Drum piece–The Olympics, the Spectre of Doping, the greatness of Rudisha

My Drum piece this week was on the Olympics. Now any long-time readers of this blog would know I am a bit of an Olympics nut. I now own the 2004, 2008 and 2012 editions of David Wallechinsky’s “The Complete Book of the Olympics”. During the Beijing Olympics, in the day prior to Twitter (or at least the day s prior to anyone I know being on it) I wrote a running diary of the Olympics.

And when it comes to the Olympics all I really, truly care about is the athletics. I’ll will definitely watch every single other thing (and pretend to be an expert on it all – “geez she really stuffed up the landing after that Double Kafelnikov jump… 9.95” – but I am a track and field snob. But what I dislike most about track and field is that most women’s World Records are beyond reach because they were set during an era when cheating through steroid use was rampant and pretty much unchecked. At that time there was only testing done in-competition, and thus to get caught you really had to be stupid. It gave a boon to women who suddenly had testosterone flowing through them like they were men – to whit:

 

I guess it was just coincidence that the record dried up after out of competition testing was introduced in 1990…

I really hope Sally Pearson wins Gold. Back four years ago when she won silver here’s what I wrote (back when she was Sally McLellan):

The great thing about athletics (and sport in general) is that nothing is written in stone. The winner, Dawn Harper, had the 3rd slowest PB of the field, and the Lopes-Schliep had the 2nd slowest, and McLellan the 4th slowest. Form, history, experience all mean bugger all when you need to lay it down over 100m in an Olympic final.

To do what McLellan did you need to have ice in your veins. In her interview afterwards she was in shock, but displayed the reasons for her run - total commitment of mind and body:

"I walked out into that stadium and I've never, ever been so pumped in my life," she said.
"I was acting really strangely for myself.
"I was yelling out, I was saying `come on' really loud and I was just talking to myself out loud in front of everyone sand I never do that.
"I was really ready to go ... I just said 'no guts, no glory', and I got it."

London is long way away, and a lot can go wrong between now and then (just ask Liu Xang); but from the way she spoke last night, you know she's already focusing on it –and then silver won't be enough.

The way she won the World Championships last year was breathtaking. It was to see an athlete peak at exactly the right moment. If she does lose it will take a massive run by someone else, because I just do not see her choking. And I hope her post race interview is as great as last time:

But then I want her to break the world record.

With the men, the doping issue was as big, but not as long lived in the record books – because the advantage provided was not as severe (except in strength events like shot put etc):

Incidentally the oldest world records in men’s athletics are those in the events most beneficial for drug cheats – Discus (1986), Hammer Throw (1986) and Shot Put (1990).

It is rather surprising to note that since 1990 the 100m world record has been broke nor equalled 14 times – more than any other event.

Which brings us to Bolt. Now I will say this – I don’t think he is on the gear. But more than that, I hope he is not, because I think if he is ever found guilty of doping it will almost kill the sport. The data does suggest he is a step ahead of history:

But that is no proof of anything other than we are seeing something extraordinary. Exceptional data can reveal an anomaly, or it can reveal something exceptional.

And then there is the Women’s 100m WR improvements:

Yes, “Flo-Jo” improved it by over a quarter of a second.

While issues of her doping are pretty high on the gossip-scale (including by athletes at the time), the big question mark about that record is that most observers are pretty sure it was run with a massive tailwind. Officially the tail wind was zero, and yet at the same moment the race was run, the triple-jump completion that was happening just 10 metres away was registering winds of up to 4.3 m/s – more than double the 2 m/s allowable for a WR. So perhaps her second best time of 10.61 (with a 1.2m/s tailwind) is the more “legitimate” WR. But even that would be an improvement of .15 secs (and .

Scarily, when you look at Bolt, the 200m is probably his best event – he holds every age world record from 15 year olds up. The race has now been run 213 times faster than 20 seconds by 47 different men. A chart of the number of times the 200m has been run under 20 seconds reveals again a stark measure of Bolt’s difference to the filed:

The 2 guys at the far left of the chart  - Bolt and Yohan Blake – both train together in Jamaica.

Here’s the same chart for the 100m (hard to believe that the 10sec mark for the 100m has now been broken 575 times, and only once has it been done by an Australian – Patrick Johnson in Japan when he ran 9.93 with the almost perfect 1.8 m/s tailwind – incidentally his second best time over the distance was 10.10 secs):

There has long been whispers about poor out of competition testing in that country, but it has improved since 2009. And the reality is many Caribbean born sprinters have in the past prospered – it’s just that they prospered for other countries ala  Donavan Bailey of Canada. Indeed, in the 1996, the entire gold medal winning Canadian 4x100m relay team were born in the Caribbean – 2 of them from Jamaica. So it is not that much of a shock that Jamaican sprinters are doing well.

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The cruelness of the Olympics coming around only once every 4 years is highlighted in the men’s 800m race. Since 1972, no holder of the 800m world record has won an Olympic Gold Medal – this is mostly because since the 1980 Moscow Olympics the record has been held at each Olympics by either Sebastian Coe or Wilson Kipketer. Coe ran a shocker at Moscow and finished second, and four years later was beaten by another all-time great, Joachim Cruz. His best years were also 1979 and 1981 when he broke the world record. His time set in 1981 was over a second and half faster than anyone else had ever run.

Kipketer, a Kenyan who had moved to Denmark in 1990, was at Atlanta in 1996, despite being the reigning World Champion was denied the chance to compete because he was not a full Danish citizen. In 1997 he first equalled Coe’s world record and then broke it 2 more times. In 2000 at Sydney, coming off a torn calf muscle injury he ran a poor tactical race and like Coe in 1980, came second. (I was actually in the stadium. I nearly cried as Kipketer was my favourite athlete – he ran like liquid.) In Athens in 2004, age beat him and he did well to finish 3rd.

But at London, a new record holder will be in attendance. Kenya's David Rudisha broke Kipketer’s 13 year old record in 2010 (and then broke his own record 7 days later. This year he has run the four fastest times, and his best time this year is a second and a half better than anyone else. Watch his run in Paris in July and see a man operating on a different level to the rest of the field.

He is the surest of sure things at London, but if the Olympics have shown anything – think Hicham El Guerrouj in Sydney – it is that sure things are not guaranteed wins.

But for watching drama, excellence all wrapped up in less than 2 minutes, get up for the 800m final on Friday 10 August at 5am. I just can’t see him being beaten.

Winter Olympics and TV for Sport Lovers

I have never enjoyed the Winter Olympics as much as I have the Games going on at the moment in Vancouver. Sure there are still far too many events with judging, and far too few like the snowboarding cross where the winner is the first person over the line, but it has been great watching. In fact I’ll go so far as to say I have enjoyed these Winter Olympics more than the last Summer Olympics in Beijing.

There is only one reason I can say this: Foxtel.

Foxtel’s coverage (get ready what follows will sound like an advert) has been nothing short of amazing. They have had four channels dedicated to 24 hour coverage of the Games – four channels, one for each of the venues, to ensure every event is shown live and in full. I’ll repeat that for those of you who have had to endure Channel 9’s coverage, or for those who remember Channel 7’s work during the Beijing Olympics – LIVE and IN FULL.

Every morning the events are shown live, and at night they are replayed IN FULL. Central commentary position? What’s that? At most you’ll see of the central people is occasional quick bridging work between events, and a regular bit at 7:30 that recaps a few things, but doesn't ever give anything away. Heck the other day one of the channels had the two talking heads chatting and one of them even told the audience to switch over to the live events!

This cost me $65 (it should have been $50 but I didn’t get around to buying it until after the early bird special had closed). That is of course $65 over my monthly subscription for Foxtel.

Now I know you’ll say that’s ok for rich people like me, but what about the honest battler. And sure there was a time I would have thought that; now I think, if the honest battler wants to see great coverage of sport then I’m sorry you gotta pay for it. Free TV just isn’t up to the task of showing sport the way sport should be shown – live and in full. And the fact is they don’t really want to do it. 

Think back to the Beijing Olympics and remember how Matt White in the central commentary box lied to the Australian public when he said Steve Hooker had yet to jump in the pole vault final. (for those who missed, here’s part of my running blog post from the night):

11:07pm: Pole vault update, Hooker clears 5.60m on his first attempt, and thereby goes into the lead as the only vaulter to have not had any misses. (Kinda time to start showing it wouldn't you think?)...
***
11:21pm: Oh geez, give me a break, Hooker is in the lead in the pole vault final, and instead we go to a qualifying session of the diving? Disgraceful. (And even better is that the diving is delayed... I wish this was a one off mistake, but as we all know, Channel 7 have done this over and over this week). In protest I shall continue to not watch Dancing with the Stars and instead watch Australian Idol. (Apparently they're going head to head).

