(This is Torino, not Beijing.)
Opening ceremonies are Friday, and I’m a sucker for the Games like everyone else. There’s the draw of international goodwill and friendly global competition, but I can’t lie. The bendy people doing tricks on the balance beam and the high dive sucker me in just as much.
Apparently, even in the wake of recent emergency measures, the Beijing air still hasn’t cleared, but some athletes are having a harder time with high heat and humidity than anything else. The heavy smog’s effect on endurance events and athletes with asthma remains to be seen, but here’s a benefit no one expected: hazy air actually helps Olympic shooters see their targets.
Yesterday brought a suspected terrorist attack at the border city of Kashgar, and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti is in Beijing and has this to say about media suppression issue:
Every four years, the Summer Games allow a peek into the world condition. There will be as much anxiety in Beijing as glory, but I’m pleased to report that the glory has a chance to be plentiful. If the Olympics bring out what’s wrong in society, they also have a way of crafting what’s right, good and heroic. Look, I’m as outraged as any journalist when media freedoms are sabotaged, which has been the big media-center story with opening ceremonies still days away. . . . That said, I’m also juiced to see the many charms of Beijing, including the stunning National Stadium, an architectural marvel that resembles a bird’s nest, and a glittering swimming facility called the Water Cube. – Full column
Want more on the spectacular new venues? Here’s a gallery.
As for the athletes?
Time has 100 athletes to keep an eye on, and NPR has 10 stories to follow, including the daily fluctuation in Beijing’s air quality. Grist describes the contenders who are also environmental activists, including LeBron James and the U.S. women’s soccer team.
Like every other mom on the planet, I’ll be watching 41 year-old mother and swimmer Dara Torres, she of the incredible abs.
Will you be watching?
