Ahira's Hangar

Phelps will most surely figure in "greatest male athlete" debates for years to come. What bugs me a little is how the media has downplayed Mark Spitz's accomplishment, saying how the field wasn't as strong in 1972. How easily they turn on you. Come on, Spitz's record remains one of the greatest Olympic achievements ever, and it took 36 years and a superhuman effort by Phelps and company to surpass Spitz. Phelps's 8 golds is certainly phenomenal, but I'm not about to spit on Spitz (sorry, I couldn't resist).

In terms of greatest male Olympian athlete, perhaps Phelps takes that title by default, if one is judging purely by his record gold medal haul. I'm just not sure if that's being fair to the all-around, multi-discipline athletes of the Games like the decathletes. But then, maybe we'd have to see a decathlete dominate every one of his events for him to be comparable to someone like Phelps, even though he does nothing but swim. That's another debate for you.

Usain Bolt is definitely amazing as well - being able to set a new world record in the 100M like he did and making it look so easy. He wasn't even going full throttle right through - the guy actually slowed down before the finish line, and he still posted a 9.69 That is nuts. I had actually never heard of Bolt until the Olympics.

Heads will roll if Phelps or Bolt were to test positive for steroids, heh heh. But at least it would be highly unlikely for Phelps, as I understand that he volunteered to subject himself to some sort of new intensive anti-doping procedure for the Games, to show that he was clean.

Mark Spitz should never be downplayed; I can actually remember watching an Olympics on TV when I was a little girl, and his awe inspiring performance. He and that little Romainian gymnist whose last name I will not even attempt to spell, but whose first name was Nadia who got all of those perfect scores. Those two were just amazing in my chilhood Olympics memories.

And I just watched Canadian men get two more rowing medals, and they are in contention for a medal in equestrian team jumping. Things have been getting a lot better for Canadians.

The biggest story of the day (for the Chinese fans anyway) has to be their "national hero' Liu Xiang pulling out of the hurdles. It was reported that the crowd in the stadium let out a huge shriek when it was announced that Xiang would not be competing. People apparently just filed out of the place in stunned silence. That tells me the Chinese fans are even more naive than I thought. That's what they get for putting so much hope in one athlete.

I got to watch an exciting men's soccer game this morning between traditional archrivals Argentina and Brazil - winner goes to the gold medal game, loser to the bronze medal game. Lately Brazil has been beating Argentina in big international tournaments - today Argentine got revenge 3-0, with at least two Brazilian players getting red cards (there might have been more, but I only saw two).

I don't follow soccer, but I know the Brazil teams can be pretty arrogant in how they look down on other countries. Maybe all the top teams have that attitude, but the Brazilians especially so. Therefore I'm just tickled that they lost that badly.

Heh. I remember a mens soccer match from a few years ago in which the underdog Canadian team played the Brazilian team to a 1-1 tie. Yes, the unheralded Canadians (and probably outcast and unclean in the Brazilians' minds) actually scored a goal on the mighty gods of soccer. I think it was just an exhibition match, but what I heard was that the Brazilians weren't very gracious about the tie.

Canada had a terrific day at the women's 100M hurdles, with Priscilla Lopes-Schliep winning the Bronze. Too bad about American Lolo Jones - she had the lead going into the final two hurdles but stumbled when her foot caught one of the hurdles. It's just one of those freak accidents.

Oh yeah: Alexandre Despatie getting the silver in between the gold and bronze of the Chinese in springboard diving was pretty nice too.

And a great finish for American gymnast Shawn Johnson on the diabolical balance beam. She was unquestionably the best one on the beam this night and deserved her gold medal win.

I'm sorry that they are holding off the televising of Jamaican sprinter Bolt's second race until night, when I am at work. Internet chatter and pictures tell me that is one race well worth watching!!!

Yep, the 200M was a great race. Sorry that you no longer receive the CBC, duchess. They have live coverage from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM in addition to the prime time recap, so I've been able to watch the race a couple of times now.

Bolt was amazing. This time he didn't hold back: he ran full speed through the finish line...and came away with another world record.

Unfortunately, there was also controversy: the 2nd and 3rd place finishers, Churandy Martina of the Netherlands and Wallace Spearmon of the US, were disqualified because they had stepped outside their respective lanes during the race. So Americans Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix ended up with the silver and bronze. This is the first time I've ever heard of this unusual ruling coming into play at the Olympics.

I'm watching the women's soccer gold medal game right now between the US and Brazil. Very late in the game and tied 0-0. This is a good one.