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Mon. Aug 25, 2008

Beijing Olympics, Afterthoughts

When it only comes one every four years, seventeen days can pass awfully fast for someone like me. But the Beijing Olympics have come and gone, and while most of the feared events never occurred, we did learn quite a bit during this couple of weeks.

To me, the Olympics are about the athletes, and it has to be said that China provided first class facilities for the various competitions. I don’t recall a single athlete complaining about sub-standard conditions, and most said the opposite: that the facilities gave them the best chance of an Olympic caliber performance.

These facilities also succeeded quite well aesthetically, in my opinion. In addition to be functionally exceptional for the performing athletes, they were exceptionally well designed. It showed in details, like at some of the indoor events where the athlete has bags of gear, they provided courtside “boxes” that were decorated the same as the court and sideline colors. When the athletes placed their belonging in the box, no clutter was left, only the clean design.

There were a couple of things that were glaringly “off” to me, perhaps because everything else was so “on.” The white water course was simply a concrete tube with bare walls. I realize the hydraulic engineering requires that, to a degree, but we’ve also seen at previous Olympics that you can “naturalize” that concrete channel in many aesthetically pleasing ways. Also, the jumps in the equestrian events looked like they’d been decorated by someone who normally built putt-putt golf courses in Myrtle Beach … extra-super tacky. Given the extra lengths the Chinese went to in other areas, things like those stuck out.

But other than picky details like that, I thought China provided a tremendous environment for the athletes to perform. And perform they did, smashing World and Olympic records in dozens of sports.

But at what cost?

Well, if you want to put a number on it, let’s start with $43 billion. That’s how much China put into facilities and infrastructure upgrades in order to host these Games. That’s about five time more than London plans on spending, and about 15 times what was spent here on the Atlanta Games.

Of course, to keep that vast amount in perspective, $43 billion is also roughly the amount of money China loans to the US every two months, financing our national debt.

There are other costs, visible and invisible. While China had promised a new level of “openness” during the Games, in fact they denied any request to protest in either of the two “designated protest areas,” arrested 9 Americans who engaged in pro-Tibet demonstrations, and reportedly sent two Chinese nationals to be “re-educated” due to their request to be allowed to protest.

While it can said that China has opened up to the world considerably over the past decade or two, it also is abundantly clear that the Chinese government is only interested in opening their doors to the world economically. They are more than happy to profit from our relationship, but do not extend that relationship into areas like human rights or democratic reforms.

And the economic impact has been enormous. China’s “middle class” now outnumbers the entire population of the US, a vast new capitalist market. For example, it’s estimated there are 432 million cell phones in use today in China (up from 87 million in 2000). And, unfortunately, you can see the economic impact in the air, in the form of massive pollution. Even with five to six weeks of enormous efforts to shut down sources of pollution before the Games …. it was still horrific on many days. And we all know that right now those temporarily shut down factories are working overtime to make up.

China may well choke itself.

And if not on pollution, on their severe demographic issues, mostly caused by the “one child policy” enacted in 1979. It has indeed reduced population growth, but at a grave cost. Today, 119 baby boys are born for every 100 girls. The “one child policy” has also created generation of “only children” numbering more than 90 million.

Why do the Chinese so desperately prefer having a boy over a girl? Because in their culture, when the children grow up they provide for their parents in retirement. In fact, 3 in 10 Chinese families have grandparents living in their home. Having a boy, especially in a rural farming area, provides the parents (and their parents) with future security.

And that is why baby girls are often abandoned outside orphanages in rural China, and a very few are lucky enough to grow up to be a Princess in America. But the impact of the “one child policy” and a generation of single children will be long lasting:

China’s immense workforce, key to today’s boom, will shrink after 2015. The country should be able to fill jobs by continuing to tap underemployed rural laborers. But by 2050 close to a third of China’s citizens will be over 60 – three times the current proportion. With little social security or pensions to ease the burden, China’s only children will have to support two parents (and in many cases four grandparents) a piece.

“China: Inside the Dragon,” National Geographic, May 2008

In many ways, China is at its peak. The overwhelming message of these Games, from their overall organization right down to the staging of the Opening Ceremonies themselves, was clear; “China is a country that has vast amounts of people, who can integrate and work together in complete harmony, to accomplish gargantuan tasks … in a way no other country can.”

