The U.S. medal count: Yep, we’re screwed

August 18th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Believe it or not, there are people out there, in the world, that will consider it extremely important that the U.S. win the overall and gold medal counts at this year’s Olympics. These people can be cross-referenced into three categories: 1. Bush voters. 2. Jay Leno fans. 3. People from Wisconsin.

Despite it being very, very unimportant except for nebulous things like “national pride” and “ability to tell everyone else in the world to suck it”, the medal counts really don’t mean that much. Not at all, actually. China’s ability to avoid regulation while utilizing its incredibly huge, incredibly cheap workforce to overtake the U.S. as the world’s leading economic power … that’s something to be concerned about.

Still, the Postmen are nothing if not in service to our reader or two, so how does the U.S. stand in the medal count? Can we win? Fortunately, the Chicago Tribune wrote about this this morning! What a coincidence! I’m going to blockquote it now!

An everything-goes-right view of the second week has the United States winning 31 gold medals for a total of 48, a whopping 12 more than the U.S. performance in Athens. China won 32 golds at those Games. Expect China to add to its total with three more golds in table tennis, three in diving and one or more in boxing and gymnastics, with others possible in canoe-kayak and track and field.

When it’s all done, and if everything goes the U.S.’s way, that leaves the projected total at:

• U.S. 48.
• China 45.

That’s assuming the U.S. wins absolutely every medal it’s “supposed” to win, and a bunch it’s not. So you’re telling me there’s a chance.

BELA FREAKING LOVES GYMNASTICS

August 15th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

More Bela Karolyi freakout video, courtesy of AA:

SHE IS OLYMPIC CHAMPION. YES.

See, I have no idea what Bela is cheering about — the girl is just dancing, you know? But I have a feeling that my friends/roommates/innocent bystanders feel the same way about me when I’m watching soccer. I’m prone to freakouts, even if the stakes look relatively minor to the untrained eye.

So, you see, Bela Karolyi. We’re not so different, you and I. Except you’re a gymnastics coach, so you’re kind of creepy. But in a good way.

Today in good sportswriting: Karen Crouse sneaks in classic Bob Knight

August 12th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

It’s not often enough that I just stop and say, hey, that’s a good piece of sports journalism, but today is that day. The New York Times’ Karen Crouse not only wrote an interesting profile of 50-meter freestyle swimmers, she dropped a semi-funny (or maybe I’m just not caffeinated enough — trying to ditch the habit) reference to Bob Knight:

Jones’s stroke rate was high, indicating he was spinning his wheels, not catching the water as efficiently with each arm pull as he had in the preliminaries when he was clocked in an American record of 21.59 seconds. Garrett Weber-Gale, who took first at the trials, lowered it to 21.47. “I was rotating my arms too fast,” Jones said. Or in layman’s terms, he said, “I panicked.”

The 50 freestyle is perhaps the most misunderstood of Olympic swimming events. Because it is the first race most children try when dipping their big toes into year-around competitive swimming, it is easy to get the wrong impression. To be a specialist in the event is to continually fight the perception that, to paraphrase former basketball coach Bob Knight, all swimmers learn to race the 50 freestyle in the second grade and most go on to better things.

Yes, Karen Crouse, you sly journalistic devil you. Working in a self-reference about Bob Knight’s views on journalism into a sports journalism piece about swimming is notably brilliant. Also: So meta my head burst. But again, that might just be the caffeine.

On my growing obsession with the Olympics

August 11th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

In the past few years, I’ve formed a pretty coherent daily newsreading schedule. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s about 65 percent sports, 35 percent everything else. Of that 35 percent, probably 25 is politics. Miniature political junkie over here, which is to say, I probably read more political news than the average American, but less than an actual “junkie.” Something like that.

Anyway, I’ve found that the confluence of sports and politics is causing an irrational, unexpected interest in the Beijing Olympics. I’m utterly fascinated by it — by the sociopolitical condition in China, by its various mysteries and abuses, by the way large countries work so hard to gloss their reputations, by how everyone sort of drops everything the minute the Games start and pretend that all is well in the world.

(Plus, I was thinking about this the other night — in the course of human history, the Olympics are, like, a really big deal. They really matter, you know? In 100 years, people will look at the Beijing Olympics as the real true start of China’s introduction as a hybrid East-West power. It’ll be a milestone. Grade school kids will study it. Etc. Sorry, I had this thought just after Pineapple Express, so you can probably gather what spawned it.)

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I really like sports, and I’m really interested in politics, and damn if the Olympics aren’t the best combination of the two sports has to offer. Which is a long way of saying that I would like to post this video now, where the U.S. beats France in an arbitrary race that, for whatever reason last night, meant a shitload to a lot of people just like me. It doesn’t make sense, but it sure is fun:

In your effing FACE, Frenchies. We destroyed you like a smelly Tibetan protester! Bitches!

Hitoshi Mimura is my kind of guy

June 11th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

So, the Beijing Olympics are right around the corner — what, you’re not excited to root on athletes you’ve never heard of before? — and the profile pieces are starting to trickle in. The New York Times drops one of note this fine June morning:  Hitoshi Mimura, who works for Asics, is an insane shoe craftsman. Dude uses rice husks for racing flats and compiles 13 different foot measurements for runners seeking his services.

At his office in Japan, Mimura uses a more high-tech method — three-dimensional computer models — to measure the feet of Noguchi, the reigning women’s Olympic marathon champion. Four or five times a year, he measures her feet at 13 various points. For Beijing, Mimura has made racing shoes for Noguchi that weigh a scant 3.85 ounces — compared with 11 or 12 ounces for an off-the-rack jogging shoe.

“The size of a small Japanese hamburger,” Mimura said of Noguchi’s shoes. “Not a big American hamburger.”

[ … ]

“Samurai cannot fight without their swords,” Mimura said. “It is the same for runners and their shoes.”

Did he just call out America for our heart attack inducing massive burger consumption? And was this a subtle attempt to comment on America’s tepid relationship with China? Also: he just compared a runnner’s shoe to a Samurai sword. Awe. Some. If me and E put this kind of work and detail into our blogging, maybe people would actually read our site.

Maybe.

Chinese Olympics training manual maybe not the most sensitive thing ever written

June 2nd, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

That would be your cousin’s poetry. That is the most sensitive thing ever written. The Chinese Olympics manual for dealing with blind tourists? It’s a close second (via SbB):

To handle the “Optically Disabled,” the guide said: “Often the optically disabled are introverted. They have deep and implicit feelings and seldom show strong emotions. … Remember, when you communicate with optically disabled people, try not to use the world ‘blind’ when you meet for the first time.”

Sound advice. I heard (because I’m not “sonically disabled”) that blind people absolutely hate being reminded they’re blind, especially every single morning when they open their eyes. Also, yes, blind people are not animals. They have feelings too.

On the “Physically Disabled,” the guide said: “Physically disabled people are often mentally healthy. They show no differences in sensation, reaction, memorization and thinking mechanisms from other people, but they might have unusual personalities because of disfigurement and disability. For example, some physically disabled are isolated, unsocial and introspective; they usually do not volunteer to contact people. They can be stubborn and controlling; they may be sensitive and struggle with trust issues. Sometimes they are overly protective of themselves, especially when they are called ‘crippled’ or ‘paralyzed.”

I appreciate the attempt here, but I think those last two sentences are from the wrong book. Because that — unsocial, unusual, isolated, introspective, stubborn — was clearly written about bloggers.