Many 2008 Olympic highs, but also a few lows

• There were a lot of moments these past two weeks during the Olympics that made me proud to be a sports fan -- and some, not so much.

Danny Aller

When I watch the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games tonight, it’ll be like losing a close friend who I’ve had by my side morning, noon and night for the last two weeks.

It’s just not fair that for a paltry 14 days, every four years, a series of amazing international games between many athletes I’ve never heard of — in sports, outside of about five, I normally don’t care about — keep me so hungry, day-after-day for more.

And when they arrive every four years, I’m so very excited. And when they’re gone, I’m actually kinda bummed.

It means no more watching handball at 4 a.m. while looking up the rules on the Internet and scheming how I’m going to build my own court in my backyard and start a league in Albany.

It means no more watching Usain Bolt run a world-record time of 9.69 seconds in the 100 meters and then going out and racing my friends in parking lots until one of us hurts ourselves.

And lastly, it means I can no longer watch men’s gymnastics with my guy friends without feeling like less of a man.

After so many hours of coverage, I think I even go through Olympic withdrawal. So if you need me next week, I’ll be detoxing at home on old tapes of ABC’s Wide World of Sports. (I figure I’ll wean myself down by watching two hours a day and all I’ve got to say is I hope there’s some table tennis in there!)

Anyway, by the time many of you read this, the U.S.A. men’s basketball team will likely have a gold medal around their necks (the game was at 2:30 a.m. this morning) after beating Spain into oblivion. And the "Redeem Team," as they’ve been dubbed (still mad I didn’t think of this) is just one of the great stories — for our American athletes — we’ve seen this Olympics.

And while there were many moments these past two weeks which made me proud to be a sports fan, there were also a few that makes me happy these Games only happen every four years.

But let’s start with those which left a positive lasting impression.

The highs

5. Georgia native Vincent Hancock wins gold in skeet shooting

Selfishly, I have to start at a place where The Herald brought you the story before anyone else of Eatonton’s Vincent Hancock. Thanks to the diligence of staff writer Scott Chancey, he uncovered the fact that former Lee County High School student and competitive shooter Rebekah Young — who The Herald also did a story on last year, also before anyone else —was married to Hancock and over in Beijing with him while he chased gold. Scott kept in contact with Rebekah and Vincent via the Internet while there, and really gave Southwest Georgia a nice Olympic moment. And when I read Rebekah’s quote about her husband — "Oh my goodness, I couldn’t stop crying," she said when asked about what it felt like to watch him win gold last Saturday night — I felt how proud a moment that must’ve been for two newlyweds who have only been married six months. And it was a proud moment for us at the paper because we were there on the story from the start, and we didn’t miss the next chapter when it was written.

4. U.S.A. men’s and women’s hoops wins gold

As I already mentioned, the U.S. men’s return to glory and respect was the centerpiece story, while the one a lot of people forgot about was the women. The ladies’ Olympic gold medal win marked the fourth in a row, and continued the Americans dominance — at least on one level — even when the men decided to take some time off in 2000 and 2004. Still, both teams winning gold at once is good as we could’ve asked for and I’m glad to see us back on top in basketball — where we belong. Turns out, all the men needed was to be reminded — as they were during their "most-watched-Olympic-basketball-game-in-history" against the Chinese early on — just how important our American game of basketball is to the world.

3. Albany’s Angelo Taylor returns to glory, wins two gold medals

Although I’ve only been an Albanian for 1 1/2 years and wasn’t around when Angelo Taylor rose to fame and won gold in 2000 and ’04, I did root for him and his return to glory. Here’s a guy who was applauded and revered when he’s out there representing the U.S.A. and winning gold medals, but it’s unfortunate how the world can turn its back on you when things get cloudy along the way. Fortunately, Taylor, who won in the 400-meter hurdles and 4x400 relay, never gave up on getting back on the track — and proving he belonged. And at this year’s Olympics, he not only proved it, he did it twice.