Matt White tells us the men's pole vault is coming up soon. lol. No doubt next White will let us know that up soon Carl Lewis will be going for gold in the 100m.

11:31pm: Matt White tells us the bar is at 5.60m and Hooker is yet to jump. So that's just a blatant lie.

Steve Hooker's "first jump" at 5.60m ...oooh will he make it??!

Channel 7, 9 and 10 pretty much don’t give a stuff about sports fans – they care about viewers, and they know there are actually more people who watch TV who are not sports nuts; people who like montages and highlights packages rather than having to sit through the entire event.

Just look at how Channel 7 telecast the recent Australian Open. The cut to the news and bloody Home and Away during a match involving Samantha Stosur and also during the quarter final between Roger Federer and Nikolai Davydenko. In all states not on Eastern Daylight Savings Time, the night sessions were all shown on delay.

The cold hard facts are that free TV stations don’t give a stuff about sports fans, they give a stuff about eyeballs – and if more people want to watch Home and Away, then so be it – they’ll cut the tennis, or cricket, or golf off dead.

The reason for this state of affairs is the anti-siphoning legislation. This is legislation which lists a number of sporting events which:

Pay TV licensees are prevented from acquiring a right to televise a listed event until a right is acquired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) or the Special Broadcasting Services (SBS) or by commercial free-to-air broadcasters reaching more than 50 per cent of the Australian population. The scheme aims to give free-to-air broadcasters priority over pay TV licensees in acquiring rights to listed events.

Here is the list of sporting events:, but there is no way in hell Rudd and Co will ever get rid of it. They are far too scared of the TV stations. And it’s a pity. Because the real losers are the ones they’re supposed to be protecting. We’ll keep sport on Free TV, and we’ll keep seeing as much as the Home and Away viewers will let us.

1 Olympic Games

1.1 Each event held as part of the Olympic Games.

2 Commonwealth Games

2.1 Each event held as part of the Commonwealth Games.

3 Horse Racing

3.1 Each running of the Melbourne Cup organised by the Victoria Racing Club.

4 Australian Rules Football

4.1 Each match in the Australian Football League Premiership competition, including the Finals Series.

5 Rugby League Football

5.1 Each match in the National Rugby League Premiership competition, including the Finals Series.
5.2 Each match in the National Rugby League State of Origin Series.
5.3 Each international rugby league test match involving the senior Australian representative team selected by the Australian Rugby League, whether played in Australia or overseas.

6 Rugby Union Football

6.1 Each international test match involving the senior Australian representative team selected by the Australian Rugby Union, whether played in Australia or overseas.
6.2 Each match in the Rugby World Cup tournament.

7 Cricket

7.1 Each test match involving the senior Australian representative team selected by Cricket Australia played in either Australia or the United Kingdom.
7.2 Each one day cricket match involving the senior Australian representative team selected by Cricket Australia played in Australia or the United Kingdom.
7.3 Each one day cricket match involving the senior Australian representative team selected by Cricket Australia played as part of a series in which at least one match of the series is played in Australia.
7.4 Each World Cup one day cricket match.

8 Soccer

8.1 The English Football Association Cup final.
8.2 Each match in the Fdration Internationale de Football Association World Cup tournament held in 2006.
8.3 Each match in the Fdration Internationale de Football Association World Cup tournament held in 2010.

9 Tennis

9.1 Each match in the Australian Open tennis tournament.
9.2 Each match in the Wimbledon (the Lawn Tennis Championships) tournament.
9.3 Each match in the mens and womens singles quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the French Open tennis tournament.
9.4 Each match in the mens and womens singles quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the United States Open tennis tournament.
9.5 Each match in each tie in the Davis Cup tennis tournament when an Australian representative team is involved.

10 Netball

10.1 Each international netball match involving the senior Australian representative team selected by the All Australian Netball Association, whether played in Australia or overseas.

11 Golf

11.1 Each round of the Australian Masters tournament.
11.2 Each round of the Australian Open tournament.
11.3 Each round of the United States Masters tournament.
11.4 Each round of the British Open tournament.

12 Motor Sports

12.1 Each race in the Fdration Internationale de lAutomobile Formula 1 World Championship (Grand Prix) held in Australia.
12.2 Each race in the Moto GP held in Australia.
12.3 Each race in the V8 Supercar Championship Series (including the Bathurst 1000).
12.4 Each race in the Champ Car World Series (IndyCar) held in Australia.

It is an incredibly dumb list. The FA Cup? Give me a break. Go down to any pub and ask 10 people who won the FA Cup last year. If you find more than one person I’ll say you have just run into a group of English backpackers. The Ashes Tests, but not tests against India (which have actually been more interesting of late). All of Wimbledon, but not the US or French Opens. The US Masters, but not the US PGA. The British Open but not the US Open Golf.

It is a quaint list that still believes the country is in 1950 and we all think of the damn mother country as dear old England.

The problem as well is the actual policy is a crock. It is meant to ensure all these events are shown on Free TV. Ask yourself if you felt the benefit of this legislation when during Wimbledon you had to wait till 11:30pm (2 hours after the start of the day’s play) to see the first ball hit over a net? Yes this legislation meant that you had to wait while watching the Footy Show or some damn repeat of CSI before getting to see tennis.

You see Free TV stations don’t like sports viewers; but they sure as hell don’t want the Pay TV stations to get it – because they know they’ll show the actual sport and thus Channel 7, 9 or 10 will lose those viewers who want to watch sport but who would otherwise have sat through the news while waiting for it (and grumbling). The primary reason the Free TV stations get sporting events is to stop Pay TV from getting them. It’s purely done to hinder their competitors. Remember as well in this fight 7, 9, 10 ABC and SBS are on the same side – they even have a little club called “FreeTV” which does their dirty work for them. The were quite successful of late, scoring a $250m gift from the government in terms of reduced licence fees.

The great irony of the anti-siphoning legislation is it actually hurts sport’s fans. The FreeTV stations acquire the rights, and then show as little as possible to ensure they don’t breach the anti-hording provisions. And so they delay things, they wrap it all up in montages for people who like Home and Away and wouldn’t know Usain Bolt from Roger Federer (remember there are more Home and Away lovers than sport nuts).

The best situation should be like the Winter Olympics – Nine has the rights to the free TV – it shows what it wants (very little) when it wants (hardly at all), and Foxtel can show everything. Had this happened with the summer Games I would have been a pile quivering joy – I would also have taken two weeks off work to glue myself to the couch and soak up every joyous minute of it. The good thing is it will happen for the London Games in 2012.
The irony of the anti-siphoning legislation is that Wimbledon, which is on the list gets worse coverage than the US and French Opens which aren’t. Foxtel shows all of the main tennis matches of the French and US Opens, but for Wimbledon it is reduced to showing matches on Court 14 while over on Channel 9 Fatty and guys are yucking it up over some dumb thing.

The Olympic Games, tennis Grand Slams, World Cup events, AFL and NRL rounds are too big to be able to be covered by one channel – it’s why the AFL has worked so well with 7 and 10 sharing the rights. But you know what works even better? Having Foxtel so you can again be treated with respect. As I don’t live in Victoria, WA or SA I see every Friday night game LIVE! Imagine that – seeing a match live and not after Better Homes and Gardens (remember there are more fans of Better Homes and Gardens than there are AFL nuts).

Now the FreeTV stations would say they would love to show AFL, the Olympics etc on more than one channel – after all they all have 3 channels each now, but they can’t as the anti-siphoning legislation prohibits them from showing the sporting event on just one of the digital channels. The argument being we haven’t switched over to Digital TV yet. To which I say boohoo, go out and buy a bloody set top box and get in the 21st Century. Of course the stations should be allowed to show events just on the non-main station – Imagine if 7Two had on only tennis throughout the Australian Open. Ah bliss. The problem is of course, they most likely wouldn’t do this – why not? Well have a look at the ratings of 7Two and Go! compared to OneHD – people prefer to watch reruns of The Nanny or Bewitched than they do say the NBA. Sport is actually not as popular as you think it is. Sure the big events – the AFL Grand Final and Rugby League State of Origin matches rate big time; but they’re not sporting contests, they’re events.

And so I say yeah allow the stations to show sport events on any channel they want, but scrap the anti-siphoning legislation for all but the events; which I’ll say there are only four of: the AFL Grand Final; the Rugby League Grand Final, the State of Origin matches, and the Melbourne Cup. Let the Free TV stations have first dibs at broadcasting them (they rate so well, they actually will show them). But the rest? They’re up for grabs to all and sundry.

