Another post on Chinese football?  Yes, and you should be glad it's not longer.  I've got a lot of stuff on it, but I'll try to keep this short and (for now) in one post.

But first let me say I despise the Chinese football team as well as the federation running them (which in the end is answerable to the government - technically not allowed by FIFA.  They've been warned and could face expulsion if they don't change.)  Like, really despise them.  Following the Olympics, many want to try for the World Cup.  Submissions are due sometime soon for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups with the decisions made simultaneously in 2011.  I personally will be disappointed if they embarrass themselves by trying and will be even more disgusted with FIFA if they grant them it.  Many of the fans are also against even submitting.

So what does that make me?  Well, you're typical Chinese football fan.  These poor souls have endured a lot and the only reason their anger isn't growing by the day is that many are starting to give up.  If it doesn't stop soon, it may be the death of Chinese football on the international stage.  The fans are rabid about the international club and country teams; they seem to be just fine disbanding their own before they get embarrassed more.

So, why am I writing?  Well, I'll try to be as brief as possible.  They truly are an embarrassing bunch.  There's a scandal during the Olympics that apparently at least one was out with the ladies in between matches.  There's a blog post purporting to have a picture of 3 of them, though it's far from definitive proof.  What there is, though, is an admission that they know someone checked into a hotel at 9:50 pm and checked out at 10:20 pm.  Later, in a self-criticism letter (how Chinese does that sound?), this unnamed player said it was just to shower because the hotel one was broken (which you can check!).  This has led to the newest Chinese internet meme - "I'm here to take a shower."

And then, another one ... the 2011 Asian cup qualifiers start early next year.  The Asian fed wanted the locations and starting times by Sept 5th.  Apparently China's federation was too busy preparing their team for the Olympic disaster and never bothered or forgot to look into this.  No - seriously.  They didn't set the stadiums or start times!  They're just now doing it, after the deadline.  That'll make you some friends in the federation.

And for now, the final one.  And this could get uglier if they can't keep it from blowing up.  The federation head is expected to be let go when the government's sports bureau finally is done with the Olympics (as I said, the government eventually has the say) - probably in October.  Apparently, there is an audit any time the head is changed.  Makes sense.  Problem is, there was a huge hole.  A European company, Iphox.com, signed up as a sponsor of the domestic league in 2006.  Then they either pulled out of the contract or refused to pay.  I'm not sure of the details, I'll see if I can find some.  The company eventually paid 600,000 euros in June 2007, but that left 5.4 million to be paid.  So, the head has now (finally) filed a lawsuit.  I haven't seen a huge expose on it yet, but it looks like the contract was actually signed with a middle-man, that Iphox is not the direct signing party.  China's federation could be up the proverbial creek.

I don't mean to bore you with the problems of Chinese football.  To me, they are a huge source of amusement (and entertaining study material) and continually surprise me with their patheticness.  But the last story is what prodded me to post.  This could become bigger as it may bring down many people in the federation and expose corruption.  Or it may be "glossed" over, who knows?.  It also may be the last straw for the fans as they stop supporting the domestic league.  I feel for them.  They seem like passionate and reasonable football fans and deserve better, but they're getting hosed by a bureaucratic structure that is probably rotten to the core.  I'll see if more comes out and I'll keep you up if it does.

One of the topics for the Olympics was the overwhelming excitement the average Chinese had to hosting the Olympics.  Ignore the empty seat fiasco - that was due to the organizers and the government.  The Chinese citizens welcomed the Olympics with a passion and large crowds gathered for even traditionally poorly attended events.

In a completely selfish way, I'd have preferred them to not care so I could have hopped on over to any event at any time I wanted.  But in the end, it was their Olympics and they were truly proud of them.

I'm really happy to see the excitement continuing.  The Paraolympics opened last night and during the first day all I'm seeing are great crowds.  Biking is currently on right now in the same Olympic venue and I don't see any empty seats.  There was a large crowd to watch a bocce-like game earlier.  The early rounds of ping pong while not sold out still had vocal supporters cheering the players on.

