How about those 2008 Olympics?

Aren't you glad the Olympics are over so you can start getting to bed at a decent hour and stop having to try to avoid listening to the news and looking at the Internet during the day? Actually, the Olympics were a lot of fun for the last couple of weeks. A few final observations ...

The story of the Games to me, wasn't Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals. Sure that was remarkable, but not that unexpected. The biggest story was the way the U.S. Olympic men's volleyball team came back from the adversity of the shocking stabbing death of their coach's father-in-law on opening weekend to claim the gold medal. The projections I saw had the U.S. out of the medals, so winning the gold was quite the accomplishment for Hugh McCutcheon's team and amazing under the circumstances ...

I thought the second biggest story was the incredible running of Jamaican Usain Bolt. The way he won the 100- and 200-meter races was astounding. Setting three world records in the process (he also was on the 4x100 relay team) was something we may not see for a long time ...

As obnoxious as Bolt can be with his pre- and post-race antics, he is an awe-inspiring runner who may get a lot better. And how about his gesture of donating $50,000 to the Red Cross to help victims of the Chinese earthquake? He makes a fraction of the money of many of the professional athletes at the Games, which makes his generosity even more extraordinary ...

Didn't you get tired of how the Chinese gymnasts kept getting favored by the biased judges over the Americans? I did. Or was it just a case of biased American commentators who constantly made us believe our side was getting the shaft? ...

Then there were those cheating Chinese, who apparently weren't playing by the rules in allowing gymnasts outside of the age limits to compete. But isn't it kind of funny to be complaining about athletes having an advantage because they're too young when in most sports being older is such an advantage? ...

It wasn't surprising that the U.S. men's basketball team won the gold medal, although I was surprised they couldn't put away Spain earlier in the finals. What was the most suprising was seeing how poorly some of the best players in the world shoot free throws ...

Utah's Deron Williams looked good in helping the U.S. to the gold medal with some key shots and all-around strong floor play. Let's just hope Carlos Boozer hasn't lost confidence after being relegated to end-of-the-bench status by his former college coach, Mike Krzyzewski ...

The one good thing about the time difference between here and China was that we could see Phelps' races live, well, an hour later than they happened. However, the second week with track and field events, it was almost impossible to keep from finding out results before they happened since most of the main events were held in the morning our time. Of course, as poorly as the U.S. performed in track and field, it just saved us time by not watching the events they failed in ...

I don't understand why so many runners wear chains around their necks during their races. Maybe they do it for religious reasons or for good luck, but I don't think I'd like getting hit in the face all the time by a piece of metal ...

Finally, on a non-Olympic related note, how about Bruce Summerhays winning the Utah Open Sunday at age 64? Sixty-four, are you kidding me? It was incredible to watch and it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

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E-mail: sor@desnews.com

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