And here’s the reason why. The items on the list are there because supposedly they’re crucial to our way of life – we as Australians apparently love them so much the country would be up in arms without them. Well here’s the test. TV stations never turn down a chance to get good ratings, if a sport is so essential and popular no Free TV station is going to want to let it go. I guarantee you if the AFL and NRL were taken off the list, there would be next to no change. They rate good enough for the stations to make enough advertising revenue, and they’d go in with Foxtel to let them show all the matches they think no one wants to watch. The cricket? I’d also say they’d be no change. If Cricket Australia thinks it is vital for the test matches to be on FreeTV then they do not have to sell them to Foxtel. And the fact is Foxtel have done a much better coverage of the domestic Twenty20 competition than Channel 9 has done of the international Twenty20 matches (for a start Foxtel realises it is a sport).

I am an Adelaide Crows fan who hasn’t lived in South Australia for 15 years. If I didn’t have Foxtel I would see them play about 3 times a year on average. So don’t come crying to me about how it’s not fair you can’t watch your footy team on Free TV. I pay for the privilege of knowing I’ll see my team play every single week. And guess what – the coverage is better – there are no adverts in between goals.

The fact is you get what you pay for. Sport on Free TV is not really free. You pay for it by having to pander to the wishes of Home and Away fans. You pay for it with adverts between every change of end or after every goal. You pay for it by the station deciding to show another dodgy mechanic getting chased down the street by some bloke on A Current Affair instead of the cricket. You pay for it through having every Friday night and Saturday night footy match delayed. You pay through it by seeing Steve Hooker win his Gold Medal an hour after it actually happened. You pay for it by seeing everything repackaged made into a montage with music by Puccini instead of live. You pay for it by having to see sport the way people who don’t actually like sport want to see it.

All of that you have to pay as a sports fan instead of paying actual money.

I love sport. If I’m watching the tennis, or the Olympics, or the golf, or the footy, no one but now is allowed to take the remote and just switch the channel. And yet that in reality is what happens at the moment to all sports fans, because of a dumb piece of legislation that does nothing but give the Free TV stations a leg up that they don’t need (and for which they certainly don’t repay the viewers).

The Government is currently reviewing the anti-siphoning legislation

No wonder Begg-Smith avoids the media

Yesterday Dale Begg-Smith won silver medal in the Men’s Moguls at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. It was a great effort – given that he was coming off a knee surgery only 12 months ago, and the conditions did not suit his style (which is at its best the slicker and tougher the conditions are).

But today’s Sydney Morning Herald had on the front page an op-ed piece by Peter Fitzsimons:

Why Mr Miserable leaves us icy cold

You see Begg-Smith didn’t smile enough on the podium when he got his silver medal – or at least not enough for Fitzsimons’s liking. Did the article mention anything about him coming back from knee surgery? Did it say anything at all about his performance. Nope and Nope. Instead there was some bollocks about the reason Australian don’t like him is not because he has a foreign accent or a hyphen name (!). No it’s because he doesn't do good interviews or smile enough. 

The fact is he didn’t smile all that much when he won four years ago at Torino – so you can hardly say he is a sore loser. Obviously the guy doesn’t go for big showing of feeling (sounds pretty Australian to me).

Yesterday in The Punch Anthony Sharwood wrote a piece:

Is Dale Begg-Smith entitled to be a sourpuss?

Here is a line that Sharwood, the Senior writer for Australia’s biggest sports magazine Alpha, wrote in his piece:

Begg-Smith first showed his recalcitrance four years ago in Torino, when he was repeatedly quizzed about his business.

OK, so the media might’ve asked an extra question or two about moguls. But really, they’re snowy bumps and he skis them better than anyone. What else is to know?

Get that? A sports journalist telling us the sport is essentially yada yada yada. I can imagine him writing of Federer, “but really tennis is just hitting a ball back and forth, and he does it better than anyone. What else is there to know”.

And this guy is a sport journo? You’d think he would actually be interested in sport…

Sharwood throws this away in at the end of his article:

For what it’s worth, I’ve heard that Begg-Smith is incredibly popular with locals and kids in Perisher, to whom he willingly gives his limited time in the brief southern hemisphere training season.

You think if he wanted to slant his article differently he might have given that more prominence?

The odd thing is that being disappointed by coming second is not limited to Begg-Smith; have a look at Eamon Sullivan in Beijing.

But then Sullivan is easy on the eyes and gives a nice press conference so all is forgiven. Ditto the snipe from Fitzsimons about Begg-Smith spending most of the year in Vancouver. I don’t recall anyone being too up in arms about the fact all our best golfers live in America because (like Begg-Smith) that’s where the sport is, or that Pat Rafter for most of his career resided in the tax-free haven of the Bahamas. But then Pat was easy on the eyes and gave a nice interview…

The thing is when Begg-Smith went over the line he did show emotion – fleeting yes, but nonetheless it was there. And when he was beaten by the Canadian skier, he was the first to give him a congratulatory hug and was smiling while he did it. And funnily enough while watching the medal presentation he did smile when he got the medal – he just wasn’t during the official photos.

And as for interviews, well tonight I saw an interview he gave Matt Shirvington on Foxtel. He was gracious and very humble. When asked how it felt to be Australia most successful Winter Olympian, he immediately talked of how the team was full of great young athletes and they were all building towards a stronger showing in four years time – essentially saying yeah he might be the most successful now, but he hoped others would soon beat his achievements. So we have a guy who when asked to praise himself instead talks about other young athletes in the team. Yeah, let’s rip into him. What a prick.

Look, I would not say I was a Begg-Smith fan (I’m not into the mogols to really have a care either way), but when I snuck into the staff TV room to watch his run yesterday I sure was willing him to win. That he doesn't give enough interviews, or smile enough to please the sports “journalists” of this country, for mine, says more about them than him.

The Winter Olympics – I give it a 5.6 for presentation

When the Winter Olympics were last held in Canada (1988, Calgary), I cared about them. At that stage I was a religious watcher of all things sport – and that included Saturday’s Wide World of Sports, which also showed highlights from the World Cup Alpine events, the ski jumping competitions and also major figure skating events.

And as someone who always needs to barrack for someone in any sport, I had my favourites – in Downhill it was Purmin Zurbriggen, in the Ski Jump it was  Matti Nyukanen. I didn’t really have a favourite in the figure skating, but I had the terminology down pat – double axels, triple lutzes and all that. Thus when the Calgary Olympics started I was pretty excited. When Zurbriggen and Nykenen won Gold I was ecstatic. I remember seeing Dan Jansen (favourite for the 500m speed skating) fall on a corner, and saw his face of utter despair, knowing that earlier that day his sister had died of leukaemia. I knew the big competition between “the two Brians” in the men’s figure skating, and the rivalry of Katarina Witt and Debi Thomas in the women’s event as they both did routines to the music from Carmen. I think I even had a favourite luger (Georg Hackl).

Today the Vancouver Winter Olympics begin and I know nobody. Oh sure I know Torah Bright and Dale Begg-Smith. And I’ll hope they win their events. But alpine skiers? Ski Jumpers? Figure skaters? Speed Skaters? Nup –couldn’t name one. Back then I knew enough about the sport to decide not to like Alberta Tomba (though by the 1992 I was on his side). Even in 1998 I knew of Hermann Maier the great alpine skier from Austria. In 2002 I knew of Michelle Kwan the American figure skater. But somewhere in the past 8 years I lost interest.

Where did the interest go? It probably had a bit to do with the fact that far too many of Winter Olympic events are subjectively judged – ski jumping, all the freestyle events and of course the figure skating. I hate sports with judges. I don’t get why the mogols needs judging, nor how the whole damn thing works: so it’s not enough to be fast you have to do jumps that get judged on the way down? So I guess you have to decide between doing a great jump that will slow you down or a fast run… why? Just get down the damn hill and stop the clock! Same for the ski jumping? Can you imagine the long jump having marks for style? Just jump as far as you bloody well can, and give the Gold to whoever jumps the furthest. It ain’t hard, why complicate it with judges?

And all the terminology that goes with the freestyle events just annoys me – take the half-pipe – an event brought in just to cash in on the success of the Winter X Games – Torah Bright is hoping to do a “double cork 900'' (900 because it involved 2 1/2 spins, ie 900 degrees). Sounds great; it also sounds like something made up by the Gatorade marketing department.

And then there are the events that do use a stopwatch and no judges. The problem with these is that (except for the short track skating) they are all time-trails. One guy goes down the hill, then the next guy, then the next guy; or two guys go around the ice skating track, then another two, then another two. Now sure there is some suspense etc. But could you imagine the 1500m at the Olympics being run that way?

The great thing about athletic races is you are actually not racing the clock: you are racing against your competitors. A race can be slow purely because the field are trying to make life harder for runners without a strong kick finish; conversely someone may take the race out fast to blunt the kick of others. Races require strategy. Downhill events just require you get down the hill as fast as you can (which is good, but does lack something). The cross country skiing on the other hand does have competitors going against each other, but so slow is the event that watching it is like watching a Race Walking event.

