for me to hand it off to him, which lifted me. I didn't want to let those three guys down, or the team down, so I just ran on it. It hurt so bad."

The 1,600-meter relay final will take place on Friday. The U.S., which previously lost LaShawn Merritt to a leg injury during the 400-meter heats and more recently lost Jeremy Wariner to a torn hamstring, will announce its lineup Friday.

Had he been unable to complete his leg, the US chances for a medal in the relay would have been dashed. His teammates were able to place second in the heat and they will run for a medal later in the meet.

The doctors confirmed it after he limped off the track after his handoff. That's probably still a minute or two faster than I could do it - healthy.

The Olympics Are Barely Underway and Athletes Are Getting Banned

The Olympics are barely underway (soccer started today) and there's already a bunch of athletes disqualified for failing drug tests, but one athlete was booted because of racist twitter comments. A Greek triple-jumper was booted for the comments today.

With a 140 character message, triple jumper Voula Papachristou leaped her way out of the London Olympics and into an international spotlight she did not anticipate.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee expelled Papachristou from the team after the 23-year-old Greek mocked African immigrants on her Twitter account. The committee said that Papachristou was "placed outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic Movement."

While gearing up for her first Olympic games on Sunday, Papachristou commented on the reported influx of West Nile mosquitos in Athens. She tweeted in Greek, "With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!" Her tweet provoked a bevy of ill responses, and many Greeks called for her dismissal from the Olympic team.

Papachristou also retweeted messages from the extreme right Golden Dawn party, which has criticized Greek's prime minister and his stance on immigration.

Racist is racist. It's part and parcel of what the Golden Dawn thinks of immigration and immigrants. It's xenophobia at its most exposed.

West Nile is prevalent around much of the world, including the NYC metro area. We have regular spraying of insecticides throughout the region to limit the spread of mosquito populations in the area and doctors are better informed as to the symptoms to help identify those who have become infected. That's limited the mortality rate here, but it's got nothing to do with immigrants. It is prevalent among migratory birds, which are a spreading vector, which is why it's been found around much of the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Honoring Terrorists

The mastermind of the Munich Olympics terrorist attack, Mohammed Oudeh, not only gets a heroes burial in Syria where he'd lived for decades, but honorifics from rival terrorist organizations.

Mr. Oudeh oversaw the plans of the raid, in which eight Palestinian militants belonging to the Black September group broke into a dormitory at the Olympic village where Israeli athletes were sleeping and took them hostage in the early morning of Sept. 5, 1972. Two of the athletes, a weightlifter and a wrestling coach, tried to overpower the militants, and were shot and killed.

The militants ended up with nine hostages, whom they said they would release in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel.

Israel refused to negotiate and a standoff ensued for 20 hours, while static television images of an empty balcony on a gray, modern dormitory transfixed the world. The Israeli hostages and their Palestinian captors were eventually transported by helicopters to a military airfield, where they had been promised to be flown to Cairo. Instead, West German sharpshooters tried to rescue the Israelis, setting off a gun battle in which five Palestinians, a German police officer and the nine hostages were killed.

“I am proud of my father,” Mr. Oudeh’s daughter, Wafa Oudeh, said in a phone interview from Damascus, shortly after his burial in the section of a cemetery reserved for martyrs to the Palestinian cause. “As a father he was a special person. He was emotional and generous. He was devoted to his family and to Palestine. His death is like a mountain collapsing.”

In addition to Ms. Oudeh, he is survived by his wife, four other daughters, and a son.

Amin Maqboul, secretary general of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization faction to which Mr. Oudeh belonged, praised him as “a fighter of the highest order.”

Hamas, Fatah’s rival, released a statement mourning Mr. Oudeh.

The Islamists and terrorists just love to honor mass murdering terrorists. He was responsible for murdering athletes at the Olympics in images that are an indelible image of those Olympics.



Note too that this was a terrorist associated with Fatah and the PLO as one of its offshoots. Not only does Fatah recognize and memorialize this murderer, but Fatah's rival Hamas also takes time out from their internecine conflict to honor the murderer.

