SportsPageFair

Haile Gebrselassie’s disappointing performance and non-performance at the recent Beijing Olympics is now ancient history. Ethiopia’s most celebrated endurance runner broke his own world record by nearly one second per mile Sunday, Sep. 28, when he won the Berlin Marathon in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 59 seconds. Gebrselassie didn’t run in the Olympic marathon because of Beijing’s polluted air, and he finished sixth in the 10,000 meters.

But while winning the Berlin Marathon for the third straight year on Sunday, Gebrselassie averaged about 4 minutes and 44 seconds per mile on the flat course.

The 35-year-old Gebrselassie set the previous world marathon mark of 2:04:26 last year at the Berlin Marathon. He also won the event in 2006 in 2:05.56.

You might also be interested in:

2009 Virginia Beach Yuengling Shamrock Sportsfest Marathon – Results

2009 Results of the Washington DC Suntrust National Marathon

Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland is one of cycling’s biggest stars. He’s personable, he’s won the world time trial championship in successive years, he won the gold and bronze medal, respectively in the time trial and road race in the Beijing Olympics.

Fabian Cancellara, Courtesy of Wikipedia

And he also rode in strong support of CSC-Saxo Bank teammate Carlos Sastre of Spain, who claimed this year’s Tour de France.

But Cancellera has announced he won’t defend his title Thursday in the World Championships in Varese, Italy. The reason: he’s too tired.

Cancellara is 27 years old, and there’s no doubt he’s had a long season. But he’s too young to be tired.

“I lack the force,” Cancellara said via the Swiss Cycling Federation’s Web site. “You can’t win races with passion alone.”

Cancellara was the favorite to win the time trial, but he’s among several prominent cyclists who’ve declined to participate in what used to be considered cycling’s most important race outside of the Tour de France.

But what’s really the issue, here?

It just seems that the World Championships of Cycling, one of only two events at highest level of cycling (the other is the Olympic Games) where athletes compete for their countries, just isn’t a relevant as it once was.

The United States Olympic Committee should be ashamed of itself.

Let’s see. The Olympic have been over since Aug. 24. And now the USOC has decided to apologize to the four track cyclists it scolded for wearing masks it supplied?

U.S. Track Cyclist Mike Friedman

The masks were supplied to athletes protect them against pollution. The American cyclists who arrived at the Beijing Olympics wearing masks — Sarah Hammer, Jennie Reed, Bobby Lea and Mike Friedman — were forced to apologize for embarrassing the Olympic hosts for wearing the masks as they disembarked their airplane in Beijing.

A letter sent to the riders from Jim Scherr, chief executive of the U.S.O.C., acknowledged they never intended to offend the hosts or make a political statement. He wrote there was “confusion or a misunderstanding” between the cyclists and the U.S.O.C.

The committee developed and issued the carbon-filtration masks to USA’s athletes before the Beijing Games. At the Olympics, though, U.S.O.C. officials publicly criticized the cyclists for wearing those masks at the Beijing airport.

“We are acknowledging that some things could have been handled differently,” the U.S.O.C. spokesman Darryl Seibel said. “The athletes brought that to our attention in a very constructive way and we are going to do everything we can to make sure that something like this does not happen again.”

The four track riders began pursuing an apology from the U.S.O.C. at the conclusion of last month’s Olympics because they had felt humiliated by the incident and that it distracted them from their performances in Beijing, according to a report in The New York Times.

And so now the USOC has apologized via a letter sent to the athletes.

Hey, USOC. You want to apologize? How about doing it publicly, like before a global television audience?

Unless you’ll soon be in Jamaica, Usain Bolt will be out of the sporting spotlight until next season following his blazing, season-ending race Friday night in Brussels, Belgium.

Usain Bolt/Courtesy of Wikipedia

Competing in what was billed as the fastest 100-meter field ever assembled, Bolt rallied in the final 20 meters to defeat countryman Asafa Powell with a winning time of 9.77.

