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Beach volley has attracted a lot of attention in these Games, and for good reason.
The Good...
Michael Phelps won his 5th gold medal, and his 7th medal overall, in these Olympics to become the most winning athlete of these Games.
The Bad...
Another potential doping scandal broke out among the Greek Olympic team, when weightlifting bronze medalist Leonidas Sampanis tested positive for testosterone. Nevertheless, this is not a clear cut case and it will be decided in the next few days.
nyloo's daily Olympic Diary
Do we really need heroes?
Outside the Olympic Weightlifting Arena, at an Athens suburb, a Greek fan was quoted as saying yesterday:
"If Pyrros Dimas did pull out of the competition with an injury, it would totally wreck the Games and would cause a lot of bitterness. Because in the end, it seems that the heroes are not really the heroes."
Of course they are not. What is heroic about running 200 meters faster than anybody else, whether filled up with drugs or not? What is heroic about lifting 175 kilograms above your head, whether you jacked up your testosterone level with pills or not?
And also, do you really look down on the Swiss or the Norwegians or the Swedes because your country won 4 gold medals in the Olympics and theirs only one or two, when their per capita income is four times yours and they live in the lap of luxury while your country struggles to balance its budget?
Finally, would the Games and your reputation really be destroyed because 3-4 athletes were caught cheating when you have built the best sports facilities in the world and everything so far has been running so smoothly the international media have nothing to report from Athens?
Give us a break and get a reality check!
There are two kinds of spectators and television viewers of these, or any other, Games:
First, those who are knowledgable about sports for many years, know what is going on, and just feel sad about the whole thing, but are cool and put things in perspective.
Then, there are those who do not really care about the sports, are more interested in waving a flag and feeling "national pride", whatever that is, treat sports the same way they treat reality shows, i.e. as a psychological booster, and feel "outraged" and "bitter" when they discover that some of the "pride" they felt in the past was probably caused by a couple of THG shots.
To those we have this to say: sports is a spectacle, like a music concert or an opera performance. You feel things while you are there experiencing it as a spectator, it makes a few moments of your life more intense and beautiful, but when you get out of your seat and leave the venue it's over. Your life or anything else does not depend on it.
Oh, and one more thing: don't take a flag to the venues. This is the Olympics, not armed conflict. Go to enjoy the competition and watch the best in the world. Not that other thing that you do...
