Roto Baseball Guru

There has been many incredible feats accomplished during these Olympic games in Beijing.  I have already highlighted a couple of these feats in a previous post and there are many more that I haven’t mentioned and probably won’t get to mention as well.  The Olympics creates many memories and stories that touches the fans in different ways.  For me, it is usually the surprise stories of incredible feat that creates a lasting image in my memory.  In these Olympics, this lasting image of incredible feat is hands down - Usain Bolt’s achievement of the sprint triple crown of gold.

Unlike Michael Phelps, which had the American media machine hyping him up and making him a household name, Usain Bolt was a virtual unknown coming from the small island of Jamaica.  There was no real hype around him and to the casual fan and most of the people watching the Olympics, the name of Usain Bolt was not known to anybody before his 100m race.  In fact for that race, it was his country man, Asafa Powell that was widely viewed as the favorite to come away with the gold.  That quickly changed after Usain Bolt obliterated the field and won the 100m in world record time of 9.69 seconds - earning him the nickname of “Lightning Bolt”.

As if earning the title of “World’s Fastest Man” was not enough, lightning struck twice more at the Bird’s Nest (the venue where the track and field events were held) with Bolt winning gold in the 200m sprint as well as the 4×100m relay in world record times.  This is a feat that has never before been accomplished before and may never be touched again.  In the journey of winning the sprint triple crown and doing so in such dominating and flamboyant fashion, Usain Bolt has made people pay attention to track again.  After being plagued with an era of drug abuse and steroid use, Usain Bolt did what many previously thought was impossible and he did it in such an electrifying way that you cannot help but appreciate it.  Track and field needed a hero and Usain Bolt came to the calling.

Some circles, including IOC President Jacques Rogges, has criticized Bolt for his flamboyant victory celebrations and indicated that as unsportsmanlike and showing up the other athletes.  As a fan however, I would disagree with this statement and have no issues with how Bolt has celebrated.  It is no different than many other celebrations that I have seen in professional sports such as a victory dance after a football player scores a touchdown or when a hockey player scores a goal.  Even at the Olympics, I have seen many other athletes (mainly the Americans) celebrate in a similar fashion as well.

No, Usain Bolt’s character shouldn’t be questioned here and his celebrations are a genuine display of the joy he felt as well as acknowledging the incredible feats that he accomplished.  And to show the type of character he is, after winning his 3 gold medals, Bolt donated 50k USD of his sponsorship money to the Red Cross of China in a joint event with Chinese beauty and Miss World 2007, Zhang Zilin.

From unknown to international celebrity in a span of a week, success and fame does have it’s price.  But with Bolt’s personality and desire for the flair, I am sure he will rise to the occasion. 

If you ask most people outside of Canada, what they think of Canadians, they’ll usually tell you that we are: polite, humble and giving society.  We’ll always be the first ones to say that we’re sorry, we do not usually boast or self-promote and we usually give credit to our competitors.  I am not saying that it is right or wrong, but just stating a more general observation that I have seen.  For these reasons, it was perhaps a bit out of character for Adam Van Koeverden, one of our brightest Olympic gold medal hopefuls in the 2008 Beijing games, when he made some recent comments regarding Michael Phelps.

After Phelps succeeded in his goal of winning 8 gold medals in these Olympic games, the media was hot and heavy in asking any and all athletes regarding their thoughts on this incredible feat.  When the question was posed to Van Koeverden, he gave the standard praise and pleasantries to Phelps, but also added a slight caveat to his response.  He stated that although Phelp’s feat was incredible, swimming is a sport where you could basically excel in one technique or discipline, and have multiple opportunities to win a medal.  For example, if you were a brilliant short to middle distance freestyler, you have to opportunities to win 6 medals of basically the same discipline: 50m, 100m, 200m, 4×100m Freestyle, 4×100 IM, 4×200 IM.  There really isn’t any other sport that rewards an athlete so many opportunities to basically excel at the same thing.  Furthermore, Van Koeverden indicated that if his sport of kayaking had additional events of varying distances i.e. 1500m, 2000m, 2500m, 4×500m relay, etc, he would be in the running for 5 to 6 medals as well.  Given Van Koeverden’s recent dominance of the sport and his world record time in his qualifying heat, I have no qualms with the little trashing talk and confidence that Van Koeverden exuberated.  In fact, as Canadians I feel that we are too “polite” at times and don’t necessarily have that killer instinct necessarily to succeed in competition and we are all too often in the “just happy to be here” mentality when it comes to the Olympics.  Sure that maybe the safe thing to say, but in all honesty athletes live and breathe to compete and along with that, to win.  So the rhetoric behind not wanting or caring about winning is really a farce.  So let’s call a spade a spade and I would step up and applaud all competitors that are willing to take the beats when they talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

Perhaps it was only karma then, that after Van Koeverden made his not-so Canadian comments, he went out and had probably his worst race of the past four years, coming 2nd last (8th out of 9 competitors) in the finals of the K-1 1000m event, where he was heavily favoured to win gold.  He had no explanation for his disappointing performance, other than stating that he just didn’t have it that day and was clearly devastated by the results.