While the effort was .08 seconds slower than then 9.69 world mark Bolt set in the Beijing Olympics, the runner known as “Lightning Bolt” ran into a 1.3-meter per-second headwind and in 59-degree temperatures.

Powell finished second in 9.83, with Nesha Carter completed a Jamaican in third place at 10.07. American Tyson Gay, who was scheduled to compete, withdrew because of nagging leg injury.

Entering the meet, Bolt, Powell and Gay had combined run the top-10 fastest 100 meters in history.

A sellout crowd of 47,000 attended the meet at the King Baudouin Stadium.

Bolt, who won the 100 and 200 meters and was part of the 4×100 victorious relay in Beijing, all in world records, will soon return to Jamaica where huge post-Olympic celebrations are expected.

Usain Bolt/Courtesy of Wikipedia

Usain Bolt may have been the only athlete who upstaged swimmer Michael Phelps in the recent Beijing Olympics. The Jamaican sprinter surprisingly set two individual world records in the 100 and 200 meters and was part of a 4×100 relay world record Jamaican team.

But the aftermath of Bolt’s stunning efforts will last only about 10 seconds more this year.

Running in his last race of the season, Bolt will lead what is being billed as the fastest field ever assembled in the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels in Belgium on Friday night.

The 100-meter field will include former world record-holder Asafa Powell, also of Jamaica, and American Tyson Gay. Powell and Gay share the second-fastest time ever for 100 meters. Bolt set the world record of 9.69 in Beijing.

The three runners combined have the 10 fastest times ever recorded for 100 meters.

When the topic of the demise of newspapers arises, one great argument offered by newspaper traditionalists is that they like the feel of a newspaper.

The NBC Beijing Olympics logo

No doubt, there’s something “special” about reading the newspaper on the train or bus or while eating breakfast or stopping at the local coffee shop.

Regardless, the Beijing Olympics provided another fine example of the increasing popularity of the ‘net as a viable news and entertainment source.

It only made sense considering some Beijing events were broadcast in the United States with as a much as a 15-hour delay. On the contrary, if you wanted to watch something live, it was on the Internet.

Nielsen, the well-known viewership-monitoring company, reported impressive Internet numbers.

In addition to record-breaking television ratings, NBCOlympics.com set web records. It had 1.2 billion page views and 72 million video streams as of last Saturday’s events.

According to Nielsen, the total represented more than double the combined traffic from the 2004 Summer Games in Greece and 2006 Winter Games in Italy.

Yahoo attracted the same number of visitors as NBC, according to Yahoo. And AOL, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the Beijing Committee, New York Times and USA Today also had “high levels of traffic.”

Here’s my top-10 list in reverse order of the best things about the Beijing Olympics:

10. Opening ceremonies. Jaw-dropping choreography, music, dance, singing, etc. No better way to open a global event.

9. Morgan Freeman’s voice in commercials. The man’s got “pipes.” Let him read the phonebook, it would sound great.

Three-time gold medalist Usain Bolt

8. Ato Bolton, track and field commentator. Who better to analyze Usain Bolt’s history making than a guy who’s been there? Bolton had superior insight.

7. Chinese diver Guo Jingjing. The diver’s personal life has been endlessly scrutinized, but no one in the Olympics performed with such precision.

6. Technology. The touch pad timing in swimming, freeze frame in diving and robotic camera detailing side views in track sprints provided mesmerizing viewing.

5. The women’s gold medal match in the beach volleyball won by the United States. It was superior athletic competition. Long rallies, sportsmanship, all-round fun.

4. Jason Lezak’s final 50 meters in the 4×100-meter free relay. He overcame nearly a body-length deficit, allowed Michael Phelps to secure his second of eight gold medals and set the tone for all of the Olympics’ finest moments.

3. Bob Costas. The host of NBC’s prime time coverage handled hard news, soft news and controversy as a pro’s pro. He mixed in humor and often was too quick for his own colleagues. But Dude, NBC can afford it. Get a wardrobe makeover.

2. Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals and seven world records. It was among the greatest Olympic performances in history. And, oh, he may earn $100 million because of it. Not bad for a week’s work.

1. Usain Bolt’s dominance. The Jamaica runner’s final races in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100-meter relay took about 40 seconds total. The result: three gold meals, three world records. Nobody close. Enough said.

It was broadcast late Wednesday night, tastefully handled by NBC in a short piece that could have  been easily replete with easy, syrup-rich pitfalls.

Amputee swimmer Natalie duToit

It was perhaps the Beijing Games’ greatest human-interest story and nothing in the competition will be more unique and as inspiring as Natalie du Toit’s circumstances.

The endurance swimmer from South Africa, the first amputee to compete in the Summer Olympics, finished 16th in the field of 25 women in the 10-kilometer open water swim, a debut event.

Du Toit, who lost her left leg in a motorcycle accident seven years ago, qualified when she finished fourth in the 6.2-mile race at the open water World Championships last month in Seville, Spain.

Du Toit did not swim her best race in her Olympic debut, but she made no excuses. She finished in 2:00.49.9 and said she had plenty of work to do. Du Toit, a five-time gold medalist, will defend those titles in the Beijing Paralympics beginning August 8.

Japan’s 3-1 victory over the United States in the gold medal women’s softball game ended the Americans’ Olympic dominance. But it may have also signified the end to a larger streak — softball’s entire presence in the Olympics after four appearances.

The Beijing Games softball venue logo.

Baseball and softball will not part of the London Games in 2012. But the two sports as well as squash, karate, golf, rugby and roller events will all make grand pitches next week to be included in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Why are softball and baseball being jettisoned?

Bill Bradley, sports editor of the Sacramento Bee, speculated August 21 in his section-front column “Leading Off” that the two sports were dropped because “The International Olympic Committee wanted the Games to be more Eurocentric by getting rid of two U.S.-based sports.”

Bradley also commented it’s hard to accept the dismissal of the two sports while niche events like trampoline jumping and synchronized diving are still in the Olympic mix. And he makes a good point.

At the three newspapers where I’ve been employed, including The Bee, I pushed for years for more coverage of endurance sports as legitimate events. With rare exception, the sports editors for whom I worked, were keener on stick-and-ball or traditional sports like boxing and horse racing.

But if softball and baseball have to go, perhaps the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should take another look. Triathlon and mountain biking were approved as Olympic sports pretty quickly. And both are sports I appreciate and have covered on the world championship level. But neither of the two endeavors have exactly attracted any great new following as Olympic sports.

So, farewell softball and baseball. You’ve been ousted by the biggest, strongest, swiftest contingent at the Olympics.

With his world-record victory in the 200 meters at the Beijing Olympics, Usain Bolt of Jamaica established himself as one of history’s most unique track an field athletes.

Double Gold Medalist Usain Bolt

Here are some quick facts and figures about the double gold medalist:

* Bolt’s first sport was cricket and he specialized in fast bowling;

* With his world records in the 100 meters (9.69) and 200 meters (19.30), Bolt became the first person to break world marks in both events during the Olympics;

* With his two sprint wins, Bolt became the first sprinter since Don Quarrie to hold both 100 and 200 meters world records simultaneously.

* Bolt’s winning margin of .66 seconds was the largest since the 200 meters became part of the Olympics 108 years ago;

* Bolt has two nicknames: “Lightning Bolt” and “Bolt From The Blue.” The nicknames began after Bolt set the previous 100-meter world record May 31, 2008 in New York just after a lightning storm;

* Bolt turned professional in 2004 and he became the first junior to run under 20 seconds for 200 meters with a 19.93 effort at the CARIFTA Games in Bermuda.

* In the 2004 Olympics, Bolt was eliminated in the first round of the 200 meters after running 21.05 seconds and suffering from a leg injury.

* Bolt received several American university scholarship offers but declined all of them and remained in Jamaica to train.