Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
August 14, 2008, Washington Post

At Olympics, It's Game On

Like almost everyone else, I am spending lots of time watching the Summer Olympics. Here are some thoughts, great and small, about the world's biggest sporting event.

· Did you see the Opening Ceremonies? They were so awesome they make a Super Bowl halftime show look like a kid's backyard party.

· I think the coolest part of the Opening Ceremonies was that Lopez Lomong carried the American flag. Lomong survived the horrors of the killings in the Darfur section of the African country of Sudan before he came to the United States and became a world-class runner. By choosing Lomong, the American athletes showed they understand that people from around the world come to this country for freedom and to do what they do best.

· It's impressive to see all the different countries represented in the Opening Ceremonies. What I noticed is that athletes come in all shapes and sizes. So no matter how big or small you are, there is probably an Olympic sport you can play.

· Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6-inch basketball center for the NBA's Houston Rockets and Chinese national team, looks big even among the tallest athletes. I don't think Yao will stop the United States from winning gold. It looks like a team on a mission.

· President Bush was the first U.S. president to go to an Olympic Games not held in the United States. There's no doubt the president is a big sports fan; he was at lots of Olympic events.

· Swimming is not my favorite sport, so I thought there were too many swimming races during the first week. With so many races, the television commentators say silly things. During one breaststroke race, the announcer said the American swimmer was "constantly moving forward." Well, duh!

· I may not like swimming, but I love the relays. Some are unbelievably close. Imagine what it would be like to train for years and lose a medal by a tenth or a hundredth of a second. The U.S. team beat the French in that fabulous 4x100-meter freestyle relay by eight hundredths of a second.

· The gymnasts are amazing. Every gymnastics competition, I yell out, "Wow! Did you see that?" Come to think of it, I say that whenever I watch the Games.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

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