Now yes I’m being a grumpy old cuss. I am also being rather hypocritical, because I know I’ll watch a stack of events, and I’ll be there saying, wow she really nailed that triple double axel rotator cuff.

And when the two weeks are over, I’ll look at my watch and wonder when the footy starts.

Newspoll: ALP 56- LNP 44 (or welcome back status quo)

Today the Newspoll was released in The Australian, showing the ALP’s two party preferred was at 56% – up from the rogue poll of two week’s ago, but still down on the 59% of a month ago. In reality all that has happened is normality has resumed. Below is the ALP’s two party preferred vote from Newspoll over the last 12 months.

It doesn’t make for fun reading for the Liberal Party. Given the ALP’s vote at the 2007 election was 52.7%, all but one poll (last fortnight’s) has shown the ALP increasing its vote.

Of more concern for the Liberal Party is that as of today, Morgan, Neilson and Newspoll all have the two party preferred at 56-44. It will be interesting to see how these polls diverge from here.

But here’s a list of the number of polls and the ALP’s result:

52 – 1
53 – 1
54 – 1
55 – 8
56 – 5
57 – 2
58 – 6
59 – 2

Which means at best they’ve had one poll which would have them in a position better than the last election, but still not good enough to actually win the election, and unfortunately as well, everyone associated with that one poll has written it off as a statistical quirk, that didn’t actually reflect reality.

As I say, not fun reading.

Still you have to feel a tiny bit sorry for Turnbull when just before Question Time, the news breaks that 6 members of the Liberal Party and 4 of the National Party have said they will vote against the ETS come what may.

It made for a very easy QT for the ALP, as all and sundry lined up to bag the climate change rabble on the opposition benches.

It was actually a schizophrenic question time – the ALP asking about the ETS and the Liberals (and pretty much only Turnbull) asking Rudd about the Oceanic Viking – essentially trying to get Rudd to admit a special deal had been done. And of course one has been done, but there’s no way in hell Rudd is going to admit that. And his ability to answer questions was made all the more easy because yesterday afternoon Turnbull had held a press conference straight after question time and said Rudd had misled parliament over whether or not Rudd knew about the decision to offer the asylum seekers the deal they have now got.

It is a pathetically trivial inside Canberra type debating point – especially as Rudd is saying he is in full agreement with the decision taken. And also Rudd is not so dumb as to unequivocally lie in parliament. You would think Turnbull had learned this by now, but no, he just can’t resist being a lawyer and thinking tripping Rudd up over some wordage will win him the next election (if not have Rudd resign). All his assertion did was allow Rudd in every answer to Turnbull taunt him to put up or shut up, and to recall the Godwin Grech Affair.

An interesting decision came today when the Liberals with nutty Senator Fielding voted to delay debating of the ETS in the Senate. Debate was meant to being today, instead it will now being… well sometime. The fact is the Opposition doesn’t want to debate the issue because there is absolutely no unity on this issue. However on this issue, Turnbull can run, but he can’t hide. Sooner or later there will be a vote…

Coates forgets there’s been a change of Government

The other major news to occur today was Sports Minister Kate Ellis releasing the long awaited Crawford Report on Sports funding. It recommended against increasing sports funding to elite sports and also suggested the target of Australia coming in the top 5 at the Olympic Games should be revised to Top 8. In essence the report states that too much funding goes to niche Olympic Sports which no bugger actually competes in regularly, and which few care about other than during the two weeks of the Olympic Games. As one of the journalists nicely put it, we’ve been doing better and better at the Olympics since 1976, and yet the rates of obesity are increasing every year, so the link between elite sport and a healthy public is somewhat weak.

Now look, I love the Olympics. Love them. I love elite sport. But the AOC asking for an EXTRA $100 million a year just so we can beat the United Kingdom at the Olympic Games is an absolute outrage. Say it again slowly – one hundred million dollars a year extra. John Coates, the head of the AIOC came out in response to the release of the report in quite possibly the dumbest rant ever by someone trying to lobby the Government to fund his organisations:

“In your words, I’m pissed off… this is a nonsense … this funding is vitally important to the entire nation… The report is disrespectful of all the work that has been done, particularly since the 1980s, in getting us to where we are… This is an insult to some of our great Olympic champions…. Is Mr Crawford suggesting the gold medals won in Beijing by Matthew Mitcham, Steve Hooker and Ken Wallace meant nothing to the Australian people? Is he telling us the gold medals won by our rowers and sailors count for nothing?…

I will leave it to you to tell (archer) Simon Fairweather and (weightlifter) Dean Lukin he's no longer a hero…. They are the ones who are entitled to feel that what they have done for their country doesn't count.''

Coates said Australia's slide down the Olympic table was  "already happening''. "We think we are headed at best for eight in London,'' he said, after a sixth place in Beijing.

Then he came out with this corker:

"Now he (the report's author, businessman David Crawford) is telling us eighth is good enough, or maybe 10th is good enough for Mr Crawford. I just don't think he gets it. It seems un-Australian to me to settle for something second best.''

Well now. “Un-Australian”? Does he think Jon Howard is still in charge? Coates needs to take a good long hard look in the hall of mirrors, because he is living in fantasy land. To say this report is disrespectful of Dean Lukin (err Gold medallist way back in 1984!) is just stupid. It’s beyond dumb. And Ken Wallace? Sorry John, as I say, I love the Olympics, but I had to look him up on Wikipedia to remember who he was.

Does Coates think this is the way to win friends and influence people? His rant has forced the Government's hand. There is no way they will agree to him now, otherwise it’ll look like backing down. And I have to say – a quick squiz a the comments on the news.com.au story on the topic suggests the hoi polloi are not all that eager for Oates and his athletes to get an extra $100 million….

Coates needs to calm down. This report doesn’t recommend cutting funding. He is perhaps finally realising that unlike when Howard was in office he can’t just pick up the phone and talk to the PM. He also should calm down about this whole Top 5 bullshit. It is an arbitrary number that is absolutely meaningless. Swimming and athletic finals both often involve the top 8 competitors, so finishing in the Top 8 overall seems to me like a damn fine aim.

Look back to Atlanta in 1996 – Australia came 7th, and I thought that was fantastic. Every gold medal was a thrill. Australian need to realise just how amazing a feat it is to win one, and dopey comments by John Coates only serve to make people think they come up with the rations.  Look who “beat” us in 1996 – the USA, Russia, Germany, France, China and Italy. In 2008 the top 10 consisted of China, United States, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Italy, France and us (we came 6th). Now I have to say all of those countries have bigger populations and all except South Korea have a bigger GDP (Korea comes 15th to our 14th on the GDP table). So to me, I think we’re doing damn well to be in that group. Canada, India, Mexico and Brazil all have bigger GDPs than us, yet we’re “beating” them.

So if we “fall down” the list a bit, does that really matter? I love sport, and think, like the Arts, the Government should fund it, but Coates’s call for an extra $100m a year says more about what a money driven sham the Olympics have become than it does about the importance of sport in this country. An equivalent to his argument would be that we should give $100m to Australian film each year so we can have a film in the Oscar Best Picture nominations. It may be a nice warm and fuzzy goal, but is it why film is important? Just as you shouldn’t make films to win Oscars, you shouldn’t just fund sport to win Gold medals.

Where green is worth more than gold

On Friday night an international body made a spectacularly dumb decision. No I’m not talking about the Nobel Committee awarding Obama the Peace Prize (though that was pretty odd). I’m talking about the IOC deciding to make golf an Olympic sport for 2016. There is absolutely no reason to put golf in the Olympics except monetary ones. Golf gets pretty good TV ratings in the US (when Tiger is playing, and he is also in the lead). Golf is also a billion dollar industry, so of course it had the necessary weight behind it to get the IOC to select it.

But here’s what Geoff Ogilvy said about golf being in the games:
"You could disregard the golf tournament as far as I'm concerned. I just want to be at the Olympics. Two weeks with the camaraderie and mayhem in the village, that would be the best part of it."

Says it all – the best part of getting to go to the Olympics would be to have fun at the Olympic village (and to be honest, were you a young single sportsperson, wouldn’t you want to be in the Olympic village as well?). But winning? Pfft. Like Ogilvy (or any of the top pro players) could give a damn).

No golfer would swap an Olympic Gold for a Green Jacket from the US Masters, or the Claret Jug for the British Open, or the US Open or US PGA trophies. OK, maybe Tiger would swap one of them, because let’s face it, he’s got a few of each already, and you figure he wouldn’t mind being the first to win the Golf Olympic Gold. But everyone else?  The majors are all that matter, and thus it will be forever.