And it’s hard to argue with that. Despite whatever feelings you might have about the Chinese government, the Chinese people are amazing. Driven in ways we no longer are, awakening as a society in ways that remind me of the US after WWII.

And immensely talented as a group. With an eight year head start, the Chinese sports programs were able to do a “talent search” from a pool of hundreds of millions of youngsters, and then spend years training that talent to be capable of world class performance. 51 gold medals resulted (China only won its first gold medal in 1984), and it seems clear that the Chinese athletes will be a powerful performers in future Olympics as well.

And that’s where I have to bring this full circle to what matters most to me about the Olympics, the athletes and their performances. China provided a first class platform for the Games on that level, even if a bit sterile at times (there were apparently no evening gathering areas like previous Games … people don’t go to China to “party”).

When the Games began, I feared that I would end up having to repeat what I said four years ago after the Games in Athens; “If the Games could have a permanent location, this is where they truly belong.” However, though I still question awarding the Games to China, in the end there were no catastrophes, and few controversies to distract from the performances themselves.

And for someone like me who hates all the parasitic entities that attach themselves to the Olympics and end up drawing criticism to it, that’s got to be labelled a success.

Sun. Aug 17, 2008

Olympics, Week One

I’d hoped to post more this past week, but the reality is that there was an overload of work, and I’ve spent many hours watching the Olympics, which has left no time to write about it.

Not that you need my input. In 1996, I may have been the only individual blogging the Olympics, but a dozen years later you can now read blogs by the athletes themselves (and peruse Olympics aggregators, too). Though I am in no way responsible for that, it does make me feel a bit like a great-great-grandfather (not something I need as I approach 50, but strangely satisfying nonetheless).

Here’s a sample athlete blog entry, from Ronda Rousey, US Judo Team:

What I don’t think people understand is that the Olympics is not about winning and losing. The World Championships is. The Olympics is about the world coming together, putting their differences aside, and channeling all their competetive impulses into sport instead of blowing each other into smithereens.

That’s why boycotting the Olympics is just plain wrong. regardless of the circumstances. No. Matter. What.

So yeah I’m here to try and win, try to win with ever fiber of my being and with the last 15 years of my life. But not just to win gold for myself, but to support the Olympic Movement.

Big Jim makes fun of me for being an idealist. And my Mom doesn’t always agree with me when I say its not all about winning. But I see nothing wrong with doing what I can to make the world a better place and taking pride in that.

Another grandfatherly reminder: many of the US athletes in these Olympics talk about the first Olympics they ever watched and how it inspired them … and they’re talking about the Atlanta Games in 1996. Which in many way seems like yesterday to me, but clearly is long enough ago that a child can grow into a gold medalist.

The first Olympics I watched was 1968, the first broadcast “live” via satellite from Mexico City (some would argue with NBC’s 12 hour taped delay of most events, we’ve regressed since then). Then, in the summer of my 13th year, I was immersed in the 1972 Games in Munich, in all their glory and tragedy. Formative, to say the least. Others who are in my generation, like Matt Welch, had their formative Olympic moments as well.

Is it still the same today? I don’t know, I sense things are different, that it is mostly the 40 and over crowd who are into the Olympics. But I certainly hope there’s a generation of kids watching who are inspired to try something greater than they might have imagined before they watched these Olympics.

For the vast majority of us who are unable to travel to the other side of the world, we’ve been treated to the first Olympics broadcast in high definition, using a variety of innovations, like the DiveCam: “Thousands of cameras are catching the action in China — every one of them high-definition. Yet for a feat of engineering magic that dazzles as it baffles, nothing beats the DiveCam.”

Being a visual kind of guy, watching the Olympics in high def has been a visual feast. Of course, I’ve been able to see every tiny drop of water as it falls from another gold medal wrapped around the neck of Michael Phelps. And I have to say, while his athletic accomplishment of winning 8 golds (and breaking a few world records along the way) is quite enough in itself, to me it is amplified when you consider his logistical accomplishments in the past eight days. The man had a 16-18 hour schedule every day, with no margin for error, going from Olympic village to events to post-event drug testing to interviews and back to another event. Plus, eating 10,000 to 12,000 calories per day, just to make up for what he was burning off in the pool.