Meanwhile, a CNN reporter in Lebanon not only notes the death of a Hizbullah spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein Fadl-Allah, but mourns the loss. Classy.

IOC Can't Have It Both Ways

Just a day after the grisly death of a Georgian luger in a practice run, the Olympic organizers were simultaneously saying that the track was safe and busy extending walls and making adjustments to the track. Moreover, they lowered the starting point for both the mens and womens competitions in an effort to reduce the speeds seen on the track.

They wanted it both ways: The track was safe before, but it was even safer now.

"The opening of the track conforms to the standard that has been pretty much followed in Olympic sports since 1964," said Svein Romstad, secretary general of the International Luge Federation. "We have not experienced this in 35 years. We are unfamiliar with how to deal with this. You have a technical component, you have an emotional component."

They blew the technical component on Friday, when lugers - many of them relatively inexperienced, by international standards - were forced to travel at speeds up to 96 mph down a twisting course at the Whistler Sliding Centre. Then they blew the emotional component yesterday, by forcing the same sliders to start their training runs on the morning after the death of a competitor.

"It happened in front of me yesterday," said Shiva Kannan Palan Keshavan of India. "I've never seen anything like it before. I was telling myself not to believe it. It's fresh in our hearts today. We can't compete with the same joy."

They raced again anyway, wearing black stripes on their helmets to honor Kumaritashvili. And since this is a sport that thrives on adrenaline and no small amount of machismo, several officials were complaining about the less risky, slower course and arguing that sliders such as Kumaritashvili should not be part of the Olympics.

"Definitely something has to be considered to tighten the rules," said Wolfgang Staudinger, the Canadian coach. "Looking back to 2002, we had exotic sliders and this could have happened at previous Games. (Kumaritashvili) has to make a left there (on Curve 16) and I don't know why he went right. He was completely off line."

There are problems with this thinking, beyond the harsh, dismissive attitude. The Canadians had limited the amount of training runs by foreigners, slowing their learning curve. And you can't pretend this sport is a global event, worthy of Olympic inclusion, then invite to the Winter Games only a few sliders from the five top luging nations.

When you have the top luger in the world crashing and everyone else was having trouble, it isn't just human error - in this case Nodar Kumaritashvili who crashed and flew off his luge and off the track and dying after striking a metal pole.

There are those who think that the track's safety is in line with other tracks around the world, but what's troubling is that the accident rate that the track has been rising in the past year - probably as more athletes from around the world came to practice on the Olympic track:

The Whistler track's incredible speed and its safety have been an issue since it opened two years ago, and Kumaritashvili's death brings it into further question. Kumaritashvili was not the only athlete to crash during Friday's training runs. Armin Zoeggeler, the 2002 and 2006 gold medalist from Italy, had a rare crash on the 11th curve. Romania's Violeta Stramaturaru crashed and was knocked unconscious. The final curve where Kumaritashvili crashed is a complete U-turn that is so notorious lugers call it the "50-50 turn," because you have a 50-50 chance of crashing there.

According to figures released by the FIL, there have been more than 5,000 luge runs on the track -- Kumaritashvili had 26 runs here, 16 from the men's start -- and officials said the crash rate is not unusual, about 3 percent. Including all starting spots -- men's, women's, junior and novice -- in all events, there have been more than 30,000 runs on the track and 340 sled turnovers that required emergency medical response. The crash rate, however, has nearly quadrupled in the past year.

George Will Gets It Wrong On Obamas' IOC Copenhagen Speeches

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama may bea malignant narcissists, but their speeches before the IOC in Copenhagen don't prove the claim. George Will seems to think that it does, but he gets it wrong.

What the Copenhagen speeches show is an abject failure to persuade the IOC that Chicago had a superior bid to other cities in the competition combined with a failure to understand the IOC and how they chose cities to host the Games.

It also exposed yet another failure of the Administration officials to recognize no-win situations and put the President in a bind no matter how he responded to the challenge.