Fact it the Olympics are a bloated leviathan now. Too many sports that don’t really want to be there, but are there because of the money involved. The one and only criteria for being at the Olympics, is that the pinnacle of the sport must be winning an Olympic Gold. Anything else, and see ya later. The only possible reason for putting golf in the Olympics is if it were a teams event  - say four players from each country playing a mixture of foursomes, singles and fourball matches. Even then it’s a pretty ropey event, but at least it would be different from the “Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Master Card” or any of the other tournaments on the PGA or European Tours.

So let’s have look at all the other sports in the Olympics, and do a cull:

• Aquatics (46)
  • Diving
  • Swimming
  • Synchronized swimming
  • Water polo

Yep they stay – obviously they do. You don’t swim up and down a pool staring at a black line for 3 hours every day for any other reason than to win the Olympics. I would get rid of Synch Swimming, on the basis that it is the dumbest sport in the Games, but at least those who compete in the sport all are aiming to win the gold.

• Archery

Yep.

• Athletics

Of course (it’s really the only sport that counts)

• Badminton

I’m going with yes. I know they have the “Thomas Cup”, but let’s be honest, badminton players don’t get a hell of a lot of publicity, so winning the Olympics would be their best chance to get some adulation.

• Basketball

A very tricky one. The temptation is to say no, as obviously the NBA is the pinnacle. But in terms of international competition, the Olympics is the be all and end all. It has a strong Olympics history, and especially in the Women’s side of the game is the pinnacle. So let it stay.

• Boxing

A big yes – Amateur boxing is the one sport where the term really denotes something different to professional. And for this version of the sport, there is only one Everest – the gold medal. Ali, Joe Frasier, George Foreman and Sugar Ray Leonard among many other world champions first won an Olympic Gold.  

• Canoeing
  • Slalom (4)
  • Flatwater (12)

Yep keep them both

• Cycling
  • BMX (2)
  • Road (4)
  • Track (10)
  • Mountain Bike (2)

BMX… hmmm methinks some of those involved would prefer to win an X-Games title so I am inclined to ditch it… but I do recall hearing one of those competing in the event before the Beijing Games last year, and he seemed to be pretty “stoked” about the whole thing, so let it stay (though it’s on probation).

Road racing gets ditched. The Tour de France is all that matters. The only event on the road I would keep is the time trial. But the road race? Hmmm I have real doubts. The track obviously stays, and so do the mountain bikes.

• Equestrian
  • Dressage (2)
  • Eventing (2)
  • Jumping (2)

Yeah they have an international circuit etc. But the Olympics is the big one for them; an easy decision.

• Fencing

Yep. The Olympics is the pinnacle – and also keeping it gives Channel 7 an opportunity to show some Italian winning gold in slow motion while backed to Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma about 30 times during the Games fortnight.

• Field hockey

Yep. You think any of the Hockeyroos or Kookaburras would trade an Olympic Gold for any other tournament?

• Football

Bye, bye. Yes it has history, but it also has the World Cup. And the European Cup, or the Asian Cup, or the Copa America. Ditch it.

• Gymnastics
  • Artistic (14)
  • Rhythmic (2)
  • Trampoline (2)

Unfortunately it stays – though the “women’s” competition needs some serious changes, as I suggested last year.

• Handball

Well it’s a dumb sport, but they all want to win the gold, so let them stay (but really it should be culled)

• Judo

Yep.

• Modern pentathlon

It was created for the Olympics by the guy who created the Olympics, so yes it stays (but again, another that should be ditched because it is dumb)

• Rowing

Yep.

• Sailing

Again yes. Sure there are other bigger events, but for non-ocean racing events, the Olympics is the mountain all sailors want to climb.

• Shooting

Yep.

• Softball

It has been dropped, but should have stayed, because the Olympics was far and away the only thing that mattered in the sport.

• Table tennis

Have to say it probably should be dropped – there have been world championships since 1926.

• Taekwondo

Yeah keep it (another dumb sport)

• Tennis

Gone! And gone quickly! As bad as golf. Especially so because there is already an international competition that means more – the Davis Cup. If it stays, it should stay as a team comp – 2 singles and 1 doubles match – a sort of mini-Davis Cup. But then again, the Olympics should not be a “mini” anything. So it’s gone.

• Triathlon

Yep it stays.

• Volleyball
  • Beach Volleyball (2)
  • Volleyball (2)

Yep – for both events the Olympics is the big thing

• Weightlifting

Yep

• Wrestling
  • Freestyle (11)
  • Greco-Roman (7)

Yep – if only for allowing Roy and HG to commentate.

So it turns out it is rather hard to cull sports – most do want to be there because it is the pinnacle of the sport (it’s much easier to cull those sports that are dumb!). The IOC also voted to bring in Rugby Sevens, and I would wager that the Olympics will become the high point of that sport – and will in all likelihood fuel a boom in the sport, that may in time have the 15-a-side version looking over its shoulder. 

But golf? Will putting it in the Olympics make anyone take up the sport? Will it cause any young player to stand over a put and say to him or herself “this is to win the Olympic Gold Medal”? Will any player be willing to trade every other victory in his career for the Gold?

No, no and no. And in my book that means the IOC should also have said no.

Day Sixteen: Or Time to do a final lap.

Great run in the marathon this morning. Twenty-one year old Kenyan, Samuel Wansiru in a great front running performance becomes the first Kenya to win the marathon, and in doing so absolutely smashes the Olympic Record. One can only wonder what would have happened if Gebrselassie had decided to run the marathon instead of the10,000m, but I doubt he would have beaten Wansiru. Look to him to go for Grebr's WR in the big city marathons (Boston, Chicago, Berlin, New York and London) or possibly the Fukuoka marathon in Japan (where he lives) in December.
***
The Opals last night were never really in the hunt. And of course the Americans decided to act magnanimously in victory. Lisa Leslie wore the three gold medals she had won at the last three Olympics around her neck on the podium, in a completely Olympic spirited up yours to the Opals. (and they wonder why the rest of the world hates them...). I wonder if she wore the hair piece that Jackson ripped from her head in Sydney?
***
Matthew Mitcham's win in the diving was a pure 'stepping up when he needed to' effort. But am I the only one who thinks he looks like Ian Thorpe's younger brother?
***
Ok, cue the Andrea Bocelli music; it's time for the Grog's Gamut Montage and to hand out some Olympic Awards:

The Let's Miss the Whole Point Award: The media covering the women's gymnastics. Amid all the ongoing hubbub about whether or not the Chinese gymnasts are 14 years old instead of 16, not one media commentator has pointed out that Nadia Comaneci was 14 when she wowed the world in Montreal in 1976, and we don't seem to look back on her with any feelings of concern; and also that if you have a sport where there is an inherent advantage to be 14 instead of 16, the problem isn't with the rules being disobeyed, it's with the sport.

If the gymnastics world wants to get rid of such controversies it need only do 2 things: (1) replace the asymmetrical bars with the high bar, and (2) replace the beam with either the pommel horse or the rings. Over night we would be rid of children (or women with child-like bodies) doing gymnastics, with them replaced by women with bodies similar to swimmers - and where being an adult would be advantage.

The How are the House Repayments Going Award: To whoever was the guy who suggested betting everything on Leisel Jones to win the 200m breaststroke, who locked in Australia to win the women's 4x100m freestyle relay; who said Australia was no chance for gold in the women's 4x200m freestyle relay; the person who said put your superannuation on Sanya Richards to win the women's 400m; and the dope who blathered on and on about Blanka Vlasic only to see her come second.

Yep 'twas I.

The That's Why We keep Watching Sport Award: Geez, there's a lot, but I'm going with Sally McLellan for her celebration and post race interview with Pat Welsh. Anytime someone asks a commentator who is at the track "Did you see me?" and says "You've got to be kidding me! Is this real?" is obviously in a bit of shock, and is a hell of a lot more entertaining than those who say "wow, this is so surreal".

The My Veins Have Ice not Blood Flowing Through Them Award: A tie between Steve Hooker and diver Matthew Mitcham.

With one dive remaining, Mitcham needed a dive of 100 points just to keep second place (his best dive in the final up to that point had scored 91.80 points); a dive of less than 82 points (which he had done twice in his previous five dives) would have had him finishing outside the medals; to win the gold he needed to score a dive of more than 107.3 points (5 points better than any dive done by anyone in the final).

And so he lets rip a Back 2-1/2 Somersault 2-1/2 Twist-Pike that scores 112.10 points, and he becomes the first non Chinese diver to win Gold. (All done in less time than it took to read that last sentence). Brilliant.

With the bar at 5.80m, Hooker misses twice, and gets over on his last vault. With the bar at 5.85m, Hooker misses twice and gets over on his last vault. With the bar at 5.90m, Hooker misses twice and gets over on his last vault. After winning gold he raises the bar to the Olympics Record setting height of 5.96m - he misses twice and gets over on his last vault.