That schedule (and diet) alone is enough to kill a man. Well, a man like me, clearly not a man like Michael Phelps.

I was also able to watch the world’s fastest human in as sharp a view as a camera could capture of such a speeding mass of protoplasm, Usain Bolt of Jamaica; Bolt’s performance freezes time: “Records fall, and then they fall again. But never in recent history has a 100-meter record fallen like it fell on Saturday night in China.”

The man won by two tenths of a second, which is a huge gap in a 100 meter race. There was a mere six one-thousandths of a second separating second through fifth place. Bolt beat all of them by two-hundred one-thousandths of a second.

He set a world record, 9.69 seconds. And he was coasting the last 15 meters, arms spread wide, looking side to side. It was the most amazing physical performance, and the shortest, I’ve seen in these Games. And this was only his 8th time (there’s that number again) running the 100. Mr. Bolt will be around in 2012, no doubt, and maybe will be under 9.5 by then. If he stops coasting.

And it’s not always about the gold. I admit, I’m always more moved by the track and field events than any other part of the Olympics, and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve been moved to tears a few times already in the opening three days. I watched Shalane Flanagan the other day in the 10,000 meters, and her joy at the bronze medal brought a tear to my eye.

As she crossed the finish line, she held up three fingers with a quizzical look to see if it was real. It was, and she became the first American to win a medal in the event since Lynn Jennings in 1992.

“Oh, my God,” she said, “Am I three? Am I third?”

Marblehead’s Flanagan thrilled with third place finish

You see, Michael Phelps is a rare bird. For most of the thousands of athletes competing in these Games, coming out as the third best person in the world at whatever it is they do … is a joyous outcome. Heck, if you watched the women’s marathon yesterday, you could see joy from some of those who were simply happy to be able to say they finished, no matter what their placing in the pack.

And it’s not always the “wins” or even the finals that bring tears to my eyes. They came as I watched Nicole Teter in an 800 trial.

Nicole Teter pulled off the track less than 100 meters into the race. But she’d known her Olympic experience was over with her first step Friday morning, when a painful lower leg injury flared up.

“I thought I could finish the race, but it cinched up on my first stride,” the Eugene resident said. “I could barely even get on my toes. I was limping from the start.”

And not long after, she was jogging off the track, crying.

Leg injury takes Teter out of 800; Mutola advances easily: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.

She also suffered from a bladder infection and a stomach virus for the 3 days before the event, and had not been able to keep down food. I’m amazed she was able to even get on the track. And at 34, these were her last Olympics. When I see that happen to someone, it just goes straight to my heart. I feel a tiny bit of what they are feeling.

Perhaps that’s part of what I enjoy the Olympics so much. I feel a visceral and empathic connection with what I see, whether it is amazing accomplishment previously unseen, or the dedication of an athlete simply finishing and being proud that they did their best in their chance to compete against the best the world has to offer … and even the cliched “agony of defeat.”

It’s a vast panorama of human accomplishment, and dedication to a goal. Even the failures tell a story of humanity. For me, it just doesn’t get any better.

Finally, it was revealed that the 56 children who brought in the flag during the Opening ceremonies were not what Bob Costas told us they were: New fakery scandal, as China’s ‘ethnic’ children actually come from Han majority; “There were no Uighurs, no Zhuangs, no Huis, no Tujias, no Mongols and definitely no Tibetans. Indeed, in the latest in a series of manipulations that have soured memories of the spectacular opening ceremony, all 56 were revealed to be Han Chinese…”

This is on top of the “revelations” that the “fireworks footsteps” were actually computer animations, and the child who sang didn’t really sing, she just looked prettier than the one who did.

So, it would appear that the Opening Ceremonies were an event staged for maximum visual impact and entertainment, not for historical accuracy. Shocking!

I can see how, in the country that brought the world “Mission Accomplished,” Milli Vanilli, the TV show Survivor, and a multi-billion dollar industry called “plastic surgery,” these visual lies are extremely shocking to our virginal senses.

Perhaps watching a little of another American Institution will make you feel better: “Professional wrestling.”

