8-19-08: Track & Field Lessons, Surprises & Victories

(Photo: Runners collapse in exhaustion after the men's 1500 m. race Tuesday night at the Bird's Nest.)

After a day and half, we return to evening events at the Bird's Nest and lo! we find that the organizers have solved the scary entry problem. Remember my near death-by-crushing experience? Well, now the fence has been moved inward a bit, queue lines are clearly marked with tape and posts on the sidewalks and two gates, not one, are opened to participants to line up in security lines. What an improvement!

I also meet a daughter and her mother with a ticket I haven't seen before. Entry is for the grounds and parks surrounding the Bird's Nest, Water Cube and the National Indoor Stadium (where gymnastics take place). They plan to snack and stroll and watch events from various huge TV screens mounted on nearby buildings. They are excited to participate in the Olympics in their own way.

(Photo: The daughter-mother pair and their tickets to the Olympic grounds.)

The athletics events of the evening literally start of with a Bang! as the women's 200m. qualifier starts. We have the US, Jamaica and the first covered Muslim woman from Bahrain running with others, and the Bahraini wins the first heat! Immediately she kneels and kisses the ground before being whisked away for interviews. More Jamaicans, Americans, Russians and Brits win as heats go on.

The 5000 m. race for women is gruelling - 12.5 times around the track! Fans in the upper tiers of the stadium are fanning themselves silly because it is so warm, and these women are trying to finish within 14-15 minutes! In the first heat, the poor Malawian is lapped and almost collapses when she finishes, but the crowd cheers encouragement and claps loudly when she completes her run. In the second heat, one runner collapses off the track, in the field, and she writhes in pain. Poor woman. An American makes the qualifier - yeah!

Going on are men's high jump. The Briton is a charismatic soul who knows how to engage the fans. He gets fans clapping for him, he cups his ears for cheers (and gets them!) and the crowd is happy to please him. The Russians and German are more solemn; in the end, Russians capture gold and bronze and the Brit captures silver.

A brief survey of the male chromosone, whether at age four or fourteen or forty, indicates the coolest Olympic job seen so far has to be the guys controlling the remote cars which shuttle javelins, discus and hammers. Big or small, the boys drool over that cool task! Estonia, Poland and Lithuania eventually win in discus. The Estonian is so proud, he circumnavigates the track twice for his victory lap!

(Photo: Olympic fun! Remote control cars used to shuttle discus back from the field.)

Four heats of men's hurdles ensue. We see Robles of Cuba, Poland and the Netherlands win a heat. China cheers for Shi Dongpeng, while Americans cheer for David Oliver (see his blog at http://davidoliverhurdles.blogspot.com/) and both qualify! Shockingly, Qatar is disqualified in heat 3 when he false starts a second time. In the fourth heat, China fails to qualify but the US, France and Spain do.

More stars continue to either succeed or falter as the evening winds down. Dix, Bolt, Crawford, Spearmon, tiny St. Kitts and Nevis, they all qualify for the 200 m. men's final. Upsets occur in the women's 110 hurdles when American Lolo Jones, a favorite, clips something on the ninth hurdle (a foot? a knee?) and just like that goes from first to fifth or sixth. At race end she kneels in shock on the ground, head knocking against the track. I feel for her. In the 400 m., another American Sanya Richards was leading when suddenly outstripped at the end by Brit Ohuruoga and Jamaican Williams.

It's late and we must leave. We see Lord Sebastian Coe, a past Olympian, present medals to high jumpers. We don't see, but later hear, of his compatriot Tony Blair entering the Bird's Nest and also watching these events. All we know is that in the evening we share with the athletes what all of humanity shares: mistakes, endurance, joy, regret and satisfaction.