blame it on the Olympics

Yeah, I've been a real couch potato these days, partly due to the Olympics.

Hearty bravos to Alex Despatie for his "golden" silver. I think he really epitomizes how we should react to silver or bronze medallists: if the athlete's thrilled with the result, then so should we. Bottom line. A lot of American silver medallists see it as being "the first loser", a take I have a lot of difficulty comprehending.

As to Canada's medal count, let's put it this way: the States have ten times Canada's population, and got just over six times our medal count. I won't compare with the Chinese, whose setup is such a paradigm shift from Western world athletes that there's just no reconciling the two. (But let it be known I agree that at least two of the Chinese gymnasts were underage.) And in figuring out how to sort country medal counts, I say this: doesn't sorting gold medal winners higher than higher total medal-count countries just run against the Olympic spirit? I agree a silver or bronze will never be a gold, but still, to me, total numbers should be the main factor. If you can put thirty people on the third step of the podium, you are more worthy than a country who has a single silver medal, period.

Some of the highlights for me (apart from the obvious Phelps and Bolt) are Australian Matthew Mitcham stealing the gold from the Chinese in the 10-m platform dive. I keep wondering what the competition would have looked like if Alex's back had held out...Nonetheless, Mitcham was quiet, absolutely solid and beautiful to watch. Another was watching Priscilla Lopes-Schliep celebrate her unexpected silver in the 100m hurdles - in the arms of Sally McLellan from Australia. In a race where the 2nd to 6th positions were determined by 2 one-hundreths of a second, it was a wonderful display of true Olympic spirit.

See you in Vancouver, y'all.

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