Canadians don’t trash talk, because when they do, they usually choke when it comes time to back it up.  I have no explanation for it, other than the theory that there are larger powers at play here.  Regardless of the conspiracy theory though, the story did have a luke-warm ending, as Van Koeverden bounced back from his dismal performance and earned a silver medal in the K-1 500m, another event that he was favoured to win gold in and most recently set a world record in his qualifying heat. 

This was not the result that Van Koeverden, hoped, trained and competed for … however the result is still something that he, and Canada, can be proud of.  He made a good point during one of his closing interviews that in sport, there is never ever guarantees.  Just because you are picked to be the favourite, you still need to show up and compete at your best on that day, to meet the expectations that has been set on you.  Perhaps this is the truest statement that he made, and very typically Canadian.  Maybe if he did not make those statements regarding Phelps, things would have ended up differently.  You never know … karma can be a very powerful force!

Regardless of the disappointing results, Canada is still very proud of you Adam … and yes, that’s very Canadian for me to say that as well.

First off, let me start off to say to my loyal readers that I have not forgotten about baseball.  You may have noticed that the most recent posts have been related to other sports, and that’s more related to my attention following the Olympics and the other sports news dominating the airwaves over the past couple of weeks than anything else.  With that said, look for some new baseball related blog articles coming up in the near future!

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s focus on some of the amazing stories that have developed from the Olympic games in the past week.  I have always been a big fan of the Olympics.  I can still recall watching events from the ‘88 Olympic games in Seoul, in our two bedroom apartment in Canada with my family, all six of us crowding in front of our 24″ CRT television, cheering on both Canada and China in the various events.  I find that the Olympics is one of those television sporting events that will bring people together … family members of various ages will gather around and cheer on the nations as well as athletes that display incredible ability and accomplishments in their respective sports.  The fact that the Olympics can bring people together, regardless of age, interests or beliefs, is one of the reasons why the games are so special.  With that said, let me share some of these Olympic moments that I’ve been fortunate enough to savor and enjoy over the past week:

Michael Phelps - 8 Gold Medals

Phelps did what many would consider impossible, until he proved them otherwise.  I had the opportunity to watch most of Phelp’s final races live, and those that I missed were quickly up on YouTube.  You can say that he was destined to achieve this incredible milestone of winning 8 gold medals in a single Olympics … the comeback of the American 4×100 relay team to overtake the French was the first example of his destiny and the fact that he was able to win the 100 metre butterfly by only 0.01 of a second, grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat, was the second example.  Regardless of your belief, there is no question the amazing feat of Phelp’s accomplishments and it would be one of those moments where many years later you’ll be asked and remember: Where were you when Phelp’s won his recording setting 8th gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics?  A true Olympic moment indeed.

Usain Bolt - World’s Fastest Man

 
I wasn’t sure what I was more amazed with.  The fact that Usain “Lightning” Bolt obliterated the field in the 100 meter dash to earn his title as the “World’s Fastest Man” or the fact that he obviously eased up in the last 20 to 15 meters and began celebrating his victory and STILL broke the world record.  When he was interviewed after the race, he indicated that if he knew that he was breaking the world record he would have continued pushing forward but since he had already won the race he didn’t feel the need to add insult to injury.

Some may take this as an athlete being too cocky and full of himself, but I didn’t interpret it this way.  Usain is clearly having fun and savoring the moment … dancing and posing for the fans with the Jamaican flag draped over him, becoming an instant hero in his home country.  Through his success and clear display of confidence, there is humility and a feel good feeling that you get that encourages you to cheer him on.  Knowing the fact that he did not go all out during his race leaves the door open for many “what if” scenarios and the audience at the edge of their seats waiting to see what’s to come from this amazing athlete.

These are the top two Olympic moments that I have been able to enjoy from the first week of the Beijing games.  Feel free to share yours and what events that you have savored thus far that would qualify to you as an “Olympic moment”.