Mon. Aug 11, 2008

First Olympic Weekend

If you missed the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics on Friday night, well, there are no words that can convey what you missed. There are some photos, like the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony via The Big Picture at Boston.com, and Best Picks Of Beijing Olympic 2008 Opening Ceremony Images. But, stunning as the photos are, they still do not do the event justice.

As I watched it, on twitter I said “China’s five star display tonight made preceding Opening Ceremonies look like something put on by your local Little Theater.” And probably scared the pants off those responsible for planned the ceremonies for London’s Games in 2012. After what I witnessed Friday night, if I were them, I’d be tempted just to build the world’s largest video screen (oops, China already did that!), and just show a video of China’s ceremony.

It was that good.

I spent Saturday and Sunday catching a huge variety of sports. NBC has 5 or 6 channels carrying events at one time or another during the day and night. And three of them are in high definition. These are the first Olympics broadcast in high definition (hard to believe, but at the age of ten I saw the first games broadcast live via satellite), and for me it’s been a real pleasure.

I watched women’s team handball last night, a sport I did not even know existed, simply because it was in HD. The equestrian events were particularly interesting in HD. In all cases, you get a much sharper view of the faces of the athletes, and the intensity is definitely high def.

I’ve tried to watch boxing, but in these Olympics, it’s just too bizarre. It’s more like a combination of wrestling, pawing, and occasional punching, interrupted every 10 seconds by some preening barker using sign language. The scoring system sounds simple, but in practice is incomprehensible in the way it is applied. I dare say they have sanitized the sport out of that one.

On the other hand, I watched Sweden … Sweden … finish with a time in the 4×100 relay that broke the world record.

They came in 5th.

The 4×100 relay was a remarkable display, with five teams finishing with a time that eclipsed the previous world record. This was the excellence of competition bringing out the best performances of 20 athletes lives, in about a little over 3 minutes.

It’s also clear China has really placed a lot of emphasis on providing “best in the world” venues for these competitions. They spent $1.3 million importing, filtering, and washing the best sand they could find, before it was placed in the beach volleyball courts. The players have raved about it, saying it doesn’t even get hot in the sun.

Even the color palettes are unique. The indoor volleyball court is a peachy flesh tone, contrasted with a lighter tone of teal at courtside. Not a common combo, but damned if it doesn’t work very well on TV. Just judging by what I’ve seen so far, the “art direction” of these Games has been top notch.

One unfortunate aspect of these events over which China offered the illusion of control is the vast pollution levels seen so far. The women’s road race this morning was particularly bad, and it doesn’t help that the bike riders are surrounded by cars and motorcycles that are part of the event as well (team support and TV cameras).

China supposedly had a “solution,” involving shutting down factories in the area for five weeks beforehand, going to an odd/even driving system to cut down on the number of cars on the roads, even seeding clouds to bring down rain in hopes of clearing the air. It clearly didn’t work, and when we get to events like the marathon, one can only hope the impact won’t be too severe.

Then we also had those incidents that happen when politics and the Olympics mix, like the President being asked on a visit if he’d like to slap a bikini-clad butt:

“Mr. President,” she said, “want to?”

Want to has nothing to do with it in public life.

As the son of a president, a husband of nearly 37 years, the father of two daughters, the subject of some attempted tabloid exposes and a seasoned political veteran, who is not a female athlete but knows that every camera for a half-mile is trained on him, Bush wisely chose instead to brush his hand across the small of May-Treanor’s back.

Pres. Bush declines to slap Misty May-Treanor’s bikinied butt | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

Smartest choice he’s made in some time, I’d say. And then there’s a more serious mix of the Olympics and politics:

Nino Salukvadze took bronze for Georgia in the women’s 10m air pistol, with Russia’s Natalia Paderina collecting silver. After the medal ceremony the two posed together for photographers, their arms on each others’ shoulders, and Paderina gave Salukvadze a kiss on the cheek.

“As far as the hugging and kissing goes, I do that with many friends. I have many friends around the world and will always do that. There should be no hatred among athletes and people,” she said. “Politicians should straighten out the situation today and if they don’t, we’ll have to get involved.”

Olympics Beijing 2008: The Russian Natalia Paderina and Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze share a podium

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what the Olympics are supposed to be about.