China's Olympic highlights
Highlights time. Which have been the most memorable of China's Olympic moments for you?
A handful to start things going...
Yao Ming scoring a three-point shot to open the scoring in the US-China basketball match (a great shot, but the US ended up winning easily).
Lin Dan winning the badminton singles (making up for crashing out in the first round in Athens 2004) and throwing his shoes into the crowd in celebration (one of the shoes has gone missing, several people claim they have the other one and are willing to sell it for thousands of dollars).
The shooter Du Li breaking down in tears after failing to get China a first gold medal on the opening day of competition, but recovering to win a gold several days later.
Lin Yue and Huo Yuang diving so perfectly that they seemed to become one person in the men's 10m synchronised diving final.
Yang Wei cupping his hands to his ears to hear the crowd's adulation after winning the men's all-round gymnastics gold medal.
Liu Xiang kicking a mattress in frustration in the corridor of the Olympic Stadium, after pulling out of the men's 110m heats (a hint of what it must feel like to disappoint more than a billion people).
Any more?
I’m 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~53~RS~)
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The opening ceremony, Bolt winning 100m.
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Dear James
Thanks for sharing your interesting views with your readers.
I guess it would be really interesting if you stay a bit longer in China, it would do you good and your blog as well. Bit by bit, I see a little progress whilst reading your blogs.
When I was reading your blog few days ago, I saw no difference if you were writing that entry in UK or in China. The question I needed to ask you a few days ago: ARE YOU REALLY IN CHINA?
As a journalist or a blogger, it's a challenge to bring new perspective, to be open minded, to leave everything behind, embrace the newness and try to be the bridge between the Western countries and China.
Do you know the difference on every social way between Western and China? The etiquette, the connotation, the relationships,...
For instant, did you know Chinese people don't value the eye contact unlike in the western (If you look in the eyes of somebody in Europe, it has a special meaning.) That's why a lot of Chinese people would just stare at you and to us, we might think it's impolite but to them it's nothing.
They also don't know how to queue, to us it sounds impolite but to them, no one ever taught them to stand in a queue for centuries (till now). Same thing for spitting.
Or did you know the word “fat” has a more neutral meaning? To them it's just another word to describe people like tall, small, strong,... not per se a more positive meaning but definetely not a negative meaning.
(at this point you should ask yourself why in the Western unnecessarily consider the word “fat” as something negative and it needs to be disguised to still indicate obeisant people?)
Have you ever went to a local restaurant and just picked something from the menu? Have you even tried the lamb sticks they sell on the street at night?
Or did you just go to a western restaurant and drink coffee at Starbucks and like every dumb tourist go to the Silk Market? (Everyone in Beijing knows the Silk market is where tourist would go and buy souvenirs 10 times more than in any local small market. No local people goes there! Why pay more if you could get it for less?)
Did you know that friendships are very strong in China? Have you even shout the word “ganbei” (=cheers) with other Chinese people during a meal? Have you ever shared your views on China with the Chinese people? Let them know what western thinks of China?
I've been in Beijing for almost a year, I've learned so much and I know if you want to understand China, you need to be flexible in mind and leave everything you know about the western ideas, thoughts,.. behind.
Here are some valuable tips I'm giving to you. Try to communicate with the people as a normal foreigner (not as a journalist). Even though they don't speak English at all, you could at least try to be friends with the volunteers whose English are up to the standard and enough to understand. Let them guide you to the mythical country!
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Bolt winning 100m will be on the top of my list. It is about real sports.
Another one is during the opening ceremony all the atheletes walked over the canvas and made a huge painting. It is about real Olympics.
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i'm not quite familiar with the details during the game, but i think there shouldn't be only chinese athletes.
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Cheng Fiei realizing she`d just won the Gold for the Chinese women`s gymnastics team. The Americans and Chinese had such a hard fought contest it all came down to the final gymnastic routine of the final event. It`s when you realise how much pressure contestants are placed under.
And the opening ceremony, like a gloriously extravagant Hollywood epic.
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Liu kicked the mattress wall before he entered the stadium, not after pulling out.
Please correct this.
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Succesfully blocking almost all the protests?
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My highlight is the 2008 drummers countdown - magnificent and very creative...
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Becky Adlington winning the 800 freestyle gold in a new world record?
Hoy winning his third gold with Kenny getting silver?
