NBC's breathless, pro-U.S. coverage continued yesterday when Today host Katie Couric called Michael Johnson "the world's fastest human."
If memory serves, a certain Donovan Bailey won the 100 in a world-record 9.84 seconds and pretty well settled any dispute over who the swiftest man on the planet is. Of course, Bailey is a Canadian and isn't of much interest to NBC.
Also, correspondent Jamie Gangel labeled Johnson "the world's greatest athlete." But until the decathlon winner is determined today, we won't be sure which athlete she slighted.
Shouldn't He Be At Archery?
It seems one of the diving judges is a New Zealander named Robin Hood. We're surprised no one has tried to impress him with a 3-1/2 somersault in the Friar Tuck position.
Putting It On the Line
A couple of years ago Doug Cress of Atlanta told his wife he wanted to find the "strangest way possible" to be a part of the upcoming Summer Games. "Well, we need 50 badminton line judges," said Sandra Cress, who is operations manager of the soccer competition for ACOG, "and right now we have none." So Cress took a course at Georgia State, eventually passed the U.S. Badminton Association certification test and today finds himself keeping his eye on the birdie during the gold medal match between Dong Jiong of China and Póul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark. "This is not a sport where long experience is necessary," says Cress dryly.
The keys, he says, are focusing on your line when the birdie starts heading downward and facing up to complaints in many forms and languages. "For 40 bucks a game," says Cress, "you don't need some of the abuse. You get the evil eye, you get players waving rackets at you, you get coaches going nuts.
"But I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. Hey, in what other sport could you basically walk in off the street and find yourself at the Olympics?"
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