Us swimming geeks can still live vicariously via Olympian Michael Phelps. After winning eight gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics... Rather... After winning eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sports Illustrated tabbed the 23-year old, and his perfect breast stroke, with its highest award.

USA! USA! USA!

At any rate, it's a less dubious honor than having to perform a "Risky Business" sendoff with A-Rod, Kobe Bryant and Tony Hawk... 

If you saw any of the distance events at the just concluded Beijing Olympics (not that NBC showed much above 400 meters), the dominance of East African runners was fairly overwhelming. Astonishing athletes like Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, who won the 5,000 and 10, 000 meters, and Kenyan marathon champ Sammy Wanjiru make the sport look, well, easy. They glide along for mile after mile at a pace that most of us American couch potatoes couldn't sprint for 100 yards, even if we were being chased by wolves. No bouncing or wasted motion, impeccably light on their feet, perfect arm carriage--it's almost like a different sport than the one practiced by Seattle runners and joggers around Green Lake or along the Burke-Gilman Trail.

But do you have to run pretty to run? Not according to UW physician Peter Cavanagh, who was quoted in an interesting New York Times story on Friday. He says,

“The notion that there is one way to run is not, in my opinion, correct,”

So no excuses this fall and winter for not lacing up your shoes and going out for a run in the rain. Even if you can't be a classical stylist like Haile Gebrselassie (the Ethiopian world record holder in the marathon), you can bull through your workout like the late, great Steve Prefontaine. (Or Czech legend Emil Zátopek, pictured above.) Maybe we should put Cavanagh's slogan on a T-shirt.

It's Storm v. Storm when the US takes on the Aussies for gold Saturday. The actual play, of course, takes place at 4 a.m. Pacific and I'm just not hard core enough to watch it live. But I'd still love to see Bird v. Jackson in Beijing. So I clicked on the Seattle Times Olympics teevee schedule to find that the game will be broadcast sometime between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. I'm not above watching the boob tube all day, but I don't get any Oly channels--it's rabbit ears at my house--so I have to go to a bar, and eight hours on a stool just doesn't work that day. Frick!

Anyone with a lock on deciphering the Olympic television code? Help a girl out.

(Spoiler Alert)

One year ago, goalkeeper Hope Solo, a UW alum, got benched for the US women's World Cup match with Brazil. After the team lost, she criticized the decision and her replacement. "There's no doubt in my mind I would've made those saves," she said. In response, her teammates ostracized her for the next year.

Today, she got another shot--and she backed up her talk. The US played Brazil in the gold medal game and Solo shut them out, emerging, according to press reports, as the star of the game.

Way to go, Hope! You were vilified for a trivial outburst, and on a double standard. As Aimee Mullins, President of the Women's Sports Foundation, put it, "Would we have even batted an eyelash if it was David Beckham?" Sure, publicly calling out your teammates isn't good, but it doesn't warrant a year's social banishment. And damnit, a fearless baller with some fire in her belly is the type of teammate people should want, especially as a last line of defense.

I just got back from a gym run, where I watched Serbia and the United States compete in the men's volleyball Olympic quarterfinals. And I have to say, volleyball is just the nicest sport! The team members hugged each other every time they made a point -- and not those dry, Mean Girls hugs that the girl gymnasts give each other after they finish a routine, but honest, healthy, real-friend group hugs. In fact, the Serbians one-upped the Americans' hugginess because every time a substitution was made, the departing and the arriving player would hug. The camera seemed just as delighted with the comradely spirit of the volleyball pitch as I, since it recorded a good three or four hugs a minute. Not only was I proud of our American volleyballers for moving on to the semifinals, but I ended the game feeling like I'd captured a bit of that Olympic spirit the commentators talk about so much.

Seattle's best bet for an individual track and field gold in the Olympics apparently no-heighted in qualifying rounds earlier today (Beijing time). Mountlake Terrace resident and UW grad Brad Walker, the defending world champ in his event, may not have even attempted to vault, according to the IAAF results posted here. The American record holder in his event has been managing back injuries (like most who compete in his whiplash-inducing discipline). Sometimes vaulters can struggle with winds, or miss the mark on their run-up to the pit--failing to even make an attempt. We'll try to update later today. Click here for a photo of the disappointed athlete. Two other Americans qualified for the Olympic final, to be held on Friday.

Despite some close calls that saw opposing teams coming within 25 points, the “Redeem Team” is still plugging along at the Olympics, winning oh-so-close games.

USA! USA! USA!

After watching Michael Phelps (and friends) come from behind, time and again, to win eight gold medals, by fractions of a second, somehow flipping on the tube to see Lebron James and Kobe Bryant posterize a bunch of hapless Europeans has little luster.

This is the problem with Olympic basketball and particularly Team USA. Short of completely mailing it in, like back in 2004, there is no excitement in watching NBA athletes blowing other countries out by 30 points each night. (And that ‘04 USA team was unwatchable despite losing)

A different formula for selecting rosters is needed.

Once the smog clears from this month's Beijing Olympics, SW contributing filmmaker Jason Reid and a pair of cinematic partners will be chronicling an 1,800km bike ride across China. Eventually, their travels will be compressed into a feature-length documentary, the first foray into this serioso medium for the merry, floppy-haired prankster. There's a fund-raiser this Saturday at Reid's house in Georgetown. Details on the whole kit and kaboodle can be found here.

This writer is not going to spend too much time paying attention to the Olympics this year.

The thing that torques a guy off the most is the fact that, once again, Olympic Shooting is given short-shrift by having television coverage denied. These are some of the oldest and most storied events in the annals of Olympic history. It is a sport that General George Patton nearly medaled in. So it is disappointing that our American athletes are being denied the opportunity to compete before their country’s television viewers just because some NBC executives feel squeamish about firearms.

Wouldn't want to show guns being used in a positive manner.

And no, I’m not going to try to sort my way through CBUT to watch it.

The Olympics are upon us, bringing a worldwide focus on the drama of sport. The thrill of victory; the agony of defeat; the spirit of international harmony in the form of medal counts and unreported domestic drug test failures; the opportunity to make millions by pairing puffed-up heros with flaky breakfast cereals; the prospect of Bob Costas and Matt Lauer narrating another mind-numbing opening ceremony; the hubbub over whether China's gymnasts are "legal"; the hullabaloo over whether Maria Sharapova would be allowed to carry the Russian flag in said ceremony (a shoulder injury has negated the debate; the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity now goes to the once-a-year player, Andrei Kirilenko); we even have a local representative in the aptly-named Hope Solo, who has been shunned by her teammates for the last fourteen months as punishment for badmouthing her replacement in a moment of frustration. It warms a sports fan’s heart.

The truth is, the Olympics have always been a soap opera, or, as they are frequently called, a five-ring circus. Drugs, sabotage, conspiracy, even terrorism and protest...the event that was last to embrace professionalism and commercialism is a trailblazer in melodrama. The good news: it’s back. The better news: the rest of the sports world has caught up.