That does it for me. I'm afraid watching other country's sports people winning gold medals does nothing for me
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Lin Dan, always the showman. Those sneakers will be worth their weight in gold.
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The whole nation was stunned when Liu Xiang pulled out of the game.
Most people here also had a loss for words when the Lang Ping (former Chinese greatest volleyball player) trained US women's volleyball team won the match against China, a dramatic 3:2, in front of everyone from her home country including the China's top powerful man. The Chinese "best-coach-for-a-women's-team-must-be-a-man" rule is now broken.
As I was writing this the women's volleyball semifinals were just over - China lost to Brazil.
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very intresting point from nokiaplant but i have been following james reynolds blogs from china for at least 4months, bit harsh to criticise him on the way he writes, he is talking to people in the UK. neways im just guessing but as he's the beijing correspondant for the BBC and has been for a while im sure he doesn't just walk around the tourist sites over and over again would probably get bored.
my favorite chinese moment was the male gymnast on the rings spectacular!!!
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To thisisacryforhelp No.14
Lang Ping trained US team vs Chinese team, that was a win-win situation. If Chinese win, China has a better team; if US win, China has a better coach.:)
Apparantly the Chinese vollleyball team is not good enough this year. We can just accept that. Now I really hope US wins. Go Lang Ping.
--------------------------
Phelps' eight gold should also be a memorable moment. forgot to say.
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some of yours are just fine. there are many other suprises that are much more delightful. for example, (don't know how to speak it in english), zhang juanjuan won golden medal of female archery, the women team of four players rowing, male archery team, and much more. to me, surprise is much more delightful.
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How about the booing during the Japanese national anthem before the China-Japan women soccer match? That's a good demonstration of our class.
But my favorite is the last year 13 turned 16 years old gymnastics girls. In the name of national interest, they managed to grow old faster than others?
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james:
i just cannot understand that almost all of ur articles are anti-china.
as a reporter.with the vocational morality, i think all of ur articles should be righteous.
do not write everything in ur own mind,
will u write like that when all things(u have written) are happened in ur country?
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1) The opening ceremoney
2) Michael Phelps and his 8 gold miracle=]
3) Bolt and his fantanstic running.
4) At Games, Athletes From Georgia and Russia Carry On. Sports' magic!
5) Liu Xiang. As Nike's ads after he drop from the game:"Love Sport Even When It Breaks Your Heart"
6) Great Britain's Gail Emms and Nathan Robertson reached the badminton mixed doubles quarter-finals with a dramatic win over the second seeds from China
(This one might be my personal interest because I really love this pair and they defeat world number 2 seed, it's just a shame they didn't get medal and this might be their last olympic game)
7) China kick USA from medal number one
(Ironic thing is the US seems to start using new way of ranking since this game. Quit an interesting thing and imagine what if China was in American's shoes? ;P At least I believe the BBC/CNN media won't be this low profile on that.
8) The close ceremoney maybe?...
9) so far UK got it's history best olympic for a century. We can expect more in 2012 I believe.
.
.
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The game isn't over yet so let's hope there is more this game will be memorized for
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# 8. At 12:39pm on 21 Aug 2008, wombletiltheend wrote:
Succesfully blocking almost all the protests?
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by sending two grandmas to 1-year re-education labor camp for daring to apply to protest in the "protest" parks.
I thought beating up old ladies not part of our heritages.
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GO LINFORD!!!! YOU CAN WIN GOLD
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TaiyuanRen, that was my point. The authorities have managed to avoid facing up to their errors.
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The highlight for me perhaps, is the fact that media of the big European nations are so focussed on the hunt for individual glory, none will even mention that as a whole the EU's gold tally dwarfs China's completely.
I find it ironic that the European media has been so fast to humilate China but won't go so far as to really twist the knife.
Perhaps there is no consipracy and the EU is not trying to humilate China at all. Perhaps the EU actually wants what's best for China and her people.
Then again perhaps this is just another example of the selfish myopic "me first" nature of Europeans.
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My highlights of the Olympics was the air quality in Beijing which met WHO's strictest international requirment and for a number of those days there were clear blue sky. The Chinese people and government had answered it critics especially the BBC who predicted a failed Olympics because of the smog that never materialise.
BBC should apologise for getting it wrong but I wouldnt hold my breath for this spineless broadcaster that shows no intelligent or responsibilties in the way it behaves.
