Michael Phelps first swim... 

From Jay Mariotti, Chicago-Sun Times:

Briefly, I weighed the possibility, recognizing that the current team is loaded 1 thru 12 with gifted stars in their prime, right down to final pieces Tayshaun Prince and Michael Redd. The Dream Team, remember, had a retired Magic Johnson and an old Larry Bird and had the feel of a traveling museum -- or, in Charles Barkley's case, a nightly party in Las Ramblas. Also, the Redeem Team is playing markedly better compe tition in a world that improved enough to catch up to the Americans, then beat them down.

But, please. In the Jordan vs. Kobe matchup, take MJ's scoring, defense and clinically insane competitiveness every time. And if James looks like the Incredible Hulk and plays like a Hummer rambling at 100 mph, I'd like to see him deal with Scottie Pippen's Doberman act. Karl Malone would create a mismatch at power forward. Wade is a force off the bench, but so was Clyde Drexler. Inside, I like the fury of Patrick Ewing and finesse of David Robinson over Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh. We never saw the best of the Dream Team because the mode was cruise control. We've seen the best of the Redeem Team. And so far, it's damned good. "For 40 minutes, it's nonstop movement and chaos,"Chris Paul said. "That’s what we try to do. We wreak havoc."

In the end, Jordan would hang 16 in the fourth quarter and the Dreamers would win by eight points.

From the Spoiler.com:

In a thoroughly well-timed move, the latest German edition of Playboy will be released tomorrow with a feature showcasing the four sexiest athletes to ever represent the nation.  

Petra Niemann is competing in her third Olympiad, and sailing is her game. “I’ve been working hard with my psychologist,” she told Playboy, as if to suggest this had something to do with sport or being naked.

Kayaker Nicole Reinhardt is one of Germany’s best hopes for gold in Beijing, and is grateful that her sport is about technique, so the “dickere und kräftigere” (”butch”) ladies have nothing on her svelte frame.

Romy Tarangul, just 20-years-old, has sadly been eliminated from the Judo competition already. Tsk.

Katharina Scholz is a field hockey starlet, and also a WAG of ex-national hockey captain Oliver Hentschel. She isn’t the first German from her discipline to pose in the buff for the popular magazine - the hilariously-named Fanny Rinne also did so prior to the Athens Olympiad.

Another classic from one of our favorites, Ryan Parker:

From John Niyo, Detroit News:

Indeed, by breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics, Michael Phelps certainly laid claim to throne in his sport, and his celebrity status and crossover appeal has only just begun to raise the profile for swimming in the U.S.

Sunday's win gives him 14 gold medals in his Olympic career, and 16 overall -- both the most in history. He had a hand in setting seven world records at this meet. He picked up a $1 million bonus from Speedo for matching Spitz's 36-year-old mark, and he'll reap untold millions in the weeks and months to come as his agent cashes in on Phelps' international fame.

Great stuff, to be sure. But the greatest?

Not yet. Phelps, in my book of lists, supplants all but Carl Lewis as the best the Olympics has ever seen.

Lewis gets the nod, if only for longevity's sake, winning nine gold medals over four Olympics. (It would've been five -- and probably 10 gold -- if not for that U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games.) And should Phelps return and win even more medals at the 2012 London Olympics, as he intends to do, well, then I don't think there'll be much left to argue.

Have you ever heard sports fans going off about soccer games being decided by penalty kicks, screaming "if a baseball game is tied after nine innings, they don't go to home run derby"?  Well, in the words of a slightly senile football commentator...not so fast my friends.

I just got home and caught the tail end of the USA/Cuba baseball game and saw the two teams tied at 3-3 in the 10th inning.  Then, when the U.S. took the field for the 11th, I noticed two Cuban base runners at first and second base.

Did I fall asleep and miss something?  Is this some sort of dream sequence?  No, apparently it was neither.  Looking to put the final nail in the coffin of Olympic baseball, the good folks at the International Baseball Federation have implemented a new rule for the Beijing games.  It reads as such:

In the 11th inning each team's at-bat begins with runners on first and second base, and the managers get to choose who bats first.

Got that?  No matter where the team ended up in the 10th, the manager can just magically select who gets to start off an inning.  Now they can't just pick two random base runners and a batter; they have to go in order, so if the manager wants the #3 batter to lead off the 11th, he has to put the leadoff man on 2nd base, and the #2 hitter on 1st.

Now on the surface this doesn't seem awful; I find it somewhat similar to the college football overtime setup (which is ok except for the whole taking the special teams aspect out of the game and creating outrageously ridiculous final scores).  But, baseball's selling point is that the game keeps going until there's a winner.  There's no contrived method to end it quickly, it's supposed to keep going as is.  This sort of slaps the traditionalists in the face.

For those of you that want to see how this works in action (as well as see a particularly nasty injury occur to Jayson Nix), click her...oh that's right, I could be hauled off to jail if I link to an Olympic site, picture, or video.  Never mind.

I couldn't do justice to the Michael Phelps story so I have attached a link by Pat Forde of ESPN.  It is a great read on Michael Phelps who is possibly the greatest Olympian of our time.  Phelps is already the most decorated Olympian in history and if he wins his next three races he will break Mark Spitz record of 7 gold medals in one Olympic.

Here is a breakdown of his races so far.