Fantastic.  I'm glad to see Paraolympics received with this much excitement.  I'm hoping to make it out to some events this week, but sheesh, tickets may be a problem again!  As I said: fantastic.

Yes, yes.  I'm working on a couple of posts (in my head) about being in China... but I'm awfully, awfully lazy these days.  So, here's another post on politics.  I have to post this.  It's just the most absolutely disturbing, disgusting, awful, insulting and devastating 3 seconds of video I've seen in my life (I assume all my readers (my reader?) know I'm kidding).

Obama calls them the Nittaly Lions

Well.  Maybe my state school-alma mater is no Ivy League, but I'd still like some respect, Mr. Obama, sir!

I haven't posted much recently and I don't have much to talk about related to my stay here, so I'm going to go with a political post.  It's hard to talk American politics with Chinese, so I'll tell it to my blog.

First, in case there is actually a reader here un-related to me, some background.  I'm a socially-liberal, fiscally-conservative, life-long Republican.  In recent years I'm been basically apathetic to politics as the Republicans became more socially-driven and less conservative fiscally, so I've stayed home on election days.  The best term for me is libertarian, but that's unfortunately tainted by the well-known nutcases that give it a bad name.

At first, the only thing I was hoping for this election season was entertainment.  I certainly didn't care enough to go through the hassle of overseas voting, so I just wanted to laugh a little.  The Republicans were disappointing in this area during the primaries, but the Democrats more than made up for it.  I preferred Hillary over Obama in that race only because I had more confidence she wouldn't be a disaster.  So it was with fun, and a little trepidation, I watched her get destroyed by the powers-that-be by some a-ok sexism.  I wasn't going to cry over her losing and it was pure entertainment watching the so-called "tolerant" party descend into ridiculous sex-based attacks, while any word with "bla" in it was racism.

It all seemed to settle down, though, by the summer.  Obama picked Biden as his running mate and that was just plain boring.  The news that Hillary wasn't even vetted created a brief enjoyment period, but Hillary supporters had already been abused enough.  It was getting thin.  So, it was up to McCain to save my enjoyment this general election season.  Ideally, he would have named Hillary.  That would be sheer entertainment gold, but was merely a dream.  Palin, at first, didn't seem too exciting.  And then the whole country gone and blowded on up over it.  The publicly-allowed sexism came to the forefront again, and with viciousness as it also went after kids of hers.  After all, shouldn't she be at home?  Maybe her husband can replace her on the ticket.

So, where does this leave me?  Well, aside from wasting hours on this news alternating between joy at the absurdity and disgust at the seriousness, I'm going to vote (assuming there are no problems with my registration still being in a state I don't have an address in anymore).  And here's how my vote will go: If she shows that she can keep her personal beliefs separate from her political beliefs as she seems to have done some in the past, she'll get my vote.  If she proves to run too much on the evangelical side, I guess I'll write in myself or vote Ron Paul.  Consider it my libertarian protest.  However, if she gets forced off the ticket or senior Republicans continue to turn their back on her under these ridiculous attacks, I'm voting Obama.  I don't support Obama at all and don't want to see him president, but under this case, "my" party has become a complete joke to me.  I have no other option.  "My" party embarrasses me.  Maybe by voting them out, they will re-build as a brand I can stomach again.  Or if they continue to destroy themselves, maybe that opens up a space for a legitimate, mainstream libertarian (small "l") party to form.

So, maybe my eyes are blurry from reading Chinese characters all day ... but is our election Osama bin Laden as one ticket, and Michael Palin as the other?  Huh?  A terrorist leader against a Monty Python?  Sweet.  This could be worth watching.

So, sometime during the closing ceremonies, I passed the one year mark in China.  That means it's been over a year since any of you have seen me or even heard my voice.  However, with communications these days, doesn't seem so long, does it?

I haven't posted recently because I just haven't been in the mood.  The Olympics started getting a bit annoying as I endured the drum beat of Chinese awesomeness repeatedly sounded by the announcers on CCTV (the state-run television company).  The biasness eventually wore on me, and by the final weekend I only looked forward to enjoying the culmination of the team tournaments, which were almost completely bereft of Chinese teams (and full of American teams, for an added bonus).  I'm sure foreigners in any country will get annoyed with the domestically-oriented broadcasting of the Olympics.  What got on my nerves was I wanted to practice my listening while watching actual interesting TV, something quite rare during normal weeks in China.  However, most of the announcers simply cheered on the Chinese competitors, and some even cheered the mistakes of the opponents.  In the end, I didn't add much to my vocabulary.