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China on top of the medal table beating USA into second place.
Sour grapes USA using total medal count to get back on top while everyone else think otherwise. I bet their own Michael Phelps didnt become the greatest Olympian by winning 15 silver or bronze.
I just double checked the official IOC website and it clearly ranked the countries by the number of gold won. Silver and bronze are only used as tie breakers when number of gold won are equal between competing countries. I am afraid if USA want to compete at the Olympics it has to abide by its rules and that mean a country winning the most gold tops the table.
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To Nokiaplant :
I'm a Chinese. I totally agreed with you, I also agreed on the queuing and splitting issues about Chinese.
If it is true, we'll accept Criticism. We do not have to "TRADITIONAL" gentlemen as the English, is all because of all war fares we had been suffered during the last 100 years.
(Both Civil wars and Invasions). We had not really got a chance to develop our country until the recent 30 years.
I don't meant to criticize the British. I was educated in England for 6 years when I was
a teenager.(around 20 years ago). My English collegues were really nice to me, even though they often made fun on me (Chinese), I understood they had not seen so many Asains at that time, but I can tell they weren't meant.
But nowadays, I can also tell from the internet, you guys are really anti-China.
Please tell me the truth, "Is it because you has been influenced much by the Americans in these 20 years ?
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I just checked CNN website and they did a survey about should countries by ranked by gold or total number or dont matter. Nearly 50% say rank by gold, 30% say dont matter while only 25% say rank by total number.
So there we have it, even readers of CNN agrees US media got it wrong by resorting to sour grape tactics, however no surprise the US media is ignoring the free rights of expression from its own people and its readers because CNN continue to rank by total numbers. And they got the cheek to criticise China for ignoring the expressions of its people's free human right expressions.
Pot calling the kettel black.
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Bolt! Bolt! Bolt!
Also, Chinese pitcher clonking one on the head of the US batter.
And, Chrstine Ohuruogo of course....
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To #29, Taobo33:
*China kick USA from medal number one*
That*s interesting. I checked the statistics from the 1960*s onwards.
The US always maintained their gold medal count at 30 something. The Soviet Union always beat the US at gold medal counts until it became the Russian Federation with a significant reduction in its population and a change of its economic system.
The US had its highest gold medal count when it was the host nation at the Atlanta Olympics. The US had the highest gold medal count at the LA Olympics, but this doesn*t count because the Soviet Union boycotted the LA Games.
What*s happening in Beijing is China has the host nation advantage, and it basically took many gold medals which used to belong to the Soviet Union, while the US has generally maintained its expected performance.
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(1) Anti-China protesters successful held a few protests.
(2) James managed to cover all protests in the scene.
(3) Chinese in China knew those protests too, and restrained from too impolite to those people.
(4) USA has been beaten at least(in sports, not in military/economy, yet...)
BTW, James, have you cover this story: ??????????? ??????????
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The Liu Xiang incident was horrific to watch, but at the same time I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen.
I genuinely felt for him at that moment, all the way from Scotland.
I'd love to say that it'll be ok because he'll win more medals in the future, and possibly London, but he'll never get another opportunity like that again.
Such a shame.
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Easy. The closing ceremony. Well, three minutes after the closing ceremony.
I determined not to watch the olympics before the event, and I haven't changed my mind. The Chinese government has not suddenly become a civilised government because team GB won some near meaningless pieces of metal.
Tibetans are still opressed, the Chinese are still ruled by a merciless totalitarian regime. What is wrong with people? Wake up will you?
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James
Have you heard the story that David Davies threw a bottle of water to a female Chinese volunteer who was asking him to go for the medal ceremony?
Hope you can investigate into this and write something about it, e.g. Chinese people's reactions and comments on this.
The BBC says
"
Davies doused a belligerent Chinese official with a bottle of water as he spoke to the media prior to the medal ceremony.
As officials tried to steer him towards the podium, he took offence to the man-handling he was receiving.
After telling one overly aggressive official to "shut up", he eventually threw the contents of his water bottle at a female official before calling an end to his interview.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/swimming/7573725.stm "
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Wallace Spearmon running over to congratulate Usain Bolt on his 200m win, not realising that he had been disqualified.
Cavic screwing up and letting Phelps win by a hundredth of a second, and then refusing to support his team in contesting the decision.
The medal favourites throwing their batons all over the place in the 4x100m relays.
