2008 Beijing Olympics: Week 2

Well, this week has been far more exciting for Canada and overall.

This morning Thomas Hall took bronze in the Men's Rowing C-1 1000m and Karine Sergerie took Silver (our first ever Silver!) in Women's Welter (57-67kg) final in Taekwando.

The day before Eric Lamaze took gold in the Men's Mixed Individual Equestrian Jumping. This is so awesome because of what Lamaze has had to go through to get to these Olympics.

The other day I was actually able to see the Men Rowing 8 and I loved it. A little touch and go near the end but considering I knew the outcome, I wasn't worried.

Did anyone see Simon Whitfield? That man has some drive to come from behind like that.

And what about Priscilla Lopes-Schliep? She came out of nowhere to take the bronze in the final of the Women's 100m Hurdles. Good for her! I've always been a little afraid of watching hurdles. Things can go so wrong if you trip over one of those things.

I also found this article on how awesome the CBC is, concerning Olympic coverage. I've known this for years but it's nice that other people are taking notice.

But things aren't all smiles in Beijing. There are now issues where some of the Chinese women gymnast's may be underage. Competitors must be at least 16 years of age in an Olympic year according to IOC rules but today on CBC I listened to a man who's found documents online allegedly disputing the age of He Kexin, a gold medal winner.

Apparently just nine months before the Olympics, the Chinese government’s Xinhua news agency gave Ms. He’s age as 13. Officials have since dismissed the report saying Xinhua had never been given her age and had made a mistake.

I've been disgusted with the IOC since the Figure Skating debacle of the 2002 Olympics where a French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne essentially tried to screw Canadian pair Jaime Sale and David Pelletier out of a rightly deserved gold medal. I can only hope that the issue is resolved before the games end, whether the claims of underage athletes is true or not. The longer it hangs over the games, the worse it is for the athletes and the idea of sportsmanship in the Olympics.