If he had missed at 5.80m, he would have finished 6th. Such is the margin of error between also ran and champion at the Olympics.

The So All I have to Do is Restore People's Faith in my Sport and Do it While Running Faster Than Anyone in History Award: Usain Bolt. He did it, and not only that, he had fun doing it.

The All I can Remember is He Won Eight Golds Award: Michael Phelps. Seriously now, list off his Gold medals, can you name them all? Even better, can you remember any of the actual swims he did? All I can remember is the last 5 metres of the 100m Butterfly, and that's because I thought he lost.

On the other hand, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget the sight of Usain Bolt celebrating with 40m still to go in the 100m final.

The Ironic Montage Award: The one which showed the men's 20km walk. It talked about friendship between combatants (ignoring the fact most of the field thinks the winner is a drug-cheat who should be banned from the sport for life); it slowed down vision of people walking (because presumably they were not going slow enough); and by having the montage run over 2 minutes long, it meant that the montage went longer than the amount of time Channel 7 devoted to showing the actual race.

The When Did We Start Caring About Fencing Award: Velentina Vezzali of Italy won the Individual Foil, making it three in a row for her. She got pretty excited; she's Italian; it's fencing. So what better way to show it than in slow motion backed by some Italian Opera. And because it was early on in the week, why not show it again, and again, and again. And each time cross back to Johanna Griggs or Matt White so they could shake their head and say, "wow, how amazing is that?", and conveniently ignore that Channel 7 hadn't shown any of the event, except in montage. It was a harbinger of things to come.

The I am Now About to Lie Award: Matt White, at 11:32pm last Friday night, looked down the camera and told the Australian public that Steve Hooker had yet to do any jumps. In reality his first jump had occurred about 30 minutes earlier, and since then had missed twice at 5.80m.

The I Wonder If I've Updated My CV Award: To whoever was the producer of the Games. Yeah they won the rating, and so Kerry Stokes is saying he's happy. But they're the Olympics, they always win the ratings (helps when all they have to beat is a fourth-time repeat of Bert Newton doing 20 to 1); but not only did they miss Hooker winning the Gold live; the very next night they missed Mitcham winning the diving.

The best things about it? They missed out on Hooker because they were showing a delay of Mitcham doing the qualifying section of the 10m diving competition.

The Living up to All Expectations Award: Tamsyn Lewis came into the Games declaring she was no chance to win a medal. She didn't. And as usual she got run out after a poor run in a time much slower than she has run all season. (You could've written that sentence after every Commonwealth Games, Olympics or World Championships over the past 7 years.)

The Nathan Deakes Who Award: Australia was meant to be suffering due to the loss of medals Nathan Deakes was supposed to win before he got injured. Up steps Jared Tallent to win bronze in the 20km, and then silver in the 50km. OK, I think race-walking is a bit dumb, but still great effort (and even better result).

The Doing Everything She Can to Be on the Cover of Who Weekly Award: Stephanie Rice. The word around the Athlete's village was that once the swimming finished an eruption occurred. The hottest amount of lava getting exploded around seems to have been coming from Rice's room (or so the media would like us to believe). After breaking up with Eamon Sullivan a week before the Games, afterwards she was rumoured to be back with him, then getting it on with Michael Phelps, and now seen to have been "getting cudly" with Katie Hoff (straight from the mouth of rival network Channel 9 - not that they'd want to damage the reputation of Channel 7's latest $700,000 recruit). Wow, one would almost think she's a 20 year old having fun.

The Maybe We'll Leave This off the CV Award: The PR firm (if any) hired by the organisers. Let's see: fake opening ceremony [check]; protesters being arrested [check], media being arrested for seeing protesters arrested [check]; no one turning up to events [check]; no one being able to watch events [check]; controversy involving fake passports of host country [check]; humorless media spokesperson [check].

Hmmm to be honest, the whole Games could have been held anywhere for all we actually saw of China. There was, for eg, no live set at Tiananmen Square, or views of any local 'colour' - mostly it was studio sets. The cycling road race showed the Great Wall quite well, but it all looked cold and desolate. I doubt many would be rushing to buy tickets to visit China after seeing these Games.

The Gee Thanks for Making Life Easy For Us: Seb Coe, and all the organisers of London 2012. All they have to do is not suppress a vocal minority in a bloody pogram, and they'll be streets ahead of Beijing. After these Games, so long as no one in the Opening Ceremony lip-syncs people will be calling them the greatest ever.
***
Well that's it for me. I don't think I'll bother with the Closing Ceremony; after all Australia Idol has started and after watching the lot of cat strangling performers they had on tonight, I am in the mood to give any singing and dancing event a wide berth.

Oh and my Top Five moments of the Games:

• Usain Bolt 100m - Unforgettable.
• Sally McLellan - Ecstatic with silver, but by the time of the medal ceremony was already planning to win gold next time.
• Youcef Abdi - Runs two PBs in his races and comes 6th in the 3km steeple - Craig Mottram and all other Australian runners take note - that's how you do it.
• Steve Hooker - Just an incredible performance - should inspire every budding Australian athlete to know that we can win Gold in athletics.
• Kenisia Bekele 5,000 and 10,000m double. He won the 10k by sitting and kicking, in the 5k he took the lead with a mile to go and ran away from the field. The greatest.

Obviously there were others - the women's 4x200m freestyle relay was great, but I missed it, so it won't live with me - but for me the Olympics happen in the main stadium; the rest are just events to disassociate the Olympics from the Athletics World Championships; and you know what, everyone agrees with me. Take away any other sport (including swimming) and the Games would survive. Take away athletics and the whole thing dies.

On that note; Goodbye, and see you in London.

Day Fifteen: Or we're nearly there.

I was out most of today so I missed Ken Wallace's gold medal Kayak paddle. And I have to say, I didn't really care.

I think I'm over these games; over the coverage, over the bloated program and number of sports that I have to care about for two weeks, and promptly forget about. Bring on the World Athletics Championships next year in Berlin, which will be telecast by SBS, and not include anything but sport.

Tonight's athletics is all finals; and they're some of the big events of the program:

The women's high jump. Should be all Blanka all the time.

The men's javelin. Australian Jarrod Bannister is a big show for a medal, and a realistic chance for Gold. He actually has the best throw of the year. This would be an astonishing victory for a nation that has no history of javelin throwing (at least in the men's). So be sure to stay up for Channel 7's recap.

The Men's 800m Final: Perhaps the hardest event on the track. 800m runners must have the endurance of a 1500m runner, but need the speed of a 400m sprinter. I think Wilfred Bungei has look ed the best through the 2 rounds, and it would be great to see him get over the line for a win on the big stage after a long run of missing out when it most matters.

The women's 1500m final. No Australian runner, which is greatly disappointing. Sarah Jameison is certainly good enough to be here, but wasn't good enough in the semi final. I'll tip Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain.

The men's 5000m final. Again no Australian; as above for Craig Mottram. Can;t see anyone getting past Kenenisa Bekele to replicate the performance of countrywomen Tirunesh Dibaba and take out the 10k 5k double (and become the first man to achieve the feet since Miruts (the Shifter) Yifter in Moscow).

The 4x400m finals. Men - USA to win. Australia to either bronze or 4th depending on baton drops. The women will also be won by the USA.

The women's basketball final. I am prepared to bet this will be shown live. I haven;t seen any of the USA women's matches so I have no idea how they are going. I really don't follow basketball at all, so my tip either way would be based on nothing except an unrestrained need to pick a winner in everything and anything. So go Australia. Hope the Opals kill them.
***
9:37pm: I love Channel 7, they don't show the actual competition live, but they make sure the medal ceremony is. Bravo.

The Javelin comp is already underway; Bannister is 4th after the first round.
***
Men's 800m final. At the Olympics this can sometimes be run in a dawdle and it comes down to who can run the last 150m the quickest. I think though there are enough in this field who would prefer a fast pace. Here's hoping.

My late mail: Kenya to go 1-2. Yego to come second... (this has actually already been run, (of course it has! but I'm not going to look).

Oh yes! Great strong run front running by Bungei. Yego third (so my late mail wasn't too bad).
***
The highpoint of the coverage occurred today at around 5pm: both SBS and Channel 7 had the synchronized swimming going - SBS of course had it live; Channel 7 delayed. sigh.
***
9:50pm: Bannister is still 4th after the second round.

The women's high jump is up to 1.93m - 9 women are clear (Blanka is one of them).

Women's 1500m final (it truly is a great night of athletics). Is it live? (if you have to ask...) Listen to ABC radio if you want live. TV is up to that level of technology yet.

9:53pm: Bannister back to 5th after 3 rounds. The leader if Thorkildsen (the favourite) from Norway, then 3 throwers from Finland. (You might have gathered the Scandinavians like the javelin).

