Them and US

Who is ahead in the medals table?

The U.S. — actually its media, including The Wall Street Journal — ranks countries by all the medals a team wins. At the end of Tuesday’s competition in Beijing, the U.S. tops that table with 22, versus 20 for China. The rest of the world ranks countries by golds. Silver and bronze are used only as tie-breakers. By that tally, China sat atop the rankings, with 13 gold medals, compared with seven for the U.S. (Wednesday’s medal events will have added to all these numbers.)

“Most of the world wants it as gold, and that’s how we do it,” says Paul Radford, global sports editor of Britain’s Reuters wire service.

Full article and analysis from the WSJ.

Did you watch it?

China v USA

The count of presidents (George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush) checks out, but the frequently repeated claim this week that one billion TV viewers tuned in world-wide is questionable. There are no truly global TV ratings, at least no reliable ones. And numbers from the U.S. and China — which combined have about one in four of the world’s population and most of those people who cared about the game — suggest just 100 million people tuned in.

Phelps Diet – Secret to success

Here’s Phelps’s typical menu. (No, he doesn’t choose among these options. He eats them all, according to the Post.)

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

What a start!

As was anticipated – what an opening ceremony…

The opening drums were my favourite,  oh, then the giant firework footprints, the scroll, human painting, the globe, the ‘boxes’ and then there was the lighting of the torch…I guess all of it:

(I will add video as soon as I find a good one – all seem to be slide shows…)

Great photos here.

Mask Attack

The US team has caused controversy (already) with members of the cycling team arriving in Beijing wearing black masks for protection from the smog.

The six male and female cyclists, one of whom was identified as track rider Mike Friedman, had their nose and mouth protected by the device, providing images for the world’s media that the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing organisers would not have wanted just three days before the Opening Ceremony.

A spokeswoman for the US cycling team denied their action was an organised protest. “I don’t believe there was any statement trying to be made,” she said.

Read more here.

What do you make of this?