There's Shawn Crawford talking to Justin Gatlin as the two Americans cross the finish line in a 100-meter heat, and then Gatlin, having won the final, skipping around with a dazed smile on his face, trying to figure out what to do, and finally dropping to his knees in the phoniest prayer gesture I have ever seen. There's the general youth movement in American sprinting, especially Allyson Felix and Lauryn Williams, gold medals for dominant U.S. women's basketball and softball teams, and one last win for the women's soccer team that put a soccer ball under your daughter's bed.
But all the images aren't of Americans. There's Fani Halkia of Greece electrifying the home crowd with an out-of-nowhere gold in the 400 meters. Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, whom people who know about such things often call the greatest middle-distance runner of all time, finally winning the 1,500-meter gold that had eluded him in Atlanta and Sydney, and doing it in one of the most incredible finishes I've ever seen.
Leading at the final turn, he'd been passed on the home stretch by Kenyan Bernard Lagat, who looked stronger than El Guerrouj. But El Guerrouj, who looks on his best day like he needs a good hot meal, reached back and found one last piece of coal to throw into the furnace. He retook the lead and crossed the line first, then collapsed to the track, kissing it. Lagat, beaten, had eased up in the last few steps. His first move after finishing was to throw his arms around El Guerrouj.
And then El Guerrouj went out and won the 5,000 also, which happens all the time. Paavo Nurmi just did it in 1924.
There's Chinese sprinter Liu Xiang winning the 110-meter hurdles, the first track medal for the country that will host the next Games, and will probably dominate the Olympics someday soon. Gal Fridman won a gold medal in the silly sport of windsurfing, but it was the first ever for Israel.
There are others, but lists get boring pretty quickly, I think, so I won't mention Paula Radcliffe and Iraqi soccer and Amir Khan, won't go on about May and Walsh, Manu Ginobili or Taufiq Hidayat.
As these Games fade into history, I think the enduring images in this country will be:
Someone should make a movie about that Iraqi soccer team.
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Defense is where it's at [PERMALINK]
I don't want to sound like I'm making light of the scary, stupid incident that marred the marathon Sunday, when a whack job tackled leader Vanderlei de Lima to make some kind of point about the Bible, but I think it proved a point I've been trying to make for a long time: Defense is what makes sports interesting.
The crucial element, for me, is someone facing an opponent and actively trying to stop him from doing whatever it is he's trying to do.
I happened to have a house full of people Sunday when the marathon was on the tube, and there was a general lack of interest. One guest compared it to watching paint dry. After elf boy took out the Brazilian, everyone present spent the rest of the race riveted. Could de Lima, who had been leading but fading, hold on to win after that disruption?
The incident was wrong and cruel and everyone wished it hadn't happened, but all of a sudden the marathon got a lot more interesting, didn't it? I doubt mine was the only house where this happened.
I'm not saying the marathon should have linebackers trying to stop the runners. Well, I do think that. But really what I'm saying is that the genius in sports is defense.
People who favor cycling, track and field, NASCAR or a number of other sports over baseball, football, hockey, soccer and basketball refer dismissively to the latter endeavors as "stick and ball sports." But it's not the sticks and balls. It's the direct, literally face-to-face competition.
Those other sports are nice, all those races and routines. But if the opponents aren't facing each other, something's missing.
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Hench-items [PERMALINK]
Just one item: I've heard talk over the last two weeks that the sun still came up during the day, that baseball games were still being played, that a large American professional football league was preparing to get its season started, and that I am married and have a son.
I'll be taking the rest of the week off to investigate these rumors. We'll talk again next Tuesday.
Previous column: American guilt
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About the writer
King Kaufman is a senior writer for Salon. Visit his column archive.
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