Excitement in competition

7 Olympic golds in a row

Picture a crickets stadium in London. 5000+ fans, vocal fans at that, all there to see the Gold final in women's archery between So Korea and China. A tense competitive incredibly close match -- in the rain, no less. I am totally into it. The fans are totally into it. This is competition at its best.

You can't imagine this happening in America. No violence.

So Korea wins by a single point -- its 7th straight Olympic gold in Archery. SEVENTH! Archery is the national sport in South Korea. Think about that, my fellow Americans, and contemplate the relationship between national sports and foreign policy.

Ariel Hsing

And then there's Ariel Hsing. What a story! The California teenager is still alive in the late rounds of table tennis, playing China's #2 veteran (Hsing ranked far over 100) and giving her all she can handle. She loses 4 games to 2 but is never out of it. An upset would have been far greater than USA's hockey upset.

And the skeet shooter, an American woman, who wins gold, her 5th Olympics in a row with a medal. And in shooting, contestants sometimes go into their senior years.

And the bicycle road race today, the women, in the rain, where England got its first medal, a silver, and where a flat tire knocked USA out of it late in the race.

I know why the Olympics don't happen every year. One needs a year to recover from two weeks of such competitive intensity!

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Had to take a pain pill last night. Better today but reminds me that recovery isn't simple or automatic. See the doc on Tuesday.