As always, it was a good Olympics for some and a bad Olympics for others. Here’s how we saw it . . .

It was a good Olympics for:

Underage Chinese gymnasts, who can, did, and will get away with it. (As if anyone is *really* going to challenge China).

Debbie Phelps, who already snagged a commercial and who got more camera time than, say, Stephanie Brown Trafton (U.S. gold medalist in Women’s Discus and the first American women to take gold in that event since 1932) or Bryan Clay (the first American to grab the gold in the Men’s Decathlon).

Our Wii, which got a break for the past two weeks. We happened to get a Wii Fit today (yay!), so the break’s over, Nintendo.

President George W. Bush, who had a mile-wide grin when he hung out with Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.

Pollution, which got plenty of press prior to the games but was tidily swept under the rug (much like the underage gymnast issue) because again, no one wanted to tick off China. Should be interesting to see if there’s any follow-up on it.

It was a bad Olympics for:

Janos Baranyai of Hungary, the weightlifter who had a very painful injury, complete with shudder-worthy photos.

Nastia Liukin, at least for the uneven bars, in which she not only got a silver thanks to an asinine tiebreaking rule, but she lost the gold to one of the aforementioned underaged Chinese gymnasts.

Sleep, of which we (along with the rest of the East Coast) were deprived every day of the summer games. 

Swimmers not named Michael Phelps, whose accomplishments in Beijing will be (unfortunately) relegated to footnotes and who by and large spent less time on camera than Debbie Phelps.

American relay batons, which spent more time on the ground than in the hands of the sprinters.

Post from: EveryJoe

LIST: Good Olympics, Bad Olympics

The Chinese rower made an oops of medal-losing proportions: He showed up at the third race (instead of his scheduled one, the second race) in singles. Missing the singles heat also nixed his chances at doubles.

Any guesses as to how many F-bombs his would-be partner dropped?

The good news is that the faux pas still puts China in gold medal contention for Biggest Understatement of the Beijing Olympics thanks to Wei Di, China’s director of water sports programs, who concluded: “This shows we still have some problems in team organization.”

Um . . .  yeah. Something like that.

Post from: EveryJoe

The One About the Olympic Rower From China Who Showed Up at the Wrong Race