arnold

As an American, I don't have a problem with Lopez Lomong carrying the flag for my country at the Olympics. Sure, I'd like it to have been Brian McBride, only because I'm a soccer/football fan in America (there's not that many of us) and I thought that his 10+ years on the US National team, including playing in 3 World Cups and being the only American to score in two (1998 & 2002) would make him worthy of the honor, especially since he's captaining the US team this time. I know the soccer preliminaries have already started and for all I know the soccer team won't even be in Beijing tomorrow, but all that aside I thought he should have been flag bearer. However, the issue I do have though is that by having a guy who is walking representation of the genocide in Darfur carry the US flag, it's basically a political statement. We all know the Chinese support the Sudanese military and their actions against the people in Darfur, and we also know that the Olympics aren't supposed to be politicized or anything like that, and yet by having this guy carry the flag makes is entirely political. Without digging a hole I can't get out of here with this, I just feel that in order to avoid any political controversy or any of that stuff that shouldn't be at the Olympics to begin with, somebody else should have been given the honor of carrying the flag. On the surface I do think that Lomong is living proof of the "American Dream" and everything and because of that it definitely makes him deserving and all, but the political statement the US is making here will no doubt overshadow that and turn it into something it shouldn't be.

Dara Torres seems to be the sentimental pick to carry the Stars & Stripes into the stadium on Friday... after all it'll give Bob Costas something to talk about throughout the entire bloody ceremony at the expense of every other nation there. Personally, I'd like it to be Brian McBride (football/soccer -- one of the most under-appreciated athletes in American sport and one of the foundations for the US National team for over a decade) or Jason Kidd (basketball -- only member of 2008 Olympic squad to have won a Gold Medal).

I hate NBC's coverage of the Olympics. The stuff they show on the cable networks are all fine, but it seems like on NBC they show 10 seconds of coverage, cut to a commercial, and come back with some sappy story about some athlete overcoming some sort of overblown adversity. It give me the urge to beat Bob Costas upside the head with a four-iron. During the Opening Ceremony, no doubt NBC will cut decent portions of the Parade of Nations out. After all, nobody in America cares about the Maldives, right? (sarcasm) They did it in Athens, and they'll do it again in Beijing. The only small nations NBC seems to show during the Parade are the ones stuck around America in the order, or the small ones Bob Costas can mis-pronounce and make fun of, like Kiribati or Sao Tome & Principe. I don't think any of the NBC cable subsidiaries (USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, etc..) in America will show the Opening Ceremony live at 8:00 am (which is when it'll air on the East Coast). HOWEVER, thank God for me I live close enough to Canada to pick up the CBC on my local cable. Not only will they show the Opening Ceremony uncut (or at the very least with far less commercials than NBC), but they'll show it LIVE at 8:00 am. As for the opening ceremony itself, any thoughts on who'll light the cauldron/be the last torch runner? Will it be some Chinese athlete from days-gone-by that nobody here knows about? Will it be Yao Ming, the world's most recognizable and most popular Chinese athlete? or will it be the re-animated corpse of Mao??

I'm sure the opening ceremony will be visually stunning, but I'm also convinced that it will carry some sort of subtlety when it comes to the greatness of the Chinese communist system and all that fun political stuff. As far as the Parade of Nations is concerned (always my favorite part), I'm really surprised the powers-that-be in Beijing haven't revealed the order yet. If I recall, the order for Athens was revealed at least a couple of weeks, if not a month or more before the actual opening ceremony. I know the Chinese don't have an official alphabetical "order" like Western countries have, but still though I guess the reasoning behind it is just to add to the secrecy of the Opening Ceremony as a whole. Obviously Greece will be first, and apparently Guinea (or is it Guinea-Bissau?) will be second, and the Chinese last, with everyone else somewhere in between. When will the official order be known, or will we just have to wait for the ceremony itself next Friday?