And obviously there were some great performances by actual winners, too, but since they'll be splattered all over the media for the next four years I don't need to remember them.
I do think, though, that there will also be a slightly sour element to memories of Beijing. There's been a bit too much skullduggery- or at least the appearance of it- for the Games to have quite the same lustre as Sydney.
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At one of the early medal ceremonies the sight of the Russian bronze ? medallist and the Georgian silver ? medallist embracing and congratulating each other ! This was just after the hostilities had broken out between their two countries. Such an attitude embodied the Olympic spirit in all its beauty and power to transcend political boundaries !
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I believe it means that comments which are judged, by whomsoever, to be extreme may be moderated prior to being posted in public ?
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My 2008 Olympic highlights:
1. Opening ceremony: Li Ning being elevated to the rooftop of the Bird's Nest to light the cauldron.
2. Chris Hoy winning three gold medals in cycling. What powerful legs!
3. All the rowing golds for Team GB!
3. Bolt running with his shoelace off and still winning, and his Jamaican dancing.
4. Performance of the entire Chinese men's gymnastic team (especially that of little Zou Kai in the floor exercise).
5. The perfect dives performed by the beautiful Guo Jingjing and dainty little Chen Ruoling.
6. Lin Dan winning the badminton gold and his rock-n'-roll antics afterwards (throwing racket and shoes into the crowd).
7. The achingly handsome Zhong Man winning the first ever fencing gold for China and his celebratory antics afterwards (draping his French coach with the Chinese flag and the Frenchman responded by biting his medal).
8. Rebecca Adlington winning two golds for GB in swimming.
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My highlight has been the Jacques Rogge's stupefying performance, both preceeding and during the games. Debasing all the olympics' moral currency was no mean feat - but defending the indefensible in front of the largest audience imaginable very nearly did it. Giselle Davies was effective in playing her role; stoic, if a little brusque. But when Rogge turned around and criticised the most electrifying athlete in recent memory for how he celebrated his wins - well, that tipped it over the edge for me.
He has surely scaled previously unthinkable heights of self-interested spinelessness, and presents a shining example for all eurocrats with titles attatched to their names.
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The opening ceremony was so beautiful; it was not only grand, but also very inspiring. Plus, having China lead the gold medal count thus far is very exciting. It's about time another country challenged the USA at the Olympics.
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Gymnast Li Xiaopeng!
His third Olympics and again winning the Gold!
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This is a little premature isn't it, there are still three days to go with many of the major events still yet to be decided, are you at a loss for other more immediate ideas? Anyhow, the most memorable China moments, since the question is posed so parochially, are all the missing persons at so mant of the events. Why is it, that in a country of 1.3 billion and counting they can't even fill the venues with a few thousand spectators? Are all the Chinese workers and peasants priced out? Couldn't they at least bus in some people from Tibet or something to fill all those empty seats?
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"TaiyuanRen wrote:
How about the booing during the Japanese national anthem before the China-Japan women soccer match? That's a good demonstration of our class.
But my favorite is the last year 13 turned 16 years old gymnastics girls. In the name of national interest, they managed to grow old faster than others?"
It was a mistake by a sport reporter, the gymnast was born in 1992.
It is sour grape American bloggers who gone out of their way to trawling through the net looking for dirt to dish. East Asians do look younger at 16 than Westerners.
How about criticising drug cheats and those who missed their test and banned but still able to compete and win medals? Or do you only have negative to say about Chinese?
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Wang Nan of China the table tennis finalist is 30 yrs old in October but her physique and appearance to Westerners is that of an 18 yrs old.
When I was 16 even my own Chinese family friends thought I was 12 so you cant judge anyone's age based on appearance.
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Dear Nokiaplant !
have a nice day to you ! thanks for your kown more about CHINA and friendly !
welcome you stay in china for long times !
and our country also has many many nice city such as :Shanghai ,nanjing ,hangzhou ...
Changsha also a beautiful city . it's my home town , kindly welcome !!!
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to Tricky Quinsri !
hi ! thank you for your pay more attention on CHINA. I have some questions to aks :
1. have you been in CHINA yet?
2. do you kown Tibet ?
3. where is the Tibet ?
4. have you been TIbet yet??? and do you kown our Government 's policy to the Tibet ?
if your answers no , pls don't give your bad comment on the TIBET !
