The Olympics roll on in London and surrounding sites, and by now it should be obvious that the security "glitch" which resulted in actual British military troops being re-assigned to guard the games was a bit of good fortune. Who would you rather have guarding elite athletes, members of royalty, politicians, staffers, vendors, media personnel, and spectators: actual soldiers or rent-a-cops? Security is a highlight.
In the games themselves, double-amputee South African runner Oscar Pistorius is the greatest highlight just for showing up. Finishing second in the first round heat of the men's 400 meters, Pistorius proved he's competitive, too. Anybody who says he has an advantage for using blades and not having legs below the knee should be given a long, slow walk barefoot over Tony Robbins' hot coals.
The biggest unexpected highlight of the 2012 Olympics has to be the performance of the host athletes of Great Britain. At this time, Great Britain is third in total medal count with 37, which includes 16 gold. Even Queen Elizabeth's granddaughter won a silver in the three-day equestrian event, and the one anticipated British gold-medalist, heptathlete Jessica Ennis, did not choke, winning the final 400-meter event portion in front of cheering Brits and royals in a packed stadium.
Other unexpected highlights include the fascinating sports of team handball, field hockey, and water polo
American team highlights include the men's and women's swimming teams. They have achieved unexpected overall excellence during the first week (and only week for swimming) of Olympic competition, for the most part shaming the previously strong Chinese and Australian teams. Outstanding performers included Brendan Hansen, Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian, Matt Grevers, Dana Vollmer, Missy Franklin, Allison Schmitt, Rebecca Soni, Shannon Vreeland, and, yes, even slow-to-warm-up-in-London Michael Phelps.
Last night was the coup-de-grace, with both 400 meter medley relay teams capturing gold and breaking world records in the process. Retiring superstar Phelps and emerging superstar Franklin spearheaded their team's victories, with Phelps' amazing turn in his butterfly leg pretty much symbolizing his athletic excellence through three Olympics (his first in Sydney in 2000 doesn't really count, where a 15-year-old Phelps finished fifth in his one event--the 200 butterfly). Though his start to the meet was unusually lethargic, resulting in two silvers and one fourth, he concluded with four consecutive gold medals, split evenly between relays and individual events.
Eighteen gold medals out of 24 total events is an amazing career for Mr. Phelps, and while he'll never be mistaken for an English professor or Boy Scout, one should give him props for showing humility and honesty when he admitted to interviewer Bob Costas that he won the 200 IM on Thursday because Ryan Lochte was fatigued from swimming a heat for another event only a short time before. He also indirectly gave kudos to another competitor in a race he lost by a finger when he said he didn't mess up the ending and did swim his race, meeting his time goal.
Despite youthful indiscretions, Mr. Phelps deserves more cereal boxes and other endorsements despite this reporter's enjoyment at watching him fail on occasion, probably more the result of the showboating antics of his mother in the stands than of the swimmer's own showboating in the water.
Another highlight of the week was the American women's indoor volleyball team beating powerful China and Brazil, 3-0 and 3-1, respectively.
Lowlights include two American teams' behavior both on and off the courts and fields. First, Team USA male basketball players are crying foul over the real possibility that they will be excluded from future games if FIBA adopts an under-23 policy. While superstars say that such a restriction would diminish the quality of the competition, who really wants to see 84-point blowouts of third world countries?
However, most readers and viewers with a triple-digit IQ get it: what the players are most upset about is being denied future candy stores of recreational interplay with young, attractive athletes in the village and beyond. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have both been photographed having great times at local nightclubs. One female Olympic athlete bragged through a tweet that LeBron asked her to join him on a "dinner date" at the athletes' cafeteria. A female USA athlete snapped a photo with her smartphone and put it online of center Tyson Chandler lying on her too-short bed in her dorm room. Obviously, the dazzling wealth and fame of NBA superstars gives them a Big Man on Campus status (ironic, since a few like Kobe and LeBron never went to college, or stayed for two years at most) and an unfair advantage in the "courting"/pickup game over almost all other athletes not named Federer.
The other American team lowlight is an ugly display of "showmanship" regularly coming from the USA women's soccer/world football team whenever they score a goal. The on-field team goes through elaborate choreographed celebrations, including cartwheels, written messages for non-present players, and the worm. All in all, it's a rather odious display of one-upsmanship and non-sportsmanship. Where's the yellow card?
Additionally, Hope Solo went and defensively slammed media analyst and former American soccer/world football star Brandi Chastain for criticizing the current team's erratic defense (although Team USA has given up very few goals since their first game). Ms. Chastain is entitled to her opinion, and the game has not changed that much in the dozen years since she played, regardless of what Ms. Solo claims.
All in all, the players' smug aura of entitlement and superiority makes one wish for an upset.
Out of the two competition scandals, only one counts as a true lowlight. Something has to be done about the judging of boxing matches to avoid some of the ludicrous results seen so far. Corruption or incompetence, both should be removed from the Olympic games where subjective judging is involved. Ironically, boxing thought its new point system was a more objective solution. Wrong.
The other scandal saw South Korea and China both trying to throw their badminton match. China "won" by losing in a farcical 43-minute match. Still, it's badminton. Get over it. Move on.
The biggest lowlight remains the IOC refusing to recognize during the opening ceremonies the Israeli victims of the 1972 terrorist attack on the Olympic village in Munich. Perhaps the authorities feel they don't have enough security, notwithstanding the soldiers, to fend off an attack from an outraged Islamic cell offended at such a gesture.
Hopefully, they will pay tribute to the eleven fallen members of the 1972 Israeli contingent at the closing ceremony to make up for their prior omission.
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