If Obama didn't go and Chicago didn't win, Obama loses.
If Obama goes and Chicago doesn't win, Obama loses.

Obama would only claim partial credit if Chicago wins the bid, and it is all too apparent that the Chicago bid was wanting even without Obama stepping in. Obama went because other cities had their respective national leaders go and promote the cities involved in the competition.

If you actually read the speeches, as oppose to read the punditocracy, you'd see that the speech was wanting on that very issue - the Obamas were supposed to be selling Chicago, and they didn't make the sale.

Here's the text of the speeches.

The speeches were supposed to persuade, but they do nothing of the sort. They are completely devoid of any reason to actually vote for Chicago over any of the other cities. That's the primary failure of the speeches.

Read Michelle and President Obama's speech, and it's all about the family and their attachment to sports; it was not about how the Bears or the Cubs and the White Sox make Chicago a huge sports town where the fans will make the Olympics commercially successful. After all, this is about the Olympics making money and being a successful operation.

It's about their personal connections to the city - not about the City itself and what it can do for the Olympics. That was a huge mistake. I'm not sure who thought that the Obamas' personalizing Chicago would help it win over the IOC, but it was a failed gambit. It would have been better had they not spoken at all since they completely missed the point of why they were there in the first place.

Had they instead spoken of the fans' devotion to teams despite failure to achieve for decades (Cubs fans!) they might have seen how the City could embrace all manner of sports that don't normally garner the kind of respect that basketball, swimming and gymnastics usually gets. I'm talking about the secondary sports that could use a boost from a fanatic crowd that would come out to cheer. None of this came across in the speeches.

A Worrisome Trend

Friday's failure of Chicago to win the bid to host the 2016 Olympics may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Chicago as Mike Lupica notes, but it clearly exposed problems with the Obama Administration and its worldview.

It also revealed a naivete and inexperience that extends to foreign policy and basic diplomacy.

Presidents do not attend major events unless their underlings have prepped the situation on the ground so that it favors the President to use his political capital to achieve success. It is all too apparent that the Administration did not understand the IOC and its byzantine politics. That's unforgivable precisely because they should have known what to expect from the USOC and Chicago 2016 committee. They admitted that much when they expressed those sentiments on Air Force One on the trip home from Copenhagen.

If the Administration knew that it was going to attend the IOC meeting, where was the preparation to insure the President would not get embarrassed if things didn't work out? It appears that it was wholly inadequate.

And that's going to get the US in trouble in the next three years. The President wants to rush headlong into talks with Iran, a totalitarian repressive regime that regularly lies, obfuscates, and alternates between secrecy and bold aggressive statements calling for the destruction of Israel, death to the US and is sitting on a vast nuclear program that is geared towards the production of nuclear weapons. Underestimating the politics of the IOC is one thing; to forge ahead and not understand the base rationale for Iran's pursuit of those nuclear weapons and missile technology is unforgivable.

Yet, that's the path we're apparently on. The President doesn't quite understand that talking, or the appearance of talking with the illegitimate leaders of Iran, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, actually legitimizes the regime and undermines the opposition that has been fighting to make sure their voice is heard despite a violent crackdown against the regime. The regime in Tehran wants nuclear weapons, and missteps in understanding the nature of the problem means that this Administration is falling into needless mistakes; mistakes that threaten US national security and the security of our allies throughout the world.

Everyone watched and saw the Administration's inability to seal the deal at the IOC. The best thing you can say is that he was in a no-win situation because had he not gone and Chicago lost, he would have been blamed for not going to support the bid, but he did go and Chicago still came in fourth.

That speaks to fundamental weaknesses in the Chicago bid or to the IOC's reaction to the Administration's efforts in Copenhagen. I suspect it's a bit of both.

The problem is that these issues keep cropping up all over the place with this Administration, whether it's the failure to properly vet candidates for top policy positions or fundamentally misreading the state of the economy.

