LIU XIANG DOWN BUT USA MOVING UP

Liu Xiang, China's first track gold medalist from Athens, said the pain was unbearable. The physical pain and the mental anguish - the weight of 1.8 billion expectations. Unbearable. It will be interesting to see how both Liu Xiang and China handles this. Everyone seem to be saying the right thing for now. Nike didn't miss a beat with their support of one of their athletes, posting a full page ad of Liu Xiang's unsmiling face captioned by "Love the glory. Love the pain. Love sport even when it breaks your heart". We hope for your return Liu Xiang.

American Stephanie Brown Trafton shocked the women's discus field with the gold medal toss of 212-05 on her first effort. She was third at the US Olympic Trials, but timing in life is everything! It reminded me of Lewis & Clark's 1996 national javelin champion, Leslie Johnson, who also won on her first throw and, like Brown Trafton, saw the rest of the field tighten-up and try so hard they threw poorly. Leslie had placed fourth at our conference championships, but also put it all together at the right time.

The US team seems to be picking up some momentum now with 14 total track & field medals to Russia's and Kenya's total of eight each. But injuries and mishaps continue to haunt the team.

MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS: Is Usain Bolt just loose, a ham, immature, or just a goof. Watching the 200m rounds, he continues to present a unique image compared to the other competitors. Will his talent be great enough to minimize the distraction of his behavior, am I just so Old School about this, or will he take the advice of his friend and competitor, US sprinter Wallace Spearmon, and tone it down in the finals.

How do you run fast? It's a combination of stride frequency and stride length. The stride frequency rates are about the same for sprinters at their level of speed, but it is stride length that varies and determines the winner. If a sprinter can maintain a stride length of just one inch longer than the competition, he will win by three to four feet - a significant margin in 100m. It was reported that Bolt took two less strides (his 41 to 43 for the other finalists) to cover the 100m. When you are 6' 5" tall and can accelerate those long levers equally as fast as the shorter sprinters, by the time you reach full speed your stride length will result in looking like Bolt's race did - in a league of his own.

The Russian women are dominating some finals. They went 1-2-4 in the steeple, 1-3-4 in the pole vault and 5-4-6 in the 400m (what will their 4x4 look like!?).

More TV ads: the VISA Go World ads have Morgan Freeman doing the voice overs . . . the scripts for each are good, but I just LOVE that man's voice!
Sandya Richard vs. Aaron Ross . . . their future marriage is off to a great start (no pun intended) as Ross shows that he is a smart man . . . says Sandya "That's okay honey, that Super Bowl ring is really heavy". . . smart woman too!

Kinesio Tape - looks cool, but come on, what does it really do. Okay, okay, you can explain all you want, but call me a real skeptic. I have the same feeling towards Icy Hot - smells good, make your skin feel warm, but your muscles are the same 98.6-degrees on the inside. What the heck, this things probably don't hurt or help, but if the athlete believes - go with it!

USA NOT OFF TO A GREAT START

I've decided not to try to keep posting by days, because I watch one day at night and then in the morning, see the results online for the next day, which NBC will broadcast "live" later that night . . . Help! I'm lost in the space-time continuum without a DeLorean or Doc Brown!

At the Cube the US swimmers just kept breaking records and winning tons of medals , but at the Bird's Nest the US track & field athletes are not starting off with the same success. With more events and diversity of events, track does not lend itself to easy domination by one person or small group of stars. And there are more nations that have medal contenders. Still, we believe that our American athletes should have a significant presence. Early on in the competition, its just not happening.

Kudos to Shalane Flanagan for her bronze in the 10,000m and new American record! And to Hyleas Fountain in the heptathlon (silver) and Walter Dix with a PR in the 100m (bronze). Seven events complete for the women and just two bronze . . . three events on the men's side and a silver (shot put) and a bronze. Expectations were higher, especially for the men's shot, men's 100m and women's 100m. More events and opportunities to come and we'll keep the faith.

MEN'S 100m DASH: Bronze medalist Walter Dix put it best - "the man can run". Most likely, we witnessed a new era in 100m sprinting with Usain Bolt "coasting" to a new world record. And we were all left with "what if". If he can stay healthy, focused and motivated, he will dominate the race as Carl Lewis did in his era. If he doesn't, we will be left with the "what if" of the Beijing race.
There are some athletes that define themselves by their records. There are others that just win. Bolt said he was only focused on the gold medal and didn't even know that it was a record until halfway through his victory lap. What the athlete values and what we spectators value, is personal to each. If Bolt chooses to just win, he will still set records.
Contrasting winning with records, other legends come to mind: Ron Clarke (Australia /1960s) set 17 world records across six distance running events, but never won a gold; Al Oerter (USA) won four Olympic gold medals in the discus (1956, 1960, 1964, 1968), but only held the world record once in his career; Sergey Bubka (USSR/Ukraine) won six world champions and one Olympic gold while setting the pole vault world record 35 times.
How will history record Usain Bolt's accomplishments - it's going to be fascinating to watch.