The lack of motivation goes deeper though.  It's been a year.  The keyword in my one-year state of the Ryan address would be "less:" less money, less weight, less hair, less English ability.  Throw in "some Chinese" and that about covers it.

Soon after arriving, I thought cutting my original plan of one year to six months would be enough - that I should get back to the real world.  Eventually I chose to stay the course and wanted to remain for the Olympics if possible.  And then, this summer I was kind of blind-sided by extending it to a year and a half.  How can you get blind-sided by your own decision?  I dunno, but it feels like it.  A year and a half - no work, no salary, no degree - nothing of "real world" value at the end other than whatever Chinese I can absorb.  I wouldn't be so pessimistic if I had a skill to show for all this time; a year and a half in Beijing and I still be far from fluent or conversational.  I'm not looking forward to explaining this away as I try to find a job next year.  I've already done the entry-level, paying-my-dues bit and I don't want to go through it again.

What to do now?  My rent and tuition are already paid for through January.  Every other expense is pretty small in comparison, so there's little incentive to change the decision.  I'm not particularly fond of Beijing as a city, or at least my part of it.  But it's a good place to study Chinese and relatively cheap, though it's quickly getting more expensive.  Basically, there's nothing to do now... just keep on going.  I'm getting quite used to a life without work and have no idea what I want to do when I return.  It'll be better the more Chinese I learn, so I'm trying to keep my head down and focus on the studying.

One of my unofficial goals in life was to speak four languages.  The rough timeline I created years ago was Japanese or Chinese by 30, the other by 35, then relax a bit and learn (most likely) Spanish by 40.  After almost 3 years of Chinese, including one year actually in China, I'm changing that: Chinese by the time I die ... and never, ever try this again.

It's been a year in China.  Fourteen months since I last went to work.  Seven years since I've had a car (oh, how I miss driving).  And I'm staring at five more months of this.  Well... guess break time is over, back to studying.

So, a little while ago I almost posted on a travesty of a match in the quarterfinals of taekwando.  It was a British girl (Sarah Stevenson) versus a Chinese girl (Chen Zhong).  It was pretty boring.  Chen Zhong was very passive, looking mostly for the counter attack and Stevenson wasn't attacking too often.  In the 2nd period (of 3), Chen got a point.  [A kick to the chest is worth one, boot to the head is two].

In the 3rd period, Sarah had to get more aggressive, obviously.  It was still 1-0 going into the dying seconds.  She was already getting frustrated with not getting any calls to earn points.  With about 10 seconds left, she blasted her opponent in the head, got nothing and starting "pouting."  After the bell, she asked the referee to consult with the corner refs.  They did and came back with the original ruling - 1-0 China.  Stevenson was visibly upset and incredulous.  But on the replay, she had a very obvious complaint.  I almost posted it, but I'm bitter and cynical about enough things these days.  And I've stopped caring at some of the horrible ref-ing I've seen in some events (see: boxing).

But - as the second semifinal was supposed to start, an official came out and announced the result was going to be changed.  Apparently after the fact, they're still allowed to use video to judge the results.  And in this case, they did the correct thing.  It's a shame the original refs couldn't see it.

Nice work, taekwondo.  That takes some nerve, but it was the right call.

of some stories.  Can you imagine?  When the media gets a hold of a story, sometimes they miss things.  Anyway ...  I offer you the Chinese side of some recent stories.

With lip-synch-gate.  It sounds like the story is the girl you saw was initially picked because she is ridiculously cute (and who can argue?).  But during the rehearsal, the mysterious Politburo member said her voice won't do.  So they switched it with the other girl's at the end.  The girl may not have known it wasn't her voice as there's a report her father was worried about hurting her when he had to tell her (and that he wanted to be the one to tell her).  Better, worse, same?  ... your call.