That's the worrisome trend; the on the job training isn't working fast enough and the repercussions are going to linger.

IOC Voting Eliminates Tokyo and Chicago From Hosting 2016 Games; Rio Gets It

Tokyo and Chicago are out. That leaves Rio and Madrid. I think the odds favor Rio, primarily because Europe is already hosting the 2012 Games in London. The IOC tends to spread out the Games geographically, and it would be the first time a South American country hosted the Games.

Apparently all the last minute efforts by the Obamas went for naught. It just wasn't in the cards.

UPDATE:
The Chicago Sun Times calls the outcome shocking. Really? Was Chicago really the frontrunner for the Olympic bid? I didn't really think it was. I always thought that Rio had the inside edge on this one.

Some reports suggest that President Obama only came to lobby the IOC after other national leaders did the same to bolster their own national efforts. Boosterism couldn't hurt, but it didn't help Obama land Chicago the 2016 games.

The US efforts to land Olympic games is coming up against stronger bids elsewhere; the NYC 2012 bid failed when the West Side Stadium deal collapsed a month before selection, thrashing any chances. Maybe that's why the Obamas couldn't seal the deal; they didn't have the strongest bid no matter how much support they could throw their way.

And that's the fault of no one but the Chicago 2016 committee.

UPDATE:
Rio wins in the third round of balloting.

UPDATE:
Apparently for some it was a foregone conclusion that Chicago would win that we have stunned disbelief from the CNN reporters covering the announcement:



That's not covering the news. That's cheerleading, and realizing that your team lost.

The Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Gets Support From Obamas

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are both hoping to make the case that Chicago should win the 2016 Olympics bid for holding the games. They're competing against Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio di Janeiro.

It is a multibillion dollar effort to put on the Olympic Games. They usually don't make money for the host city, but they are transformative in that they create new structures and infrastructure. The Beijing Games was a coming out party for the Communist government to showcase some tremendous and cutting edge sports venues, but had to overcome the heavy handed tactics of dealing with protesters, tracking and limiting content online, and the ineffectual ability to control the pollution that clogged the skies of the city all too frequently.

Japan's efforts include renovations of venues used in the games held there previously, along with a pledge to make the 2016 games eco-friendly. Chicago has an excellent mass-transit infrastructure on paper, but the facts are something else entirely.

The Chicago mass transit system needs a serious infusion of funds to bring it up to snuff. There are sections of track where speeds are limited because of a concern that derailments are all too possible. It has been unable to deal with basic maintenance, and the bill is in the billions.

Will the Olympic bid improve matters? Possibly. Mass transit is a key, and many of the venues and the Olympic Village are close together, limiting travel time and improving efficiencies in an effort to make the Games green.

I'm not quite as outraged as some are over the President being a salesperson for the US efforts to win the Olympics bid. It's his hometown, and being a booster for the hometown effort isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. I am concerned that the appearance of spending all that time and effort could be used better to deal with the Iranian crisis or the flooding in Georgia or even the health care battles in Congress. After all, there are other issues that require Presidential attention, and if he's spending time lobbying the Olympic committee in Copenhagen, that's time that he's not spending on foreign policy or national security issues like the Iranian nuclear and missile threats.

Fidel Castro: Olympic Ref Had It Coming

That's the Olympic spirit. Fidel Castro, or someone publishing under his name, has basically said that the referee who disqualified one of his taekwando athletes had it coming when the Cuban gave him a boot to the head.

Taekwondo officials want Matos and his coach banned for life from the sport. But Castro expressed “our total solidarity” for both Matos and his coach Leudis Gonzalez.

Matos was winning 3-2 in the second round when he fell to the mat after being hit by his opponent, Kazakhstan’s Arman Chilmanov, and was disqualified for taking more than his one minute of injury time.

Matos angrily questioned the call, pushed a judge and then pushed and kicked referee Chakir Chelbat of Sweden, who needed stiches to repair his lip. Matos then spat on the floor and was escorted out.