Great run by Lagat to win the 1500m. Amazingly it's the first female Kenyan to win the 1500m. My tip Jamal just went 100m to early and blew up in the straight.
***
As we get ready for the men's 5000m, check out this pic of Michael Phelps on the cover of Sport Illustrated. I make no comment, other than if the rumours are true, my God, Stephanie, you can do better!
***
10:08pm: Channel 7 are showing us Bannister's first throw. In the real world he has just fouled his 4th. (stays in 5th).
***
10:10pm: The 5k is off to a slow start... in the background you can see the high jumpers, and also hear the crowd getting excited about someone's javelin throw... sigh.

Bekele really needs to make sure he doesn't have to beat Lagat over the last 200m. He tried that in Athens against El Guerrouj and failed (though Lagat isn't in his class, but a miler will always beat a 10k runner in a sprint)..

Bannister fouled his 5th throw.. on e more to go (he's still in 5th place).

Wow. Just wow. Bekele is the greatest 5k and 10k runner of all time. Put down your glasses no need to look any further. He ran the last mile in under 4 minutes. Just brilliant.

He now equals Zatopek who won gold in the 10k and silver in the 5k in London, and then gold in both in Helsinki. (So all Bekele has to do now is front up tomorrow morning and win the marathon....)

In the high jump 4 women are clear at 1.96 with no misses (Blanka among them), and 5 more have cleared it with a miss or two.

In the javelin, Bannister fouled his last throw, and finishes 6th. (so don't expect to see any of it).
***
10:30pm: Let's go live to the diving! Well no, but hey, it's only delayed by a bit 20 minutes or so. And look, I realise they can't possibly show everything live. But that's the bloody point. Either go in with another channel, or at the very least stream everything live on the web.

Wow, a Stephanie Rice memorabilia photograph, beautifully framed and signed. Guaranteed to halve in value by the end of the week, get in while stocks last (remember it's a limited edition... limited to the number they can flog off to gullible fools).
***
10:38pm: Channel 7 are obviously worried the athletes will have multiple wardrobe malfunctions, it's the only reason I can think of them showing everything delayed by at least a minute.

Good run by the USA women, especially my favourite, Allyson Felix. Have to agree with Raelene Bolye - Felix should run 400m, and give up trying to run 100m .

In the high jump Blanka has taken the lead - the only one to clear 1.99m on the first attempt. Six women are left in the field....

10:53pm: 4 clear at 2.01m (Blanka did it without a miss). Oh please Channel 7, answer my prayers; show us some rhythmic gymnastics.... yes!!! I mean geez, yes it looks lovely, and is probably bloody hard... but it's not live, there aren't any Australians in it...so take us to the athletics.

10:58pm: Well if they aren't going to show Blanka, I will.

Over at the diving, Matthew Mitcham is in 3rd place after 4 rounds (5 points behind 2nd, and 26 points behind 1st - but both 1str and 2nd are Chinese, so don't expect him to get in front of them...)

11:01pm: Men's 4x400m final is actually being shown live. Praise be, the last track event of the program and they finally get it right! C'mon Aussies...

Australia run the second fastest time ever for us, but are way back (the world has moved on and we haven't...and boy doesn't Raelene Boyle have it in for Steffensen and Hill...).

Over at the high jump, only three women are left. Blanka went clear at 2.03m; Anna Chicherova of Russia also went over without a miss (but she has had 3 misses along the way); Belgium Hellebaut took two jumps to clear 2.03m. Blanka is the only one of the 3 to have ever jumped higher...

11:15pm: In the diving, Mitcham is now in 2nd with one dive to go!!! (one of the Chinese stuffed up!)

Oh wow! Hellebaut cleared 2.05 on her first go!!! and Blanka needed 2 jumps. So Hellebaut goes into the lead. The Russian misses so it's down to two.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Blanka misses at 2.07m and thus Hellebaut wins. How crappy is that. They both jump 2.05m; Blanka only has 1 miss up till that point - Hellebaut has 3. Neither clear 2.07m and yet Hellebaut takes gold. I am seriously p*ssed off.

11:34pm: Mitchum could win the diving!!!!!! He has!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His last dive scored 112.10 to take the lead form the Chinese diver who had a shocker of a last dive (74.80); and the other Chinese diver could only muster an 85.50. WOW Mitchum becomes the only non Chinese winner in the diving competition!!!! WOOOOO HOOOO Thank you ABC radio!!!!!

You ripper! Takes Australia to 14 Gold.. . here's hoping the Opals get it to 15.

Top work Channel 7; that's 2 Golds in 2 days that you've totally missed showing live.

That's a good note to end on (Blanka not withstanding, but I'll cope... eventually...). Tomorrow is the men's marathon, and my montage blog of these great slow motion Games.

Day Fourteen: Or, we need more walking events!

Things are really winding down now. I spent the whole day in meetings, and wasn't the slightest bit concerned that i might have missed a result. As it was Jared Tallent became the first Australian male since Edwin Flack to win two track and field medals. 102 years... wow... If that isn't pathetic, I don't know what is.

But still, that is not to diminish Tallent for having the (ok gotta say it) talent to win silver in the 20km walk and 50km walk; but what have Australian men (myself included) been doing for 102 years??? Get off the damn couch, put down the footy and the cricket bat, get out of the bloody pool and do some running!

You mean to tell me even during the 20s and 30s when no one outside of Europe, America and Australia so much as knew the right way to run around a track let alone know how many laps there are in 800m, that we couldn't even muster up one journeyman miler or distance runner to grab a bronze in say the 5000m and the 10000m? No one? Not even Ron Clarke??? The greatest distance runner of the 1960s, and he could only muster up one lousy bronze? Herb Elliott? Greatest mile runner in history, and decides after winning one gold to up sticks and go home???!

Hang your heads in shame Australian men. And be thankful that one male has finally risen out of the primordial soup that is Australian athletics, and in that great and proud discipline of race walking has reclaimed the manhood of this great, brown, big, flat, brown, big, flat great land.
***
Speaking of primordial soup, the Liberal Party is apparently going great guns now. According to Dennis Shanahan of The Australian "Brendan Nelson is fighting back". This is based on nothing except... well actually it's based on nothing; not even Shanahan is able to sustain the belief throughout the article - by the 7th paragraph "fighting back" has become "Nelson has tried to reassert his authority"; and by the end it's merely Nelson (and Costello) making "a lot of noise"; but hey it makes a nice headline, and certainly is an interesting compliment to Christian Kerr's argument also in The Australian that the mainstream media (unlike frivolous blogs) requires "balance and fact".

Oh and today's Morgan Poll has the ALP over the LNP 57-43.

There was one interesting sentence in Shanahan's opinion piece:

"Of course, Costello was not asked and did not comment on whether he would take over if Nelson stepped down. That's the point: Costello will not challenge Nelson, never intended to, continues to hope Nelson can survive and will head off anyone who does challenge."

And why does he want Nelson to survive? Because Costello hates Turnbull. What a great party man. He would rather the Libs go to the election and lose with Nelson, than win with Turnbull. And people wonder why I think the ALP prays that Costello will stay in parliament.
***
6:35pm: Watching Today Tonight preempting 60 Minutes by interviewing a stack of athletes in the same way that Channel 9 will on Sunday. (Of course 7 has signed up the more well-known athletes to ensure we won't see them on 9). Apparently Anna Coren is going to CNN in America. Please let this news be true.

Great comment by Eamon Sullivan to say that at the time getting silver hurts (and it should) but then you need to reassess and realise it's still pretty damn good (but still hurts).

But does having to read stories that Stephanie Rice is linked with Michael Phelps hurt more?? Yeah right; they're an item and Ian Thorpe's overseas' girlfriend is just media shy and they want to be kept secret...
***
7:02pm: We see a delay of the last 500m of the Men's K1 1000m, Ken Wallace gets bronze (another Gold to Great Britain - they're beating us 18 Gold to 11!).

Have to say tonight's athletics events are not in my remit, but that didn't stop me last night and I picked Gold in the women's Javelin and Men's 110m Hurdles and silver in the men's 400m and triple jump.

The men's pole vault is always an absolute lottery. I was in the stadium the night Sergei Bubka no heighted in the qualifying at the Sydney Olympics; so the one thing you can predict is that for someone nothing will go to plan. Here's hoping Steve Hooker can get thing to click.

The women's long jump is up in the air as world leader Naide Gomez of Portugal didn't make the final, so I'm tipping Maureen Higa Maggi of Brazil. But there aren't any real stand outs this year - in fact in athletics in general this year it's been a hard one to pick - the Americans have mostly stayed home to prepare for the trials, and those competing in Europe have been looking more at the Olympics than the Golden League - next year before the wrold Championships everyone will be competing and going for it before hand on the European season, and so it becomes easier to judge.