With the "faked" minorities.  This is common practice domestically in productions like this.  Most Chinese don't see the big deal.  [My view: I think it shows that they lacked the understanding of how the international community would view it rather than intentionally faking happy minorities.]

The gymnast ages.  There is another theory to explain the age discrepancies.  They may have been altered to allow them to compete at regional events with an age cap.  While it may initially sound silly, especially to those that don't understand the local sports competition culture here, this is a very plausible explanation.  The IOC said they want to investigate now.  It's clear someone was lying and the biggest shame is the old documents and news reports are disappearing off the web or being altered.  If it was local lies, some admission of guilt (and punishment?) would have demonstrated a real desire to establish governmental credibility.  If it's cheating on the national level, that's a whole different and pathetic story.  Ideally, to those of us that want to see China change for the better, something will come out of this story to force their hand one way or the other.  But I'm old and cynical enough to know this story will be gone with Olympics.

American chicks are going to bring home quite a haul of Olympic medals in the team sports.  The football/soccer team, the water polo team, and the softball team all play in their respective gold medal match later tonight.  The basketball team has to be favored to take home the gold this weekend and the volleyball team just took it to Cuba 3-0 in the semifinals this afternoon.

The only non-medalists will be the field hockey team who finished either tied for 7th or 8th out of 12.  The US didn't qualify (did we try?) for handball.

[note: by team sports I mean where groups of people directly face each other and the winner is decided on the field - you know, real sports]

Despite football being my favorite sport, I have to say the gold I'm most hoping for is volleyball.  The coach is the 1984 gold-medalist from China Lang Ping.  Since she's still highly regarded here, the team has been getting quite a bit of good coverage.  And that continued despite her leading the US to an exciting 3-2 defeat of China in the group round with Hu Jintao (the president) in attendance.

With only a loss to Cuba in group play, the women finished in 2nd place.  But with the rules of volleyball, 2nd and 3rd from each group draw to see whether they play the 2nd or 3rd place team from the other group.  The US drew the significantly tougher 2nd place Italy while China got Russia.  China easily dispatched Russia, while the Americans fell behind Italy twice.  However with an 8 point run to open the 4th game and a 5 point run to open the fifth (runs of that long are rare in rally scoring), the US eventually advanced to the semi-finals.

Brazil has to be the pre-tourny favorites and Cuba was right behind.  Combined they were 12-0 until the US/Cuba match today.  Cuba looked shaky to start and eventually the US started hitting with confidence.  They coasted to 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 victory.  Brazil takes on China later tonight in the other semi.  While Brazil has an obvious skill advantage, China will be bringing its supporters.  They will be looking to help their squad defend the 2004 gold medal and they will be loud.  Especially with Liu Xiang out, this is probably one of the golds the Chinese fans want the most.

Enjoy the games

A huge disaster today for the Chinese track and field fans.  Liu Xiang tried to run, but retired with injury.  He was clearly hurting during the warm-ups and eventually gave up the ghost after someone false started in his heat.

Running in the same lane in the heat before, American hopeful Terrance Trammell also pulled up with an injury after the first hurdle.

That removes two of bigger challenges to Cuban Dayron Robles, who coasted to a smooth 13.39.

The focus on this event was huge.  They brought out the broadcasting capabilities today just to cover the prelims - which I think are the first of 4 rounds in this event.  The stadium was completely subdued as the heat eventually got underway because all the drama of the most anticipated showdown of the Olympics was concluded days before its rightful climax.

It looked to be his ankle.  There were rumors/news leading up that he had a hamstring issue, but that it wouldn't be a major consideration for the earlier heats.

Wow.  What a shame... I was really looking forward to this race.

UPDATE: They just got done with a press conference.  Liu Xiang's personal coach broke down in the beginning and then stopped answering questions and just stared straight ahead.  The other guy (not positive who he was - think he was the overall China track and field coach) handled the questions then.  His English is pretty good, too.  Nothing too interesting from the press conference.

Just very, very briefly skimmed some comments on one of the sports pages.  More than a couple are accusing him of searching for an excuse because he knew he'd lose.

