Closing Up Shop

A rundown of news and notes as the Olympics wrap up, Sweet 'n Sour style:

Sweet: Gracious winners. Matthias Steiner, newly crowned world's strongest man, dedicates his victory to his recently deceased wife, choking back tears on the podium while holding her picture.
Sour: Sore losers. Cuban taekwando'er gets DQ'ed, kicks ref in face.

Sweet: Clear skies in Beijing. I really thought pollution would be a problem.
Sour: In retrospect, these guys look kind of stupid. I don't blame them though.

Sweet: China dominates gold medal count. Mass executions of disgraced Olympians canceled.
Sour: Chinese gymnastics scandal. "Chinese people are just smaller" doesn't quite hold up. And confessions of similar foibles at the 2000 Games don't help either.
Also sour: Bitching from Americans, especially when the gymnasts themselves are gracious in accepting the situation. Props to this reporter for making light of the situation. And by the way, if we're going to strip people of medals on circumstantial info, let's go back and take the 2000 baseball gold away from the Americans (since one of their top pitchers later got caught using steroids).

Sweet: Beijing set up sanctioned protest zones.
Sour: All applications to protest were rejected. Journalists were hassled for covering any protests that did happen. Multiple protesters detained and released without good cause.
Uber Sour: Two 70-year old elderly women who felt inadequately compensated for having their homes seized and redeveloped were sent to "re-education" camps after simply applying to protest in a protest zone.

Sweet: Beijing, by all accounts, has been a great Olympic host. China's small huge army of volunteers (half a million of them!) have been great, and the people themselves have been accommodating. No surprise for anyone who's ever visited China.
Sour: "Incidents" (1 and 2) in Western China. Frankly, I expected worse. Maybe this deserves to be in the Sweet category.

Sweet: Fantastic facilities, the Water Cube and Bird's Nest in particular.
Sour: The Coca-Cola National Stadium of China?

Sweet: Sex and the Olympic Village. Even if you don't medal, getting laid ain't a bad consolation prize.
Sour: No sour. Though I loved that this article, by the Bangkok Post, of all papers, interviewed a female athlete by the name of Sluitjier. And yes, actually, I have graduated from university. Why do you ask?