One last Olympic update

Unless the mood strikes me again.

So, this guy from Australia (I referenced him in last night's post) called the US Track team a "laughingstock". I disagree with him, but didn't take it up too much, because it did seem that our team performed at less than their best. But the more I thought about it, the more it irritated me and didn't ring true.

Swaggering sprinters? Where? This isn't Barcelona or Sydney. Tyson Gay is among the most humble sprinters around. Walter Dix just runs, does his job, and takes what comes to him. I don't recall Usain Bolt running for us - now THAT'S a swaggering sprinter. Our 400 team (lest we forget, we swept the medals in the men's 400 and 400 hurdles) was about as low-key and businesslike as you can get, Jeremy Wariner's bad attitude excepted. And the too-frequent failures of our 4 x 100 relay teams in Olympic races continues to disappoint.

But the US team a laughingstock? Let's take a look at the medal count: Hm, US 23, Russia 18, Kenya 14, Jamaica 11, everyone else can go suck it. Hey, where's Australia in that medal count, Scott Gullan of the Herald Sun? Oh yeah...you got 4. So let's keep things in perspective. When things go as badly as they did for the Americans on the track and they still beat the second place team by more medals than Australia won in total (and, by the way, won more golds, silvers, and bronzes than the next closest teams as well)...well, I think you could say American dominance on the track is still doing okay.

With injuries to our top runners in the men's 100, 200, 110 hurdles, 1500 and 5000, as well as disastrous errors in the women's 100 hurdles and 400 meters, our second, or in some cases third best, still won medals. Men's 100 (bronze), 200 (silver and bronze), 110 hurdles (silver and bronze), women's 100 hurdles (gold) and 400 (bronze). That's a good haul for a team weakened by injuries and mistakes. So perhaps Mr. Gullan should rethink what it means to be a laughingstock.