And right now, the Bird's Nest on-site reporter just cried while being interviewed by the booth hosts.  But this lady is annoying and not very bright.  She may be faking it for effect.  ..... and she's crying again.  Her crying looks a little suspect to me.

I feel bad for Liu Xiang if he has to see how people are reacting - even those "supporting" him by being extremely sad.  They're now playing the Olympic theme slow and mournfully while showing pictures of him earlier today.  Did he die?

Wow, I'm at a loss for words to describe the overkill of all this.  Sure it's a disappointment - I was actively anticipating the final showdown.  But injuries happen, life moves on, and in the end, my life won't be affected one little bit.  Sports, in the end, are just entertainment.

Since I ripped on the Chinese coverage in the last post, it's only fair to add this update.  I just got done watching a very long piece on Phelps during one of the nightly shows.  In general this one focuses more on international athletes anyway, but it probably over fifteen minutes long and quite well done.

Wow!  What a historical day!  Did you catch the most historical amazing race today?  That's right, I'm talking about China's first gold medal in rowing, four women sculls. The announcer was yelling the last 500m and then speechless when they finally won.  I think he cried (seriously).  That surpassed the previous historical moment that the Water Cube witnessed earlier that morning ... when the Chinese women took 3rd in the 4x100m medley.  A truly amazing feat.

Oh, and I think I heard on the news that Phelps got his eighth today, too, is that true?  What a day!

How stupid-silly is the bias in programming here?  I'm comfortably watching the first few races of the rowing finals - although always worried that I was only getting to watch it because they contained an uncompetitive Chinese team (though both accomplishments were both historical moments, too).  Turns out I was right.  They skipped the third race to show the race from swimming this morning.  That would be the women's 4x100m medley of course.  That's right, they skipped a live gold medal event to replay a bronze-medal finish from that morning.  Not for Phelps' truly historical moment, but for a bronze medal.

Unbelievable.  I'm not a China basher, but the Chinese really need to get over themselves when it comes to sports.  It's such a turn off that it's much easier to enjoy a sport without the Chinese competing or when the Chinese are losing, so I'm often actively rooting against them for no other reason.  Many of the announcers will actually cheer when the opponent makes a mistake.  Very sporting of them.

Oh, well.  That's my rant for now.  Hopefully I won't need anymore, but don't count on it.

First I'll start positive here - they tend to show quite a bit live and don't pass things off later as still live.  Granted - that's easier since it's in their backyard.  However, sometimes there is little reason to their choice and I'm left flipping around trying to figure out where to watch what.

However, it'd be much better if I were a huge Chinese fan.  I miss the relatively unbiased broadcasts of the US - yes, I said that.  It's not just in choice of broadcast, but also the announcers and anchors.  Today as they ended the swimming broadcast - which they cut off before the last few semi races - they went back to the main anchor.  What was their first topic?  The fifth place Chinese swimmer in the women's 800m freestyle.  Phelps eventually got a mention, and a slight one at that.  And it seems like after every race, they cut to a shot of the Chinese swim team.  Maybe somebody celebrating will unfurl a banner?  Regardless - it's annoying.  I want to see what his Mom is doing as he ties one of the oldest records left in the Olympics.

And the announcers?  This part really sucks - I could announce in Chinese now (especially baseball - man, they are clueless).  You only need a few words.  If China does well, say "nice ball!" or "beautiful!"  For whatever reason, "nice ball" also works if China's opponent makes a mistake.  If the opponent makes a good play or China's contestant makes a mistake, "too bad" is the way to go.  If China has a good chance coming?  "Opportunity!"  It's also fine to be heard standing up, clapping and screaming in the broadcast booth.  [Oh, and coughing and sneezing into the mic is acceptable, too.  Apparently there are no cough buttons here]  Aside from that, don't be pressured to offer valuable insight or statistics.  Just cheer, loud and long, for the home team.

If China isn't participating in the broadcast?  Oh, well, simple.  Just pick a team you like and root for them.

It's really difficult to watch here.  I yearn for the broadcasts where the announcer can appreciate good play, no matter who is responsible for it.  A little bias I can live with; 99% for one team?  Annoying.  And makes me root for the opponent a lot.