THINGS THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION: Chalk plumes engulfing the shot putters. Adam Nelson fouling 10 of his 12 puts over three Olympic Games. High socks on women 10k runners. Shelane Flanagan's mom screaming for her. As a former steeplerchaser, the NASTY waterjump pile-up in the women's race - ouch! US steepler Anthony Famiglietti saying "you have to put yourself in pain everyday". I love to look at flags of the world - some are so cool. Russian vaulter Elena Isinbaera sleeping during the early pole vault heights - clearing one vault at 15-00, which no one else cleared, waving and gone. Are women shot putters always so happy? Beijing looks beautiful from the marathon helicopter.

OLYMPICS AND NO SLEEP

I don't know about you, but the Olympics have been keeping me from getting enough sleep. I set the DVR, but then stay up and watch it anyway. Oh well, I guess I'm addicted and here are some of my blurry-eyed impressions:

SWIMMING: Just one word says it all . . . Phelps. Then add the word history, or unbelievable, or . . . what? Will this be remembered as his Olympics - hard not to think that. Size 14 flipper feet, 7-foot wing span, what a machine! That first relay was amazing, aren't relays in sports just so fun to watch. The 1/100th touch win, technology saves the day! And where did swim suits go? Saying someone wore a Speedo is a different image now. Across the events, how many world records?? Wow!!

EQUESTRIAN: Okay, understand that I grew up riding horses (Dad was a cowboy before he became a college coach) and my daughter, Adria, has been riding since she was seven - even competing for her college team (proud parent taking here). So, all those years, and even with Adria watching the Eventing competing with me, I still don't get dressage. The jumping parts are easy, either they make it over or not, but "flying lead changes", "counter-canter", and "in a frame", I struggle to understand.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL: Think hip. Beach volleyball is to the summer Games as snowboarding is to the winter Games. Definitely not your parents Olympics! Cool sunglasses, rock anthems between points, the crowd chanting "Match Point! Match Point!", players introduced by their nicknames - "The Thin Beast" and "The Professor". And no rain delays . . . hey, just like track!

WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS: Chinese age controversy. I was 5' 1" and 84-pounds as a freshman in high school. Did I look 16 . . . probably more like 12! That being said, the "pixie" gymnasts that took over the sport beginning in 1976 still dominate. Power, grace, and for someone like me with not spatial awareness in my body, just amazing.

NBC COVERAGE: They keep trying, but network television is still an endangered species with cable, pay-per-view, and the internet, moving viewer expectations ahead of the old big three networks. Here's my good news / bad news viewpoint: Bob Costas as the anchor is a little to light and casual sometimes - one exception was his interview with President Bush, who I don't think thought he was going to be asked substantive questions; I like the Johnson & Johnson ads with Olympians thanking their moms - we should probably all thank our moms more often; the Chinese culture segments . . . as a former art student, I liked the piece on the artist that designed the Games logo and as a committed "foodie", the piece on Chinese food made me hungry (but not as much as Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations on the Travel Channel); former NFL football player Chris Collinsworth as a commentator is soooo bad - he's good!

TRACK & FIELD-DAY ONE: Or "Athletics" as the rest of the world calls our sport, is finally underway and now I will have an even harder time getting sleep! Men's 100m hype - Bolt, Powell, Gay - fastest human stuff. For the track geeks watching, Usain Bolt in the quarter finals answered the question with a 9.92 like a walk-in-the-park. NBC analyst, Ato Bolden (who holds the L&C stadium record in the 100m) stated the obvious . . . Bolt made a 9.92 look way too easy. Good luck to all the others 100m guys!
Other random thoughts - I hate the false start rule of charging to whole field with a false start after one guilty sprinter jumps and every other sprinter gets penalized. The college/high school no false start rule is more severe, but just seems more fair to the best starters; aerodynamic sleeve cuffs for the 100m - huh? think fashion statement like the hooded full body suits of the sprinters in the 1992 Games; I love the camera moving along with the runners, the camera on the crossbars, the stop action of the foot on the takeoff boards, all those views - not new, I know, but still great.

TRACK & FIELD-DAY TWO: With a 15-hour time difference, I think day two is actually already over . . . except in the world of NBC. I'm going to take a nap now. I've got a long night ahead.

IN THE BEGINNING . . .

When I first started coaching at Lewis & Clark in 1981, I would go into the basement of an old building on campus to sit at the terminal of the main frame computer and input recruiting data to be printed out on large, green striped paper.

Fast forward through the generations ... from a little Apple Macintosh to a powerful new iMac ... from accessing the early internet to Google, YouTube and creating this blog. What an adventure it's been and what a great time to be a coach!

It's going to be fun sharing the experience of Lewis & Clark College track & field with you through this blog ... ENJOY!