Host did prove it had most
ATHENS -- They did it.
The Greeks did it. They gave us a top-drawer Olympics, complete with the best overall venues, the best transportation, and as helpful and cheery a volunteer staff as we've ever seen (with surely the deepest bench; I mean, was there anyone in this country who hadn't raised his or her hand when the call came?).
So it's true. They know what they're doing. It may not be the German way or the American way or the Chinese way (Can you believe that International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge is asking the Beijing folks to "slow it down?"), but it's the Greek way. C'mon, who among us didn't punt at least one course and have to do the all-night thing prior to the final exam? I came back from this city after covering the World Basketball Championships in 1998 and for the next six years I was telling anyone who was interested, "Here's the deal with Athens: It's `Manana, with Ouzo.' They'll be nailing in the last plank during the opening ceremonies, but they'll probably get it done."
And so they did. Speaking of the opening ceremonies -- Wow. No, Double Wow. Talk about raising the bar for the Chinese.
The Olympics is the ultimate companion piece to the Hindu story of the six blind men and the elephant. My Olympics was not John Powers's Olympics, or Ron Borges's Olympics, or Tony Chamberlain's Olympics. I only saw Michael Phelps once and I never saw Paul Hamm. You will never, ever, and I mean never find me at synchronized swimming or rhythmic gymnastics.
I got myself to 11 sports, counting the three track events I wrote about as one. That's 11 of 28. Not bad. I promise to increase that total in Beijing.
Doping and judging were the two big general topics. The Greeks took the scandal involving sprinters Kostas Kenteris and Katerina Thanou very hard. Kenteris, the defending 200 meter champion, was supposed to light the torch and wound up pulling out of the Games in disgrace. When 62-kg weightlifter Leonidas Sampanis was stripped of his silver for a doping violation, it got worse. Fingers were pointed in every direction, and there are political repercussions. But I don't think the rest of the world views this as a Greek tragedy as much as we regard it as a world-wide scourge that just happened to ensnarl the Greeks at the worst possible time.
As for L'Affaire Hamm, we should all feel outrage that a dramatic performance such as his is overshadowed by both classic judging incompetence and shameful bureaucratic bungling in the aftermath. Paul Hamm did nothing wrong, but he has been made to feel as if he stole something, which is ridiculous.
All of this is the result of the Salt Lake City fiasco, of course. Once the fools at the IOC gave that second gold medal to the Canadian skaters, they had opened the completely uncloseable Pandora's Box for all time. Crybabying for a second medal will be an Olympic sport forever.
I always look for what I call Olympic moments, and I found one on the first day at the press conference following the strirring last-second Argentina men's basketball conquest of Serbia-Montenegro. The conference began in the usual way, with a general comment from a player, in this case Serbian guard Ivan Rakocevic. He went on for about a minute. The translator spoke for about 10 seconds. "That is not what he said!" thundered Serbia-Montenegro coach Zelimir Obradovic. "I will not listen to this," he continued. "I can speak English, but I want to do this in my native tongue. I am leaving!" And he did.
The Greeks provided several Olympic moments. Their non-stop cheering and chanting and singing for retiring weightlifter Pyrros Dimas, who had just won bronze after getting golds in the three previous Olympics, pretty much hijacked the medal ceremony and effectively spoiled the moment for George Asanidze (Republic of Georgia) and Andrei Rybakou (Belarus), the gold and silver winners, respectively.
They similarly disrupted the start of the semifinal and final of the men's 200 meters with lengthy noisy outbursts in support of Kenteris. On the flip side, their spontaneous display of singing and chanting to the famed "Zorba" melody just prior to the men's 100 meter final energized the competitors and was even credited by some with inspiring maximum performances in the greatest Olympic 100-meter race ever.
My Olympics featured three significant farewells. The first was the aforementioned Dimas, whose place in Greek society is unimaginable to Americans. Then there was America's Rulon Gardner. He became an instant People Magazine-style national celebrity in Sydney when he upset living legend Aleksandr Karelin to win gold in the men's 120-kg Greco-Roman wrestling. Over the next four years he almost died in a snowmobile mishap, losing a toe to frostbite; got divorced and remarried; had a motorcycle accident; and dislocated his wrist playing pick-up basketball just before the national championships. He had a great struggle just to make it to Athens. Pitted on the final day against a pair of 23-year-old monsters, the 33-year-old Gardner lost to the first but beat the second to win bronze, after which he took off his shoes and left them in the center circle, signifying that he had just wrestled his last match. Gotta love it.
Our lady soccer team got the job done, too, on what will be the last go-round for a core group that had become idols and role models for millions of young American girls. It will be very interesting to see what follows.
Snapshots: the sight of Del Harris on the bench as coach of the Chinese national team, with NBA commissioner David Stern reminding people that Del Harris was coach of the Milwaukee Bucks in 1987 at the first
America sits atop the medal table, and that's fine. But America has got to be careful. We still come off as being too much of an entitlement nation . . . For example, asked what the difference is between the US women and the rest of the women's basketball world, Russian veteran Elena Baranova, a WNBA performer, said, "They don't live in the Olympic Village." That was not just a one-liner. "What I'm saying is that there are rules for everyone, and they don't always follow them," Baranova said. "There should be equal conditions. They are living on the ship (the Queen Mary II). They may have better food; I don't know. But I do know that when you live in the Village, it is different. You see happy people after competitions, and you see sad people, which can affect you. Someone may come in at 2 o'clock in the morning wanting to celebrate, and you may have an 8 o'clock practice in the morning.
"They say they do this for security reasons," Baranova continued. "Is Lisa Leslie a bigger international star than [Russian gymnast] Svetlana Khorkina? Is Tim Duncan more important than [swimmer] Alexander Popov? The Americans get their way always. They change game times for them. They insist they will only wear red uniforms [not, as it turns out, quite true].
"I prefer to be in the Olympic Village, but I think everybody should be there," she concluded. "Only two teams are not living in the Village."
Next time around, the USA basketball teams, men and women. definitelty should live in the Village. Anyone who can't handle that should just stay home. . . .
At the Olympics, you realize there really is an essential cultural difference between all those Thems and Us. At the conclusion of their quarterfinal victory over Greece, here is what the members of the Croatian handball team did: They joined hands and danced in a circle at center court, at the end of which they all fell down on their backs in a Busby Berkeley-like manner. Then they got up and walked to the end section of the arena, where a cluster of Croatian fans was waiting. The players made a line, held hands, and then swung their arms up and down while bowing, the crowd doing the same in return. They repeated this at two other sides of the court. Then they waved to the crowd again and some of them went to sign autographs. I can't quite see the Pistons doing this after winning the NBA title.
Clearly, something is going on out there that we don't understand. We have our way of doing things, and we tend to think that our way is the only way. But it isn't. Every two years we find out that maybe we are the ones out of touch, not the other way around.
Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist. His e-mail address is ryan@globe.com.