Taekwondo officials called Matos’ behavior an insult to the Olympic vision. Matos’ coach countered that the match was fixed and accused the Kazakhs of offering him money.

Escorted out? He should have been arrested for that behavior as he assaulted the referee. You could disagree with him, yell at him, and make a complete ass out of yourself, but the moment he attacked him, Matos went so far over the line so as to be criminal.

So, of course Castro would support his athlete.

The Elite Eight

Michael Phelps has done what no other athlete has ever done at an Olympics game. He's won eight gold medals in one Olympics, and now owns 14 gold medals over two games. Many athletes spend their entire lives dedicated to winning just one. Phelps is blessed with the skill and ability to compete in so many swimming disciplines to be able to make an attempt to rack up the medals. He's not only done the incredible, winning eight gold medals in Beijing, he set seven world records in the process.

His closest race was against Milorad Cavic in the 100m butterfly, which he won by a hundreth of a second. It was also the one race in which he, or his relay team, didn't set a world record. However, his time was good enough for a personal best and an Olympic record.

Phelps' domination at the pool was such that it had former and current Olympians shaking their head in awe at what he was doing at the pool. I can't blame them.

No one had ever seen what Phelps had done before. Not even Mark Spitz, the previous record holder at 7 gold medals in one games (Munich 1972). Spitz has been very gracious in speaking about Phelps and the record chase. Good on him.

Here's the scary part.

Phelps is 23, and could conceivably race again in 2012 in London.

In the meantime, swimming officials hope that Phelps will use his new found fame and fortune to increase the exposure of the sport to more people. I hope so too. He'll definitely cash in with his gold medal haul with endorsement deals and other opportunities.

NBC: Save the Planet; But Our Outdoor Set Needs AC

Hypocrites. The network regularly runs overheated claims about global warming and what people must do to reduce their carbon footprint.

I'm sure most folks don't have air conditioning systems built to specifically cool their outdoor spaces. NBC does at their Beijing television set.

“The set is outside, but air conditioning vents make the weather bearable,” Anne Marie Tiernon wrote for WTHR Eyewitness News on August 14.

Even NBC “Today” co-host Matt Lauer remarked about the air conditioning, but said it was still uncomfortable even with it.

“The first couple of nights even with the air conditioning it was steamy in here, but we've been lucky ever since,” Lauer said to WTHR. “It’s been overcast some days, takes the temperature down. We call it fog smog.”

Last fall, the network performed a publicity stunt on its November 4 broadcast of its highly rated Sunday Night NFL Football show, “Football Night in America.” The broadcast used limited lighting for the broadcast and even went completely dark for the final moments of the program.

The effort was to raise awareness and set an example for the rest of the country, however, the same example isn’t being set for the broadcast from the world’s biggest polluter, China.

The air is still uncomfortable for Matt Lauer. Quick, someone turn the AC on high. You're outdoors and it's summer. What did you expect?

Once again, the hypocrisy of the man-made global warming crowd shines through. They will say and do anything to chastise people into reducing their own power usage, while they continue to use power just as they always have.

UPDATE:
Instapundit links. Thanks!

Six For Six

Michael Phelps continues his record and epic run at the Olympics. He's now won all six of the events he's entered so far, and all in world record times. He still has two more events in which he can tie or break Mark Spitz's record seven gold medals at one Olympic games.

Another Faked Episode From Beijing's Opening Ceremony

Yesterday we learned that the Chinese computer enhanced and manipulated the video showing fireworks dancing across the sky. Today, we learn that the voice of one of the Chinese girls who sang during the opening ceremony was dubbed over by another girl. The Chinese wanted to have the perfect opening ceremony, so they picked the prettiest girl to appear and had the girl with the best voice sing over her.

Acoustics had nothing to do with it. Under pressure from the highest levels of the ruling Communist Party to find the perfect face and voice, the ceremony’s production team concluded the only solution was to use two girls instead of one. Miaoke, a third grader, was judged cute and appealing but “not suitable” as a singer. Another girl, Yang Peiyi, 7, was judged the best singer but not as cute. So when Miaoke opened her mouth to sing, the voice that was actually heard was a recording of Peiyi.