CHINA love peace ,it's knowned all over the world ...
DO YOU UNDERStAND?
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The highlight of the Olympics is the biased anti-China reporting by western media.
Why is it that western media have made the issue about the ages of the woman's chinese gymnastics team headline news when the cases of doping from other non Chinese competitor's have only made sideline low key stories.
Seems to me that this is another case of demonize China but let's not make other countries look bad.
Typical.
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China's Olympic highlights?
As far the GBR is concerned, it is David Dvies. What a display! Bravo!!!
I think the world need to see more of this kind of English drama.
Wondering which football club he follows... lol
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I am totally shocked of his behaviour towards the female Chinese volunteer. What a hooligan and he didn't even win gold. Absolutely appalling. He is the shame of British sportsmen. The lady just asked him to join the ceremony and he is so rude. Told her to shut up and throw water at her when everybody else is waiting for this clown, while he is enjoying the vanity fair.
The best part of it: BBC did not even criticise his behaviour, and classed her as "belligerent" and "overly aggressive". David! This is just something you don't do to a lady. Maybe he has won a medal. But that does not mean we can tolerate his abusive behaviour. I am calling him to be banned for all future games and stop him from travelling abroad to bring shame on the British people. He should be classed as low as those football hooligans.
To this date, I still haven't seen or heard any apology from this buffoon. I am starting a petition calling this so-called Olympic Hero to say he's sorry!!
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TaiyuanRen #18
This gringo's "intelligence" concerning "underage" Chinese gymnasts could well be the sporting world's equivalent of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, with a strong sour grape flavour. I'd take it with a pinch of salt. Fortunately, no one would be killed or maimed or displaced as a result of this faulty intelligence.
It's much easier for a louwai blogger to pretend to be Chinese than for a 14-year-old gymnast to pretend to be 16.
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Why is it that western media have made the issue about the ages of the woman's chinese gymnastics team headline news when the cases of doping from other non Chinese competitor's have only made sideline low key stories. #55
Because the Chinese womens gymnastic team won a gold and the Americans only a silver. Those caught doping were banned or lost their medals.
I actually see the age issue as an argument for lowering the age of participation. If 13 year olds can physically and mentally withstand the stresses of gymnastic competition then why not let them compete? After all GB had a 14 yr old in the diving.
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To #55, voodohaze:
I just heard an interview of a Chinese speaking medical doctor on this age issue, he said that age can be definitively determined by X-ray tests of the bones, which is accurate down to the years of age.
I think when medical tests are used to check doping, instead of just trusting the athletes themselves to declare that they don*t take dopes, then the athletes’ ages, when in doubt, should also be checked by X-ray tests.
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To #59, aerochie :
The thing is it*s discovered that the Chinese government*s Sports Administration registry, for 3 consecutive years, showed a date of birth of the gymnast which is different from what the Chinese authority is claiming today. And the government-run Xinhua News Agency and the government-run CCTV also reported a different age. That makes it difficult for the Chinese authority to explain itself.
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To # 60 SheffTim:
These reports of age discrepancy was widely published before the actual gymnastic competition events.
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For me it has to be the last 50m swam by Jason Lazak in the 4x100 freestyle relay.
At the start of that length all commentators gave him no chance of catching Bernard. He then went on to deliver a breathtaking sprint and just clinched the gold.
He looked like he was almost climbing out of the water, it was an unmatched display of strength and self belief
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I'm surprised with the reaction of everyone to the news that the Chinese Womens Gymnastics team are a bunch of kids.
I would have thought the U.S would be embarressed enough after losing the team event to the chinese without pointing out the fact that not only did they loose, they lost to kids.
My Advise to the US team, would have been to Keep your mouths shut and hope no-one noticed.
By the way its a bit harsh now to have an IOC official take back a gold medal from some poor kid. Rules or not I woudn't have the heart.
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James Reynolds,
I feel sorry for you if you are really in Beijing. It is obvious that you don't like China frm your writing but you have to stay there for the sake of your job. If you are not really in Beijing, then you are just a liar.
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My own highlights were of Michael Phelps!!!
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- Opening ceremony!! How magnificent was that!
- China won gold, silver AND bronze for woman's single table tennis
- Liu Xiang's injury is very saddening.
- Michael Phelphs
- The change in settings for CNN's medal table..
I can't believe how rude David Davies was!!