RACE BREAKDOWN

• Pat Forde's breakdown: Phelps is looking to become the first Olympian to win eight golds in a single Games. Here is a race review...COMPLETE STORY

• Race No. 1 -- 400-meter IM: Phelps kept pace with teammate Ryan Lochte and László Cseh in his weakest discipline, the breaststroke, before putting the hammer down in the freestyle to win his first gold of the Games.

• Race No. 2 -- 4x100 free relay: Phelps almost saw his run end, but Jason Lezak came back in the final leg to help the U.S. men edge France to win gold in one of the most memorable relay races in Olympic history.

• Race No. 3 -- 200 freestyle: Phelps easily won his third gold of the Games and ninth of his career in one of his strongest events. He also broke his own world record (1:42.96).

• Race No. 4 -- 200 butterfly: It wasn't even close, folks. Phelps controlled the race from the beginning to win, breaking his own world record and becoming the most decorated gold medalist in Olympic history.

• Race No. 5 -- 4x200 free relay: Phelps chose to swim the first leg of the relay and immediately set the tone. By the time Peter Vanderkaay swam the anchor leg, the Americans held a five-body-length lead.

• Race No. 6 -- 200 individual medley: Friday morning Beijing time, Thursday night in the U.S.

• Race No. 7 -- 100 butterfly: Saturday morning Beijing time, Friday night in the U.S.

• Race No. 8 -- 4x100 medley relay: Sunday morning Beijing time, Saturday night in the U.S.

Way back in 1988, back when I was a wee junior in high school, I had a thing for Olympic swimmer Dara Torres.  Watching the Seoul Olympics on what seemed like a 36-hour delay, she was just all that was right with womanhood.  And then I realized I would never meet her, and went back to oggling Sandy Fischer (name changed to protect the much more innocent than I wished) in trigonometry class.

Fast forward to 2008, where Torres is competing in her fifth Olympics at age 41, in a sport where most participants are over-the-hill at 25.  Dara has had to go through an unbelievably rigorous training program to get ready for the Beijing games, as chronicled in great detail by the New York Times.

But, as she was preparing for last night's 4x100 freestyle relay finals (which the U.S. took silver in), what I noticed most about her was not her swimming prowess, but...well, her downright dude-ish look.  Not even so much her body (which so far as any tests have shown, is free of PED's), as much as her face.

Now, I'd love to show you pictures from the event, but NBC in its infinite wisdom has decided to lock down all pictures and video from the Olympics (because God forbid anyone might see a picture of an Olympic event and develop an interest in the games - I swear it's going to be a fantastic day when NBC finally understands the internet).  So I can only link to a photo gallery with some press pictures - she's picture #2.

However, here's what she looked like in a Maxim photo shoot a few years ago.

...and here's a pic from the Times article...

Yikes.  It should be noted, however, that these pictures were taken prior to her WWE title match against Batista, which she won by disqualification after outside interference from Triple H.

From TopEndSports.com: 

It is fascinating the number and variety of sports that have at one time been part of the Olympic Games. Since the first modern Games in 1896, 12 sports have disappeared completely from the Olympic schedule. These are golf, rugby, croquet, cricket, Jeu de Paume, pelota, polo, roque, rackets, tug-of-war, lacrosse and motor boating. Added to this is a large number of discontinued events from sports that are still on the program, such as the swimming events of plunge for distance and underwater swimming, the track and field events of the standing highjump and tug-of-war, and the shooting events of pigeon shooting and duelling pistol.

You can have a look at the complete list of all discontinued sports, or my list of some the more unusual sports.

In the past, the host country often included their own sports. Some of the discontinued events were simply updated to metric distances or modified into the well-known events of today, especially in track and field and swimming. There are also some interesting sports that were included as demonstration sports, some eventually becoming part of the official program, others disappearing as they should. See more about demonstration sports and the complete list of demo sports.

I thought the whole steroids/blood doping issues couldn't get any worse, but they just did.

Two blind runners, Royal Mitchell and Nelacey Porter, were suspended after testing positive for a banned substance at the U.S. Paralympic Track & Field trials.

I guess my reaction is...what the hell???  Is there that much cache involved in winning in the Paralympic Games that this is worth it?  Is there no field in sports where doping of some sort isn't a possibility.

Well, the floor just got lowered on that one.  You almost can't trust anyone's results anymore.  And people wonder why I don't believe in the fairy tales of sports anymore...

The USA no longer dominates globally in basketball as it once did, as evident by their bronze medal they landed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.  It has been 16 years since the original Dream Team was created to kick foreign butt and as special as that team was, there hasn't been anything close since.  America's 2008 version headed for Beijing has promise though.

The team, to be coach by Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, was announced on Monday and includes the following players: Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, Tayshaun Prince, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, and Deron Williams.

The team was selected without a tryout. It will have a minicamp this week in Las Vegas and meet there July 20-25 to train and play an exhibition against Canada before heading overseas. The Americans open Olympic play against China on Aug. 10.

"It's really the world's game. We think we're the best at playing that game," Krzyzewski said, warning that "unless we show the respect to the rest of the world that it is the world's game" there will be no gold medal. 

It is no longer a show up and win a gold. If Team USA is going to come out on top, they are going to have to play hard and as a team.

"I take great pride in being given the opportunity to represent my country, and I strongly believe that with the team that has been assembled, the United States will be represented well," Prince said.