2. Usain Bolt becoming my new idol

After what Jamaica’s Usain Bolt did — becoming the first man to win both the 100 and 200 meter races in world-record times — the NFL’s Jevon Kearse is officially no longer "The Freak." It’s amazing to me that out of the world’s fastest men, Bolt is that much better than all the rest. Watching him demolish his competition — all while with a big arrogant smile on his face — was awesome! A guy like that doesn’t come around often, and whether you like his antics or not, what he did on the track and the history he made all of us a part of, is all we need to remember.

1. Who else? Michael Phelps

Half-man, half-amazing, Michael Phelps captured all of our hearts. But it’s more than Phelps doing something no one else has ever done by winning eight gold medals, it’s the fact that if you didn’t believe in destiny before Michael Phelps, you did after he was done. The 4x100 meter relay race that the U.S. came from behind in was maybe the greatest relay race ever swum at an Olympic Games and the race which most of the world thought Phelps lost — the 100-meter butterfly — was a moment I still can’t believe. How Phelps’ fingers managed to touch that underwater sensor before Milorad Cavic from Serbia, I’ll never know, but I’m glad they did. Because it kept alive the hope an American would continue chasing the record of eight golds. And Phelps delivered.

And now ...

The lows

5. Doping still a part of Olympic fabric

While the number of dopers went down this year, it only makes me think they’re finding more ways not to get caught. That’s what the doping age has done to me. It’s made me a pessimist. I am sick and tired of hearing about someone being stripped of a record, or a belt, or a title because they did it the wrong way. If we have to probe deeper and start doing hair samples, instead of urine tests, then let’s do it. Maybe 20 years from now, when the new age of Olympians comes around, we’ll have a drug-free games.

4. NBC’s Bob Costas briefly losing his mind

I will be frank: I like NBC sports commentator Bob Costas. Always have. Probably always will. But when Costas ripped Bolt after he won his first gold medal, and then his second, calling him "disrespectful," — among other ridiculous things — it made me lose a lot of respect for him. Here is a man in Bolt celebrating doing what no other human being has ever done — in the most coveted event of the Games. Did Costas berate Phelps when he cheered and beat on his chest when he won gold — eight times? No. He applauded him; called him a marvel. Costas is a great announcer, but that was his Jim Gray-Pete Rose moment, and he may never live it down.

3. Seeing Olympic softball maybe for the last time

I’m not a diehard softball fan, but I think it’s just unreal that the Olympics decided to get rid of it for 2012 and it’ll be at least eight years before it’s back — if ever. Just because the U.S.A. has dominated this sport for years, the proof that it is a worldwide sport is in the pudding with this year’s gold medal game: Japan 4, U.S.A. 1.

Yeah, that’s great, International Olympic Committee. Keep sports like trampoline and get rid of softball. Good job.

2. Chinese possibly using underage athletes

I don’t want to rush to any judgment, because in the end I think China will somehow find a way to make the world believe these girls in question were legit. I will only say this: As the host country of the 2008 Games, I can’t believe the Chinese would be so brash as to try and pull this off, if it’s true. I mean, seriously? The minimum age to compete is 16, and you have girls on your team that look 10 on a good day? And you didn’t think anyone was going to ask? Amazing.

1. NBC’s coverage

Outside of having an Albany Herald employee in Beijing, I probably shouldn’t complain about getting information back stateside from halfway around the world. But I have to.

First, how could NBC not show the men’s 100-meter and 200-meter race live anywhere in the U.S. when Bolt broke the record, instead treating us all like chumps and showing it later that night — making us wait until the end of the broadcast like they were live. What a complete joke. And, of course, none of us in Albany got to see Taylor run live. Even when it looked like an American sweep in the 400 meter hurdles —something that hasn’t happened in forever — we got nothing but a tape of it. Same with the U.S. women’s gold medal soccer game and men’s volleyball final. Where you at NBC?

They chose, instead, to focus on swimming and gymnastics. And that’s fine, but if you look at today’s medal count, we’ve won 107 medals, 34 of them gold. How come I don’t remember seeing anything live but Phelps and a buncha floor routines and people swinging on the uneven bars.

NBC promises every year they do this that they’re gonna get better. And every year, someone seemingly falls asleep in the planning meeting. I got more live events from the USA Network and Telemundo than from NBC, and they’re not network giants.

All I can say, is hopefully when we get to London in 2012, we’ll see more of the good.

And less of the bad.