And it is unclear if Miaoke even knew.

“The reason was for the national interest,” explained Chen Qigang, general music designer of the opening ceremonies, who revealed the deception during a Sunday radio interview. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression.”

China wants the Olympics as a stage to present a picture-perfect image to the outside world, and perfection was clearly the goal for the dazzling opening ceremonies. The filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who oversaw the production, has drawn international raves for a performance considered one of the most spectacular in Olympic history. But to achieve the spectacular, Mr. Zhang faked not only the song; organizers also have admitted that one early sequence of the stunning fireworks shown to television viewers was actually created using digitally enhanced computer graphics for “theatrical effect.”

The Chinese must have figured that if such things are good for Britney Spears or Madonna, it's good enough for their opening ceremony.

UPDATE:
Attendance isn't where the Chinese hoped it would be, so they're using volunteers to fill the seats. Excuses are offered, but perhaps it has something to do with the fact that most Chinese can't afford to go to the games combined with the Chinese making promises they couldn't or wouldn't keep. Then again, it could be the fact that the Chinese limit the number of people who can be in and around the venues.

Or, maybe it has something to do with the armored personnel carriers and heavy security presence that seemingly sprang into place after the murder of a relative of a US coach earlier this week or repeated attacks on Chinese security in Western China.

Michael Phelps Continues Mastery Of Fluid Dynamics

I tried getting into competitive swimming when I was in high school, but just couldn't put in the time or get my technique down to make the swim team, but I can certainly appreciate what goes into making that happen.

What Michael Phelps is doing at the pool in Beijing is working his way to an epic performance for all time. He's within striking range of being in possession of the most medals by any athlete ever (12 - currently owned by American Jenny Thompson). He now shares the record for most gold medals at nine (along with Spitz, and several other athletes).

However, what drives him most is beating Mark Spitz's seven gold medals from the 1972 Olympics. Right now, he's got three golds, and five more events to go.

His toughest events are behind him, and the 4 x 100 relay was the one event that put a scare into everyone as the French nearly pulled out an amazing world record swim but for the closing leg by Jason Lezak, who put his own emphatic stamp on the world record by putting in the fastest time in the 100 relay leg in history. Lezak just barely touched the wall ahead of the French competitor, world record holder Alain Bernard, overtaking him in the final half lap so that Phelps record chase remained fully intact. Lezak's exploits in the pool will quickly become the stuff of legend, especially if Phelps does make his medal count because it wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of Lezak.

Still, things may still not fall Phelps' way - a surprise effort by any number of swimmers along the way could disrupt his quest including his teammates such as Ian Crocker, or even Phelps having an off day. However, he appears to be as fully concentrating on the task at hand - winning gold medals.

And setting world records to boot. Each of his gold medal performances were in world record time, obliterating the prior records at that.

Right now, he's the master of his domain.

Iranian-Israeli Confrontations At Olympics Mixed Medley

An Iranian swimmer refused to compete against an Israeli swimmer at the Olympics today.

An Iranian swimmer pulled out of the Olympic Games men's 100m breaststroke heats on Saturday, just minutes before he was due to compete against an Israeli rival.

Mohammad Alirezaei's lane one was empty when the field left the starting blocks while Israel's Tom Beeri, starting in lane seven, finished fourth.

Israel, the Middle East region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, considers Iran its main strategic threat because of its nuclear programme and repeated predictions of the Jewish state's demise by senior Iranian leaders.

For a regime that calls for the destruction of Israel and sees itself as superior to the Israelis, they sure have an odd way of demonstrating it. Expect the swimmer to be welcomed home a hero and awarded for his cowardice by the mullahs in Tehran even though he chickened out in the race. Then again, he probably didn't want to be completely embarrassed by the Israeli swimmer who would likely have blown him out of the water.

