Red and Gold

With the Olympics drawing to a close, the U.S. remains in a very slim lead for the overall medal count. Our new arch-nemesis, China has been nipping at our heels the entire way. The first big accomplishment for them was securing the games. Now what a fantastic prize it would be for them to also take the games in overall medals!

I have to admit that from what I’ve witnessed on television, the Chinese have done a wonderful job with facilities and general management of the games. Whatever evils are rumored to be present around the games, pollution, bloodied protesters, grilled dachshunds, etc., they have been masterfully hidden by the Olympic façade.

Certain things have been a problem for them though:

Like 11 year old gymnasts. Did they really expect that they could march them out there and convince the world that they were 16 just by the application of some Tammy Faye make-up on these little girls? It was probably the general lack of females that forced them to cheat. They only have 700 million of them!

And how about those little nagging injuries that kept happening to that Chinese woman volleyball player and causing the long medical time-outs? Six foot-three and rock solid…yet so frail?!! Amazing how she’d keep going right back out there and instantly spike the opponent! The miracle of Chinese medicine!

And off the field….

There was that incident with the British reporter being roughed-up for walking across the street from the track and field stadium to get a look at a small Tibet protest going on. The authorities said that they “forgot” to look at his press credentials. Maybe in the London 2012 games a friendly “Bobby” can return the favor?!!

Also, visitors were amazed that somehow certain websites like Amnesty International’s were mysteriously unavailable on their computers as they tied into the internet services provided by the Chinese government. That’s kind of odd isn’t it?

Still, all in all, I’m surprised that there weren’t a lot more incidents of this type. Opening up such an enormous closed society to so many free-peoples from around the world was an unimaginable challenge for them to control. But, like everything else that country has touched over the last 20 years, they have seemingly mastered this in a very short period of time.

A power to reckoned with for sure….and on so many levels. This was more than just a game.