Laying Eggs in the Bird's Nest

Dropping it like it's hot, the US men's 4x100 relay fail to qualify for the finals in Beijing: continuance of this year's trend.

The women's relay team would follow suit less than 30 minutes later.

We're not China: we didn't spend billions of dollars training people as young as three just so we could brag about our gold medal total in the Olympics then possibly lie about their ages to get them in the Games. On the other hand, we are a nation with a sophisticated sports program, and we have usually performed well on the big stage. This year, however (and for reasons as yet inexplicable), the results have been less than scintillating in track and field.

Oh, I suspect we'll regain world domination in men's basketball and continue it on the distaff side, but we've always been a "playa" in track and field, especially in distances up to the 800 meters. Ah, the halcyon days gone by. Now even the equestrian horses have been discovered doping! This year's story is not the Chinese but the Jamaicans who won seven of the twelve medals possible in the men's and women's 100 and 200 (winning both). The USA managed a paltry four medals: two silver and two bronze. This is a country of less than 3 million people, folks, and they are handing it to our athletes with ridiculous ease. True, most of them prepare at American universities, but, I'm just saying...

Sweeping the men's 400 and 400 intermediate hurdles seems small consolation to the men's team, and it seems we may be on our way to a record low total number of T&F gold medals: 6 were won in both 1972 and 1976. As of this moment, even Russia has more track gold than we do. "Where have you gone, Michael Johnson, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you"...oh, wrong athlete in the song...never mind.

Serious props to Usain Bolt of Jamaica, though. He simply destroyed the competiton in the 100 and 200. I would struggle more racing my grandson than he did trouncing elite sprinters. If Michael Phelps is a god, Bolt is certainly worthy of having people bow to him as well.

China will win the most gold medals, as expected. They will begin to dominate the world in ways nobody thought possible, and not just in sports. They will also probably continue to paint with lead-based paint, deny human rights and suck up all the fossil fuels and natural resources in a power-hungry frenzy. I cannot castigate them since that's how the West came to dominate the world as well. Maybe our failures on the track are merely a harbinger: the king is dead. Long live the king.

I'm going to watch the replay of the women's gold medal soccer match.