The same may not be said for some Iranian basketball players, who came over and hugged the Russian coach. You see, the Russian coach, David Blatt, happens to have Israeli and American citizenship.

The Obligatory Olympics Opening Ceremony Post

The Beijing Olympics has opened today with all the usual pomp and circumstance. Yippee.

It's nice to see through all the haze, pollution, and obfuscation by the Chinese government.

They've created a Potemkin vision. They want the world to see that they're ready to join the world stage and assume a place of primacy. Too bad the luster wore off well before today. All that glamour and glitz hides the grim reality that the situation in China is an absolute mess. The fact that the Chinese have to repress speech, access to the Internet to report and research stories, etc., shows that the Chinese are trying to project an image of modernity and glamour, but they know that the truth is far more grim.

The Chinese efforts have been overshadowed by their repressive human rights - both inside China and for its support of genocidal regimes in places like Sudan and Zimbabwe. The air quality problems just scratch the surface of the massive environmental damage and ongoing failings to deal with pollution wrought by the government's need to grow the economic at a breakneck pace to stem dissent. The government's craven policy that restricts media access to the Internet for fear that some reporter might report on any of the travesties imposed on the Chinese people by the Communists are what have been exposed.

Ralph Peters is conducting his own boycott of the Games. I will watch some of the events but have no interest in watching the opening or closing ceremonies.

China Yanks Visa of Olympic Gold Medalist Over Darfur Activism

Joey Cheek, who won a gold medal for speed skating at the Torino Olympics two years ago found out that China revoked his visa to attend the Beijing games just two days before the games were scheduled to open.

Olympic gold medalist and outspoken Darfur activist Joey Cheek has had his visa revoked by the Chinese embassy, hours before the speedskating champion was set to fly to China. And he wasn't even planning on wearing a mask when he got there.

Chinese officials don't need a reason to revoke anyone's visa but, in their eyes, they had plenty of reasons to snatch Cheek's. He is the founder of Team Darfur, a group of 70 athletes whose goal it is to raise global awareness of the human-rights violations taking part in the Darfur region of Sudan. China's military, economic and diplomatic ties to Sudan have been well-publicized in the lead-up to the Games.

China is doing its best to silence debate about its odious positions on humanitarian crises around the world and its support for regimes like Sudan that have engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide. (HT: 2blue4u at LGF)

So, what was Cheek proposing China do? Honor the Olympic truce, a concept that dates back to ancient times. China responded by yanking his visa.

Yet, what this has done is actually raise Cheek's profile and that of his organization because the Chinese have actually drawn attention to their ongoing policies to silence criticism of the regime. It once again reinforces that the Chinese government has no interest in free speech.

The White House has protested the Chinese actions, but President Bush will still go ahead with attending the opening ceremonies. He should have sent someone else in his stead, rather than lend the prestige of the President of the United States to the regime in Beijing.

Clearing the Air

Mrs. Lawhawk made a most cogent point about the Chinese efforts to clear the air in Beijing for the Olympics.

Smog returned to Beijing's skies on Monday, despite claims by Chinese officials that drastic anti-pollution measures had slashed the chances of Olympic events having to be rescheduled.

The familiar murky air seen in the capital reduced visibility to a few hundred metres (yards) just four days before the Olympic opening ceremony.

The poor air followed three days of blue skies, that had led Chinese officials to trumpet the success of drastic anti-pollution measures.

The Chinese measures are only temporary.

The Chinese government is engaging in draconian measures to limit pollution - shutting down thousands of factories and power plants for weeks on end and is even considering banning 90% of cars from driving in Beijing during the Games.

So, what happens once the cheering at the Bird's Nest ends? The smog will return, worse than ever, and the factories will once again resume belching all manner of pollutants into the air.

How exactly is that an improvement? The Chinese are simply putting a band aid on an environmental nightmare and no one bothers to call them on it. The media would rather focus on the extraordinary efforts that the Chinese are going to in order to make the skies clear for the Games, but few are focusing on what will happen the moment the Olympic torch goes out.

