Ahira's Hangar

I'm sure Phelps and Bolt will be there in 2012. Can't imagine them both not competing...unless they suffer some career-crippling injury. I think Phelps is in his early 20's, and Bolt is even younger. 19, I think?

And now that Chinese athletes have their state-of-the-art Olympic facilities to train in, China could be battling the US for Olympic medal dominance for years to come, basically replacing the USSR as chief rival. (Heh, in sport as in politics.) I mean, China already won the gold medal race in Beijing with 49. Sure, that was on home ground, but it's not hard to picture the Chinese doing just as well once London rolls around.

(And the Chinese athletes were remarkably free of steroid scandals in Beijing. The only controversy concerned the ages of the female gymnasts.)

When we were on the way back fom the first Elohimfest, we stopped off for a couple of days at Colorado Springs and one of the places we visited there was the US Olympic Training Center. Now, there are actually a few of those scattered around the country, and while they all have some basic facilities in common, each one sort of specializes in certain sports. That one specializes in wrestling, gymnastics, and other martial arts - even archery and shooting.

The main swimming training center is out in California somewhere, but they do have swimming training facilities in CO Springs. They told us that they can control everything down to the purity of the air in the natatorium. If the upcoming worlds or Olympics are being held in a polluted city, they will actually make the air in the swimming area dirty and smoggy, to match the usual concentration and composition of the air in the host city, so the athletes can get used to competing in it. They can adjust temperature, cleanliness of the air, humidity - everything so it is identical to the usual conditions in the upcoming host city.

Unfreakingbelievable.

(Stopping there was great. As part of your tour, you get to see the athletes working out. We got to meet the Olympic wrestlers, shortly before they went to Athens. The wrestlers had all the children come to the front, and talked to them about dedication and hard work, and the Greco-Roman guys demonstrated some throws. Rulon Gardner was friendly and kind to the kids. If we had gone on a morning tour rather than an afternoon tour, we would have seen the gymnists. Sicne my kids both wrestle, this was a great thrill for them).

No doubt that is why, during the Olympics, we often hear of athletes from other countries who went to the United States to train in preparation for the Games. If you're serious about being an Olympic contender, you gotta go where the world-class facilities are, and the US has a whole lotta them.

Anyway, would you believe that last Friday the CBC aired the opening ceremonies of the Paralympic Games in Beijing? I didn't know they were broadcasting that, so I caught just the tail end of it. Yes, it was another amazing spectacle, with hundreds of performers doing their thing in perfect symmetry once again. They spared no expense, even for these comparatively low profile Games. I've never seen the opening ceremonies for previous Paralympics, but I suspect they've never been as grand as Beijing's. The Chinese do love their Games: they must have been overjoyed to see the flame rekindled once more. This time around, a wheelchair-bound athlete hauled himself straight up a rope to the base of the giant torch to re-light the flame. I think this outdid the Olympic version for sheer human effort: the guy was sweating and panting by the time he got all the way up there. You kinda felt nervous that he was going to pass out before he got to light the flame.

I wish I could have seen it; the Paralympics are amazing and the athletes are pure inspiration. I have often wished that they would run them at the same time as the Olympics, and share opening and closing ceremonies, and share facilities and schedules (mix the wheelchair races in with the regular track and field events, for example) so that the paralympians could get the recognition that they deserve - and so that the world could see such shining examples of inspiration and courage.

We had one of the wheelchair racers at our hospital for awhile. He had a special racing chair, and I nearly got run down one night when he was taking a corner at 30 or so MPH.

Some of the qualifying is taking place this week for the next winter games. The Europeans are busy having their qualifying tournies for women's ice hockey. Bulgaria lost their last game by more than eighty goals to Slovakia. You have to give the players credit for not walking off the ice during the target shoot. And you also have to wonder about the sportsmanship (or lack thereof) of the opposing team.

I didn't think it was possible to get scored on eighty times. So on average that's a goal for every minute of the game! That's wild. Oh...you said it was more than eighty. Egad.