I either developed a respiratory problem from biking and jogging in the pollution last week (it's been beautiful the past couple of days, though) or I got another little bug ... so I've been a little lazy in writing.  I hope to catch up on some of the stories, even if they're just briefs.

However... for now ... I hope you're catching some of the badminton.  There have been some absolutely fantastic matches.

Martin Rogers of Yahoo! Sports said it best in an article before the Nigeria game - in the Olympics, playing good and being eliminated means more for the US than playing mediocre and advancing.  I completely agree and come away from the tournament quite satisfied.  It was frustrating that just a couple of lapses cost them their ticket, but that's the game.  I couldn't see the red - they don't allow replays at the stadium and still don't know if it was the right call.  Don't really care, either ... don't get yourself into that situation and you'll be fine.  After that, the US went for the 0-0 tie.  I was disappointed in this because I wanted to see good football, but the part of me that wanted to see them move on was hoping it would be successful.

In the first half, I was already constantly checking the lock and it sucked.  In the 39th minute, Nigeria finally broke through and made it 1-0.  They also didn't provide us with scores of other games, so I didn't know if Japan was doing our work for us.  At half time, I didn't really care.  I had already accepted probable elimination, relaxed a lot, and waited to see how the team reacted.  And quite well, they did.  They started attacking, putting together some good chances.  The second half turned out quite exciting, and they almost came back from two goals and a man down.

I hope the guys head back home proud of how they played.  They made some mistakes which cost them, but it's only Olympic football.  I also hope some of these guys get to see national team games during World Cup qualifying as they deserve it.  If seeing these three games in person did anything for me, it whet my appetite for the 2010 World Cup.  Progress is happening ... and I have some more confidence in the dream of seeing the US take the World Cup before I go.

Today is the US' final group match and they take on the Super Eagles from Nigeria.  With just a tie, the US is through to the quarterfinals.  However, if the Netherlands fails to defeat Japan, the US will also go through.  With a victory, the US will take first place in the group and avoid a probable match-up with Argentina (I think).

However, I already consider this tournament a success.  The team and players have both played well and hopefully they can build on that for 2010.  Advancing would be nice, though, especially since they were already just one minute from it against Holland.

The US will be without Adu and Bradley, two of the better players in the first games.  Nigeria is also missing two starters from its last game.  Despite missing some key players and only needed a tie, I really hope they don't play for the tie.  They've been playing terrible while trying to protect leads and it's not fun to watch.  It's only the Olympics ... open up and have a go at it.  I'll come home happy.

This is my one and only Beijing Olympic ticket and I will be out most of the day.  Fortunately, this one is much easier to get to and will be a lot less stressful getting home from afterwards.

Okay, I can give the footprint firework CGI pass - actually videotaping it live would have been near impossible and it was quite well done.  However this one is a little tougher to take... that little girl singing?  Wasn't her voice.  I could tell she was lip-synching but didn't mind that too much.  If you're going to exploit a 9 year-old girl, might as well take some of the pressure off.  The actual singer, a 7 year-old, wasn't cute enough for the show and had to have a stand in.

Not that I've ever found these types of events to be remotely interesting anyway, but this should be embarrassing to people.

This comes from men's weightlifting, 69 kg division.  Frenchman Vencelas Dabaya-Tientcheu was in second place, he was the only one left to lift and had two attempts left at the clean and jerk.  A successful lift puts him into a tie with Chinese contestant Liao Hui (I don't know what happens if it ends in a tie).  First attempt: he got it an inch off the floor and gave up.  He rested.  His coach gave him some yelling motivation.  He comes out for the second attempt.  Completely worn out from that first give-up, this time he surrenders after just thinking about it.

His group was really happy after all this.  The Chinese announcers are often useless ... if they're not cheering for whatever China contestant is there, then they're not offering anything useful on the other contestants nor the match.  You're lucky if they know the rules.  Maybe just the silver was a huge unbelievable achievement that in the Olympics, with nothing to lose, he wouldn't even attempt a shot at the gold?  I don't know ... pint-sized Kerri Strug has more balls that this guy.  If anyone sees a news story related to this, please let me know.  I'm curious as to why he did this.

