I haven’t heard any official pronouncements on this, but I saw soldiers with automatic weapons standing at key checkpoints on Wednesday. I had not seen an actual gun — aside from the competitors at the shooting venue — until then. Which really is quite remarkable, considering how well (and patently obvious) soldiers with guns were […]

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This is not a joke. Apparently, this is taught here. At least, according to the China Daily. In reviewing an upcoming television series based on the life of “witty ancient Chinese courtier” Dongfang Shuo, today’s China Daily writes, “Some historic books say he was the first Chinese to travel to the North Pole.” That would […]

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One would think no one could really claim to have invented jumping and tumbling, but my favorite reading material in Beijing, the English-language China Daily, says otherwise. Referring to China’s victory in the women’s gymnastics team event on Wednesday, someone named Patrick Whiteley wrote, “The Chinese girls, for the first time in Olympic history, could […]

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China mixed in a silver, in weightlifting. Within a couple of hours of me recommending they do exactly that, in a post two slots below this one. After winning six golds in six tries, China settled for silver in its seventh muscle competition. A chap named Li Hongli finished second to a Korean kid — […]

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Rolling down No. 5 Ring Road … a major freeway that circles (duh) the city … in the BOCOG bus, headed for the Main Press Center, and I look down to my left at the cars we’re passing. And there is a guy in a gray Passat, a fairly recent model, and he’s driving alone. […]

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I’ve been around the Olympic rings a few times now. I’ve seen Olympic powers come and go. I’ve seen athletes cheat and win (and later sometimes get caught). And I’ve long since decided that the one Olympic sport most susceptible to cheating is weightlifting. Hoisting massive amounts of iron has little to do with hand-eye […]

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The concept of Greco-Roman wrestling always amuses me, in a silly way. Sort of like the joke about “New Mexico.” If it isn’t new, and it isn’t Mexico, why do we call it New Mexico? What’s “Greco” about this sport? What is Roman? Have you seen any Romans around lately? So why is it Greco-Roman? […]

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