It hasn't really been majorly reported here in the UK.
I do not see this as a smaller issue as
having another girl singing at the opening ceremony at the backstage.
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Having read the blogs of the last couple of days in relation to the Beijing Olympic Games, I feel that I had to make a contribution here (for the first time). First of all, I would like to say that the BBC coverage of the games have been just wonderful and the commentators have been absolutely professional in their jobs. The blogs on this site have been mostly objective although criticism has been seen from two opposing sides in relation to some issues. On the whole, the BBC has done a great job.
My first hightlight of the Games had to be the Openning Ceremony. It was a grand event with a combination of the rich Chinese culture and modern arts and technology. It was simply spetacular. As a Chinese by origin, I can not but feel proud for the Chinese nation to be able to come up with a great show like this. To have so many of the world's most important statesmen there was indeed a way of the world recoganising China as a big power.
My second higlight was seeing China's and GB's medal tallies going up beyond what I had thought possible. On the China part, for a nation whose athletes were rediculed as "the sick man of Asia" at their first appearance in an Olympic Games, it was a moment of great pride. I had never felt more proud of being a Chinese. On the GB part, for a nation of unparalleled historical achievements, it was equally a great moment of pride. This was, and still is a great nation on earth. Blair stading side by side with Clinton/Bush did not make me feel that way, but the GB team's achievement did! I felt truely proud of being part of this nation.
My first lowlight was finding out about the show girl story. Having read about the background about the two girls, I could understand why they did it but I was still a wrong thing to do.
My second lowlight had to be the argument surrounding David Davies. There was a cultural issue here. In the Chinese culture, it is perfectly normal for one to tuck someone's arm to get attention, especially in a noisy and/or crowded environment. It was not a rude manner in their eyes. Besides, you do not send a lady to "manhanddle" a man, not to mention, an athelete in his prime. To say that the Chinese should feel ashamed for what happened was perhaps a gross lack of understanding of that culture. I read many defences on behalf of Davies, some perfectly understandable. There were genuine reasons for his behavuour but had it been my children I would not try that hard to find excuses. You may tell a friend to "shut up" in a light hearted manner but you simply do not do that to a stranger, let alone someone in an official capacity. You do not do it in the public, let alone in front of loads of reporters.
London OC has started talking down their effort in trying to match up with that of the Chinese. But I am sure this was only talking. This country has the most creative minds on this planet and I truely look forward to the events in four years time. Well done China. Well done GB.
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so much for a discussion;have you tried the James Reynolds board !
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I agree completely with #60. If a gymnast is good enough to compete below the age of 16 we should be applauding his or her success as a prodigy instead of labelling them as so-called "cheats."
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For me, I didn't think there were any special highlights as I thought every single second of the Beijing Olympic Games were simply spectacular, which would lead me to say that actually the entire Games were the biggest highlight.
What I did find shocking was how the US media decided to change their "medal count table" by calculating the rankings based on the no. of medals...for the sole purpose of making US no.1. If you look at the non-american US medal count tables China is always at the top, as it is tradiationally calculated by the no. of gold medals. Even the IOC guidlines states tables should be ranked based on the no. of gold medals won. If we followed the US tables, a silver or bronze medal is the same as a gold medal, which is ridiculous as a gold medal always beats silver and bronze. When Bolt won the 100m sprint were there any articles on who came 2nd or 3rd? What would happen if Phelps won 8 silver or bronze medals? The fact is winning a gold medal proves you're a champion and puts you in the spotlight. Don't get me wrong, winning a silver or bronze medal isnt a mediocre achievement but the a gold proves that you're top of the top. There's a reason why a gold medallist stands on the highest point of the podium. However the official table ranking method is slightly wrong in my opinion as it doesn't give credit to silver or bronze medallists. The fairest way of scoring is simple and suggested by countless of others: 3 points for a gold, 2 points for silver and 1 point for bronze, which puts China as no.1. Face it, USA did terrible and China stepped up their game. US should learn to humbly accept defeat, recognise the fact that China pulled of something spectacular, and instead of blaming judges, scandals etc, head back to the drawing board, reflect on why US athletes didn't do as well this time around and come up with new ways to improve their athletes in time for the next Games in London in 2012 (good luck britain).
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I find it amusing that some of your posters most memorable moments was china beating the US at the medal table. Wow, and you have the audacity to say the US has sour grapes?
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