The Chinese cannot shut down thousands of factories and power plants permanently because it would throw the Chinese economy into chaos and the Chinese government needs the economy to remain robust to keep whatever criticism that has spread about the government to a minimum.

So, while the Chinese will pray for clear air for the Games, everyone should be focusing on what will happen the next day and what the Chinese (and everyone else around the globe) will be breathing. That means you folks in Los Angeles will see your skies smog over as much as 25% of your pollution is not produced locally, but floating over from China.

Their pollution mess becomes our pollution mess, and it doesn't matter what we have accomplished because it will negated by what China does.

UPDATE:
So, what will China do after the Olympics? It will monitor the pollution levels. Eventually:

"We should be able to start regular monitoring of ozone and PM2.5 (particle matter) next year, which would lead to measures to deal with them," Fan told a press conference.

He was speaking in response to reports that China's environmental authorities had failed to include fine particles and ozone into their pollution measurements, causing ignorance of health damage caused by the pollutants.

Fine particles, known as PM2.5, are tiny solid particles of 2.5micrometers in diameter and smaller. Health experts believe they are unhealthy to breathe and have been associated with fatal illnesses and other serious health problems.

New York Times' Flawed China Coverage

It starts with the headline, and goes down from there.

Apparently, the New York Times thinks that the repression and brutality of the Chinese government has improved; the repression of free speech, access to information, and mass arrests notwithstanding. The Chinese government hopes for a politics free games - even if it means repressing the voices of those that might speak against them.

And that doesn't even get into the ecological nightmares created by the Chinese policies of economic growth at all costs and the subsequent massive efforts to curtail all economic activity ahead of the Olympic games so that the athletes can actually breathe comfortably.

It goes without saying that there's no way that the Chinese government will keep the harsh and restrictive bans on businesses and economic activities past the Olympics. So, don't expect the skies to be anywhere near as clean as they are now (and it's still not good despite a single good day today).

Iraqi Athletes To Compete In Beijing Olympics After All

A last minute deal has saved the careers of two Iraqi athletes who were hoping to compete in Beijing in two weeks. The IOC had previously ruled that the Iraqi Olympic Committee was not an independent organization after the Iraqi government cleaned house:

The decision followed last-minute talks between Iraqi officials and the IOC ahead of today's deadline to submit competitors' names for track and field events. The Olympics begin Aug. 8.

Iraq's National Olympic Committee was dissolved by the Baghdad government in May, prompting the IOC to suspend the country from the Olympics for political interference.

The IOC had insisted the old committee be reinstated even though four members were kidnapped two years ago. Their fates remain unknown.

A compromise was worked out after mediators from Germany and China became involved in talks, and Iraq pledged to hold free elections for its national Olympic committee under international observation.

Iraq is expected to send two athletes to Beijing to compete in track and field events. The decision came too late for five other hopefuls in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. The deadline to submit names for those sports expired last week.

Unfortunately, five other athletes will be unable to compete because of the IOC's nonsense.

Further, you have China involved in demanding and negotiating with Iraq over Iraq holding free elections for its national Olympic committee under international observation? The irony is not lost on me, given that China doesn't hold free and fair elections, under international observation or otherwise.

This is, however, politics as usual for the IOC.

UPDATE:
Hypocrisy, thy name is China and the IOC. After demanding that the Iraqi government provide open elections as a precondition to allowing the two athletes to participate that were able to have their names submitted by the deadline, we now learn that the Chinese government is busy censoring the Internet access provided to media outlets covering the Olympics.

Since the Olympic Village press center opened Friday, reporters have been unable to access scores of Web pages — among them those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.

The restrictions, which closely resemble the blocks that China places on the Internet for its citizens, undermine sweeping claims by Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, that China had agreed to provide free Web access for foreign news media during the Games. Mr. Rogge has long argued that one of the main benefits of awarding the Games to Beijing was that the event would make China more open.

The media outlets were told that the government would provide unhampered access.

They lied.

The IOC bought into the lies, and it's now too late.