As the title hopefully foreshadows, this particular blog-post is unfocused. This post will be a jambalaya of small miscellaneous events/quotes/observations that have happened so far in the Olympics, but before I get on to that, I'd like to take a moment of silence for the omni-asterisk that I propose Michael Phelps should be morphed into (basically, next to every Olympic sport or event in which Michael Phelps doesn't hold a record, there should be placed an asterisk to denote that Michael Phelps did not compete--save the butterfly). This moment of silence will be followed by a short teaser for my next post.......
.........In an Olympic venue where security is tight and superstars are standoff-ish, one lowly Olympic employee named Dustin Riedesel is called upon by THE Bob Costas for help that only Dusitn can provide! Also, don't miss the drama as Dustin and Michael Phelps resolve their clashing desires with gentlemanly conversation! All that and not too much more in the next OLYMPIC INSIDER BLOG! (now onto the miscellaneous happenings)
-I've been waiting since day one to get this fact off my chest. Manpris are not cool. Manpris are defined by the Urban dictionary as "men's pants cropped between ankle and mid-calf, after capri pants, or 'capris'" If you're reading this and thinking, "C'mon, manpris totally rock when I combine them with a cut-off hoodie," then you'd be wrong. I didn't notice them in Kansas City at all this summer, but they are being worn everywhere by Europeans and Australians here in Beijing. It might be standard-issue gear for non-American, caucasian snappers (the Aussie term for phtographers), but that doesn't make it ok for them to wear. Please, MEN of the United States, don't let manpris come to America.
-Great Phelps quote from one of the press conferences: "I didn't want to get out of bed, but it's the Olympics. You have to." That's the drive it takes to become the greatest of all-time. You gotta want it!
-Chinese security is tighter than the Italian team's speedos, and that's all you could wear if you want to get through the airport-style medal detectors without them going off. Leaving the media village to go to the the Olympic green requires the more security than it took to get on the plane that flew me here. And it doesn't matter how much I strip down or empty my pockets, the metal detector always goes off. As my co-worker Brock smith said, "It's not a metal detector, it's a motion sensor."
The best name in the Olympics belongs to Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon. She's a weightlifter from Thailand who changed her name for good luck based on the advice of a fortune telling nun. She just won gold in the women's 53 kg weight class.
The Water Cube has recieved a lot of attention for being a "green" venue. The publicly unseen irony is the ceiling high stacks of paper that the venue wastes by printing off unused statistics. They do recycle though.
Tune in next time.