Hearing all these stories of sabotage in the water makes me grateful my high school didn't get a pool until after I graduated.

Aw, Ron McLean's mother died. Poor guy. His announcement was really classy.

(He's the Canadian Olympic anchor, best known for Hockey Night in Canada alongside stupid Don Cherry.)

Heh. My high school never had a pool but every year there were upperclassmen in trouble for selling passes to the rooftop pool to the incoming freshmen. Good times.

ITA.

I'm watching women's platform diving, and since I noticed that Wang Xin and Chen Ruolin are both 15/16 years old and under five feet tall, I can't help but try to compare them to the Chinese gymnasts whose ages are in doubt. Since diving doesn't have a minimum age requirement like gymnastics does, I assume the Chinese divers actually *are* their reported age, and maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see, but they seem to have a more adolescent waist-to-hip ratio than the gymnasts, despite their crazy thinness. (The NBC announcer said that one of them started out in gymnastics but switched to diving because "she didn't like to eat." WTF?!) And fifteen-year-old, 4'11" Japanese-American diver Haley Ishimatsu has bulky quads and glutes like most petite-but-athletic high school girls.

ETA: Aw, Haley cried, she was so disappointed. After seeing her and Wallace Spearmon interviewed tonight, I wonder, can't the athletes tell NBC to butt out and talk to them later?

I think it's all been postponed until tomorrow.

Hey, I was thinking about the US-based Snarkers this morning and remembering some of the disparging comments you've made about your commentators during the Olympics. It sucks that they seem to be a bit patchy - I've really enjoyed the BBC coverage here in the UK. They've involved a lot of ex-athletes in various disciplines and they and the general commentators are all so enthusiastic and excited (and quite funny, a lot of the time).

I had to turn it off they annoyed me so much. The whole point of the championship gala is to watch the gymnasts play off the spotlight with the music and enjoy the artistry, but it's kinds hard to do that when you can't even hear the goddamn music because the commentators are blathering on about how this performance compares to their competition performance. SHUT THE HELL UP!

I was done with the diving lady after about day 2 with all of her thinly veiled weight comments. Big splash =/= Fat ass. Funny how with the guys it was all "angle of entry" blah blah blah, but with the women it's "widespread impact on the water". Bitch.

And yes I am also pissed that they interrupted women's platform diving on NBC for...you guessed it, beach volleyball. Serve, set, spike, sideout. Over and over and over. So. Very. Boring. I switched to table tennis instead, and I'm glad I did because watching the American woman who couldn't even make the Chinese team get all emotional over her win was sweet.

On one other positive note, I think I have a baby crush on all the male Chinese gymnasts and divers. OK, so yeah they are mad hawt, but they all seemed so gracious and proud and having fun.

Massive disappointment in the relay heats - GB screw up the changeover and are disqualified. US runners drop the baton in their heat - I guess it's Jamaica's to lose at this point...

And the US women screw up as well!

Madness! That poor British sprinter looked absolutely gutted during the post-race interview.

I agree that the IOC president needs to STFU about Bolt.

Totally, Jesus. That guy is winning himself no friends at all.

I was willing to tolerate the Olympics being in a totalitarian state from the Athletes, the Chineese citizenry and the IOC's standpoint. In the case of Rogge and the IOC I was willing to look at it like they made a mistake giving the games to Beijing, but they couldn't cancel the games or anything without incurring ruinous consequences on themselves and others.

But goddamn he's almost in the league of Samaranch and Brundage now.


So anyway one thing I have liked about these games is the number of people we've seen thrilled with silver or bronze.

I don't see how anybody can criticise Bolt. The guy is all class. Take this comment:

I am in complete awe of the women that did the 20K race walk. WOW.

As someone who fancies himself a race walker, they made me feel old, fat, and slow. But at the same time, they were awesome.

Oh Hickstead, you wonderful horse!

It's funny, all I worried about in the jumpoff was time. I just couldn't imagine that horse hitting a fence today.

And Eric Lamaze--talk about redemption!

Yes! Seeing the Australian woman who won the silver in the women's 100-meter hurdles bounce around the track was delightful.

I also have to say that the Chinese fans seem to be wonderfully supportive of all the athletes. The gymnastics fans cheered like crazy for good performances by everyone, not just the Chinese gymnasts. They booed a score posted for an American when they thought it was too low.