Back in 1968, a friend whom I had gone to school with since childhood won this event. Less intimate acquaintances have, too. Despite all that experience with the event, even I was confused by the Russian's sudden swoon and the Chinese diver's triumph. Less hype and more informed commentary would have been enlightening in this as well as in other events. As cloying as the hype is, it is no more offensive than the slathering on of political correctness.
Every athlete is a goody two-shoes.
Most have overcome so many calamities and freak accidents that after the games I expect to see some of them introducing Al Gore on the campaign trail, possibly as a fellow teammate. Then the other night we had to be taken by an NBC reporter to an Australian whorehouse that does not merely practice safe sex. Last weekend I found respite in Indianapolis, Ind., an international sports venue almost as cosmopolitan as the Olympics but utterly free of the politically correct. At Indianapolis's famed Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500, a new Formula 1 track has been built. There, one of American sports' most energetic promoters, Tony George, put on the first world-championship Formula 1 race to be held in the United States in nine years.