The women's 5000m will be won by Tirunesh Dibaba (yes she of the put your house, my house, your neighbour's house on her for the 10,000m fame). She broke the WR over the distance in June, so you could say she knows how to run the 12 and a half laps.

The big question of the night will be if Jamaica can break the 13 year old WR in the 4x100m... I'm going to say yes.

The women's 4x100m... hmmm the Jamaicans came first and tied for second in the 100m; gee who will win this one? Can they break one of the most infamous WRs - the one set in Canberra in 1985 by the East Germans? Here's hoping.
***
A fantastic article from The Times by a former English Table Tennis player on those rumours about the athletes' village being a hot-bed of sex. Is it true? Let him tell you:

"too right it is"

Yes it sounds like everything you may have dreamed about.

He also makes this interesting observation: Male gold medallists become hot property, but female gold medallists are no more desired than those that bomb out. Make of that what you will. (Most likely that women are picky, and men are just desperate).

Says an Australian table tennis player of the vibe:
“It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions. God knows what it is going to be like this weekend. It is like a world within a world.”

And from a British runner on the bloody swimmers having all the fun:
“The swimmers finished earlier in the week and it was like there was an eruption.”

Which is also why male marathon runners look so haggard - not only do they have to run 42km, as theirs is always the last event it also means they've missed out on all the fun (or perhaps haven't missed out, thus explaining their looking haggard!).
***
9:56pm: After 2 rounds of the lung jump the website tells me that Maggi is in the lead...
***
I'm going to say it: there is nothing more stupid than showing highlights of the 20km walk in slow-motion. C'mon!! They're walking!! You want them to go slower?? Speed them up; put some Benny Hill type music; then at least we might get a laugh, and ignore the fact that most of them are actually running (just running slowly).

Once again, kudos to Jared Tallent; kudos.
***
I'm going to change my position on basketball being in the Olympics. Yes the NBA is the high point for a basketball player, but the Olympics does mean a hell of a lot. And the fact is when it comes to international competition, the Olympics is the pinnacle. Tennis remains really no different from a below Grand Slam level tournament (why isn't it a mini Davis Cup tournament? Why the singles and double comps? Shouldn't it be Australia versus USA etc?) and should go, but basketball can stay.
***
10:12pm: Men's 4x400m... bad run by Hill in the last leg up the straight - didn't really seem to be putting everything on the line... I think we'll miss out... bugger by 1 hundredth of a second. Damn! (And geez, doesn't Raelene Boyle lay the boots in!!!)

The time is actually the third fastest by an Australian team (so Raelene admits they did run ok... though not Steffensen or Hill!!).
***
We see an incredibly long montage backed by (I think) Placido Domingo belting out some operatic aria. I can remember at the Barcelona Olympics they did a montage with "Time to Say Goodbye" playing as background. It was fantastic. The reason why I can remember it? Because it was the only one they did!!!!!! Less is more, people!
***
This is getting funnny now. I flicked over to catch the end of the footy on foxtel, and when I came back another montage is on... at least I think it's another one... it might actually be the same one!
***
Australia get through as a lucky loser in the 4x400m... which means we get to hear Raelene have another go at Steffensen and Hill!
***
After 4 rounds of the long jump Haggi remains in the lead (she went in the lead with her first jump, and has fouled every jump since).
***
The women's 5000m is at a walk-pace. How slow? My best time over 3000m as a 14 year old was 45 seconds faster than the pace they went through 3000m. If you are woman in this field and you can't kick then it's time to start worrying...

Tirunesh Dibaba is not one of those who had to worry. What a run. The final lap done in under 60 secs. So Dibaba does the 5k, 10k double and becomes the first woman to do so, and takes the title of greatest ever female distance runner.
***
The women's long jump is over - Maggi won with her first jump of 7.04m. Boring? Well Lebedeva with the second last jump of the competition jumped 7.03m. Would've been great to watch the reactions... oh well I guess that doesn't compare to the sensation of hitting refresh on a web page...
***
The pole vault is going, but I have to say this about the pole vault - it take bloody ages, and only get interesting once the chaff has been sorted out from the wheat. Still it is frustrating while watching the 5000m runner going past the pole vault to see that the competition is on, and yet Channel 7 don't even acknowledge it.
***
11:07pm: Pole vault update, Hooker clears 5.60m on his first attempt, and thereby goes into the lead as the only vaulter to have not had any misses. (Kinda time to start showing it wouldn't you think?)...

The women's 4x100m aaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuugggggggggggghhh! What a stuff up by the Jamaicans! The Nigerians are ecstatic, as are the Belgium team.

Stewart for the Jamaicans took off about an hour early for the 2nd change. Bizarre. High School standard error.
***
11:21pm: Oh geez, give me a break, Hooker is in the lead in the pole vault final, and instead we go to a qualifying session of the diving? Disgraceful. (And even better is that the diving is delayed... I wish this was a one off mistake, but as we all know, Channel 7 have done this over and over this week). In protest I shall continue to not watch Dancing with the Stars and instead watch Australian Idol. (Apparently they're going head to head).

Matt White tells us the men's pole vault is coming up soon. lol. No doubt next White will let us know that up soon Carl Lewis will be going for gold in the 100m.

11:31pm: Matt White tells us the bar is at 5.60m and Hooker is yet to jump. So that's just a blatant lie.

Steve Hooker's "first jump" at 5.60m ...oooh will he make it??!

11:36pm: So Hooker makes the jump.. do they now jump to the live action (only 5 men left in the competition? No instead they show a montage of the German weightlifter whose wife died last year and he promised to win a gold for her (and did). Now I love a good story like that as much as anyone. But I have seen that montage a good 10 times now, and Channel 7 have sucked the life out of anything remotely heartening. No one is up at 11:30pm to watch montages. Show the bloody sport!

AUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH, they go back to the diving. I'll tell you what happened - the Australian qualifies 2nd, and the other one qualifies 5th. It happened 2 hours ago!!

11:52pm: From the news.com.au website I see that Hooker has cleared 5.80m on his last attempt. Now that is drama!

11:56pm: Matt White tells us Steve Hooker has just made his first jump. Another nice lie. He has cleared it, but he has also cleared his next. White's next update will be that Jesse Owens has just taken the lead in the long jump.

11:59pm: Hooker is guaranteed a silver. He has missed twice at 5.85m.....

12:00am: Matt White just says "Let's hope Steve Hooker can keep on jumping"

12:04am: Hooker going for his last attempt at 5.85m... He cleared it!!!! (Channel 7 goes with the men's 4x100m. Ok the pole vault probably stops during this, but geez talk about missing a highlight of the games - and remember we saw all 15 minutes of Craig Stevens swimming a 15oom heat live (and he came 5th)

12:09am: The Jamaicans just slaughtered the relay WR. From 37.40secs to 37.10secs. Wow. Bolt - 3 events 3 WRs.

12:10am: The pole vault is down to 2 men: Hooker and Russian, Lukyanenko. ... Both miss at 5.90m

12:13am: Matt White tells us the pole vault is down to 2 men, both have missed at 5.85m... liar.

This is how Channel 7 would do the moon landing.

Matt White: Welcome back from that classic repeat episode of Get Smart. Neil Armstong has just landed on the moon, but here's Buzz Aldrin coming down the ladder.

12:18am: Both have missed twice at 5.90m... (Channel 7 is having 5 minutes of adverts instead of quickly getting the competition up to live - which would be easy to do given the amount of time they take in between jumps).

12:20am: The Russian has now missed three times. If Hooker clears he wins. If he misses, they have a jump off... geez this is great stuff I can't believe Channel 7 could score such a bad own goal...

12:22am: HOOKER WINS!!!!!!!!! He clears 5.90m!!!!!!!!! (Channel 7 meanwhile are showing his first attempt!)

12:26am: Hooker on Channel 7 is going for his 2nd attempt.. don't think he'll make it... nope. What a shock, I must be psychic.

12:28am: Another advert. The ABC radio is live at least - Hooker is going for the Olympic Record.

12:32am: On Channel 7, Hooker is going for his third attempt. 10 minutes behind reality....

It's still amazing, and should have been even better. David Culbert is close to tears I think. (He says Hooker's sister went out tonight because she couldn't bear to stay home and watch - well she needn't have worried about that!)

12:39am: After another long ad break Matt White tried to make it sound like Channel 7 were right there. Sorry Matt, I don't know what you actually do on Channel 7 in non-Olympics time, but be sure I shall never watch it.

He breaks the Olympic record!

12:45am: White says "Something quite unique has happened out there at the Olympic stadium tonight". He is bloody well right: an Australian won gold, and the broadcaster missed it. (But remember we did see Craig Stevens come 5th live).

Well that's it for me: Athletics A+. Coverage F-.