Feel free to start your conspiracy theories.  After yesterday watching a very, very suspect boxing match last night in which the Chinese boxer "beat" his Uzbek opponent, I've already started wondering.

UPDATE: From NBCOlympics.com's recap:

Dabaya-Tientcheu, who had already clinched the silver, loaded the bar to a massive 197 kg (434.3 pounds), which would have tied the world record. But he quickly realized attempting to lift it was futile.

He gripped the bar, felt its weight and walked away, shaking his head.

Still would've liked to see some fight in the Frenchman.

While the world's most populous nation is working its way to the top of the medal charts, the second most populous hasn't had a gold medal in 28 years and none ever outside of men's field hockey.  Abhinav Bindra ended that drought on Monday as he claimed gold in the 10m air rifle.  He was third after qualification, trailing Henri Hakkinen and defending gold medalist Zhu Qinan.  After nine of ten shots in the final round, he was tied with Hakkinen for first.  With all on the line, Bindra lined up a 10.8 shot, nearly perfect (10.9) and very uncommon.

The media back home has gone crazy over him.  "India's top financial newspaper, The Economic Times, put aside its staple of business stories to highlight Bindra's achievement in its leading feature of the day, terming the achievement as 'The new gold standard.''"  Because of what is probably a trait of all world-class shooters, Bindra barely reacted after his final shot. 

He's family supported and quite well at that.  "I have an air-conditioned shooting range with a totally computerised Target Transportation System of international standards," he said. [NBC bio].  That's all paid off now as he's brought his country a lot of excitement.  Congratulations to him.  That 10.8 had me shout out loud while watching it.

[I'll try to find a good article on the details of shooting's scoring.  Basically, the target they're shooting at is tiny, and in the final round, each tiny circle is broken down into tenths.  A perfect 10.9 is rarely seen and truly is "perfection", while a 10.8 is also quite uncommon.  The more "routine" great shots are usually in the 10.6-.7 range]

[Also, I'll try to bring you some of the lesser known stories of the games.  I'm sure everyone knows how Phelps and the basketball teams are doing.  Fortunately, some of the events I like are just these lesser known ones, so sometimes I can pick up on them while watching the games]

You've probably already heard about the pressure on the Chinese athletes.  How bad is it?  So far, I've seen four "losing" athletes cry during interviews well after their events.  The first was Du Li, the female shooter who won the first gold of Athens but came away with only fifth in Beijing.**  She really lost it during an interview outside as she was leaving the venue.   The interviewer (female) did, too, while spouting meaningless supportive sentences.  They eventually hugged and all that.  Du Li still has an event left on Thursday. 

Another was fellow shooter Zhu Qinan.  He got a silver.  While leaving the venue later, the cameras caught him crying.  Silver is considered losing.

The final two were the top ranked women's badminton pair.  Yang Wei And Zhang Jiewen lost in the quarters to a Japanese duo.  Much later, also while leaving the venue, they both cried during an interview.

One thing to note - I'm not going looking for interviews with Chinese athletes, especially "losing" ones.  I catch them while channel surfing to find what event I want to watch.  I can only think of a couple "losers" that didn't cry.  One was silver-medalist swimmer Zhang Lin.  After his result in the 400m freestyle, he actually seemed pleased with his (unexpected) success.  Li Xuanxu wasn't so lucky.  In the 400m medley final, she finished 8th and six seconds slower than her qualifying in this four minute event (I'm not sure she was expected to even make the final, I think that was good for her.  According to NBCOlympic's bio page, she was born in 1995!).  What was she greeted with when she got out of the pool?  "You were six seconds slower today than yesterday, what happened?"  She didn't respond at all and eventually the guy had to ask something else.  Her other answers were one or two words long.

So, remember as you watch the Chinese athletes compete: the gold medalists will be treated as heroes.  Most of the rest will at best be forgotten, but also possibly criticized and scorned.

**Just a couple hours after the event, my friend messaged me to say there were already a lot of articles and comments online criticizing her for caving under pressure.