KEY POINTS:
Michael Phelps is making history in the pool, but even he will be overshadowed by a tidal wave that will sweep his American team from the top of the Olympics medal table.
China has already made a great leap forward in the medal count, and no one expects
it to be overhauled.
The Chinese have set about picking the Americans off around the fringes, collecting medals in sports that are stuffed into community halls in between the Olympics. Thousands of Chinese sports schools have done the trick, turning the talented kids with extreme perseverance into world champs. After years of dragging their way up the table, the great dragon is breathing a firestorm.
This, according to some, is a despicable political leadership flexing its muscles, showing its might, parading a newfound wealth and place in the world, winning an image war, and readying to invade our wonderful lives. Be afraid. Watch out world.
But, in the long run, does winning the medal count or medals change anything beyond who gets their face on the cornflakes boxes?
East Germany used to have a pretty nifty Olympic programme, but everybody knew that's about all it had. The old Soviet Union cleaned up at the Olympics but do you know anyone who wanted to go and live there?
Romania's ruthless attitudes produced one of the most enchanting and brilliant Olympic athletes in Nadia Comaneci but the world knew her country was a totalitarian hole.
America does great at the Olympics, but only a knucklehead would believe all that baloney about it being the land of the free where everyone can live their dreams.
As for the much-discussed Berlin Olympics of 1936, Adolf Hitler and his fellow scumbags were always going to do what they did, and the world's response was hardly altered by a bit of sprinting and javelin throwing. I know that it is often written, at great length, that those Games were used to fire a mad German patriotism. But are we to believe that had this weird sports festival represented a Teutonic tumble, Hitler would have packed up and opened a sausage stand?
Governments may believe they can fool the masses with a flashy ceremony and a chest full of medals. But they don't change what already lies within.
Did those East Germans who longed to be reunited with their families in the West think to themselves: "I miss Uncle Wolfgang, but it's okay because at least Hilda Obenrach just won her third Olympic shot put title"?
To listen to some commentators, you'd almost believe that the world is going to fall over because China has produced little girls who are good at diving into a pool.
It's actually all the little girls stitching fancy sneakers and living on a shoestring who are having the major affect on the course of history.
Furthermore, the distressing events being played out between Russia and Georgia were going to happen whatever went on in Beijing.
Just as we know that the world has been full of evil regimes and those which aren't so bad, we also know that governments don't reflect the hopes and dreams, the attitudes and behaviours, and the daily lives, of all their citizens.
When it comes to the masses, the Olympic Games (and all other sport) have had virtually no effect on their lives other than to offer the joy and disappointments of competitive sports watching and participation.
Further still, any countries that place an over-importance on winning Olympic medals should be viewed as highly suspect, because it suggests they need this fool's gold to cover up their ills.
I'll throw in here that the success or failure of the All Blacks has been portrayed as having a far greater influence on this nation's mood than it actually has beyond a bit of Sunday gloom. It is a media myth and if anything, it is this insistence that our country is so shallow that the mood should be overly affected by a footy game that drives you to despair.
In saying this, what a great pity that, so far, there have been no human rights protest by athletes at these games. China is winning its clampdown on free speech, which is infuriating and by far the biggest blow to Western pride.
Yet it would take more than a bit of apparel tweaking to make a difference. Chinese regimes don't change their minds because a few people decide to wave the colour orange.
The real beneficiaries of Olympic power are those mega-corporations who use them to further indoctrinate the crowds. Maybe the growth of a rich middle class in China will be the force that brings about vital changes. And if these Olympics are to have any effect, maybe it is the ability of these people to peep at life outside their borders that will help improve the lives of the oppressed.
But as for being effective political weapons, the Olympics are a lemon. Compared to other influences, they wouldn't even get in the final.
* Famous last words and all of that, but having rattled on in a previous column about the straight-forward joys of Olympic weightlifting, I tuned in that very night to find TVNZ's Garry Ward and Nigel Avery had conspired to somehow make the sport complicated.
Try as you might, it became increasingly difficult to work out who was winning and what the ramifications of each lift would be.
Avery, the former Commonwealth champion, comes from the yahoo, party-up school of commentary and he did impart a nice enthusiastic atmosphere, with a touch of technical knowhow. But their scorekeeping needed working on.
The real shock though was that the 56kg division was won by a Chinese bloke called Long Qingquan who hasn't been around very long at all. Long is just 17 years old and you had to ask how the rest of the planet could let somebody still deep in teenage-hood win an Olympic weightlifting title.
Even if Long was the sort of baby that carted his cot around, started mowing the lawns at the age of 2, and carried the groceries home in the supermarket trolley at the age of 6, it is hard to fathom how he could get strong and skilful enough to out-lift adults who started in the sport while he was still tearing his nappies apart.
Prediction: The youngster is in for a long Olympic reign.
* There's been a lot of streaming in our house, mainly from the mouth. After a promising start, watching the Olympics via the internet is striking more hurdles than Andrew Nicholson does. Attempt one started badly with a lot of flickering pictures and good sound, but this somehow and quite magically turned into very good pictures (but with an echo-like sound). It allowed access to a great boxing contest and an even better commentary from foreign dudes who included information that a particular fighter was renowned for attacking opponents' family jewels. Marvellous stuff, and no sooner had the fight started than this low blow specialist gave the opposing gems a damn good rattling.
Sadly, internet attempt two the following night was met with flickering green lines and all efforts to follow the technical repair guide failed. I'm not giving up though, not yet.
* A rugby matter ... the Waikato rugby union has put out a press release asking that we don't mention that their new wing, Henry Speight, is a nephew of the infamous Fiji coup leader George Speight. Ooops. Sorry about that, but I'm sure Henry will survive this non-controversy.
