Keflezighi, Hall, Kastor still on the run

UCLA alumnus Meb Keflezighi, the Athens Olympic marathon silver medalist, isn't getting older -- he's getting better.

Keflezighi, 34, was named USA Track and Field's athlete of the week for setting an American record in the men's 20 kilometers en route to winning the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in San Jose on Sunday.

A 19-time U.S. champion, he registered a 20-km split of 57 minutes 52 seconds, which broke the record of 57:54 that Big Bear native Ryan Hall had set in 2006. Keflezighi won the half-marathon in 1 hour 1 minute, cutting his personal-best time by 25 seconds. It was the third-fastest half-marathon time for an American.

Keflezighi and Hall, who train in Mammoth Lakes, will run the New York City marathon on Nov. 1.

One of their training mates, Athens women's marathon bronze medalist Deena Kastor, is scheduled to run the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. Kastor dropped out of the Beijing Olympic marathon after she felt a pop in her right foot -- and it turned out to be a broken bone.  She's on something of a comeback mission at 36.

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: Meb Keflezighi. Credit: Gregory Bull / Associated Press

Cinquanta and Grandi, they must be related.

As Phil Hersh pointed out, figure skating's czar, Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy, speaks a lot, says little and seems committed to doing stupid things that hurt the sport. Since figure skating is consistently one of the most popular sports in the Winter Olympics, it would seem that someone associated with the International Olympic Committee -- or, you know, the sport itself -- might eventually want to look for a new guy to give hour-long state-of-the-sport addresses that are both imperious and insipid.

One of the most popular Summer Olympic sports, gymnastics, has the same deal. Bruno Grandi, also of Italy, runs the International Gymnastics Federation. He, too, is fond of meddling with the scoring system -- making it something impenetrable to the casual fan -- and ignoring important issues (Chinese age controversy, anyone?) He also loves speaking for hours at a time and saying nothing. How has it happened that these two men, who seem far removed from the sports they are supposed to help foster, have kept their jobs?

-- Diane Pucin

Olympic stumble psyches hurdler Lolo Jones up, not out

Lolo Jones after the 2008 Olympic final in Beijing. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

The Olympic memory stings Lolo Jones now as much as it did then, when it brought the 26-year-old to her hands and knees and left her in tears on the Bird's Nest track after a stumble at the next-to-last high hurdle cost her the gold medal she had been running away with.

Jones still can't bear to watch a replay of the race, but she continues to handle the frustration with the same good nature and grace ("You have to get over all 10 or you're not meant to be champion,'' Jones said immediately after the race) that prompted this letter to the Los Angeles Times last August:

It was so very painful for Lolo Jones and her family and fans when she hit the hurdle while leading the women's 100-meter hurdles. The irony is that had she not faltered, America might have seen her celebrate, but we would never have been treated to the depth of character and genuine decency that she displayed in the face of her personal agony. Ms. Jones is a very special young woman; that's far more important than any medal. -- Kip Dellinger, West Los Angeles

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, as she prepares to defend her U.S. indoor title in the 60-meter hurdles in Boston this weekend, Jones was able to make light of a mishap that undoubtedly has brought her more attention than a gold medal would have among U.S. fans whom NBC force-fed, ad nauseam, a diet of Michael Phelps, gymnastics and beach volleyball.

"I don't think people would remember my name as much if I would have won,'' Jones said, with realism rather than rancor. "Everyone can relate to not getting something they wanted so badly and worked so hard for, whether they are an athlete or working 9-to-5.''

As it has been with so much else in a life of turmoil and rootlessness, a life when her one goal was to "to get out of poverty,'' Jones sees her Olympic fall as just another hurdle to overcome.

"I always have flashbacks from the Olympics,'' she said.  "[Since then], it became therapeutic to me every time I could just drain energy in practice.''

And then, just to make sure no one over-dramatized her words, Jones laughed and added, "Instead of paying for a psychiatrist, I would just go to practice and have a session -- for free.''

It was some consolation that Track & Field News ranked her the world's No. 1 hurdler for 2008, when she won the U.S. Olympic trials, ran the world's two fastest times outdoors (the fastest, 12.43, came in the Olympic semis) and became world indoor champion. She enjoyed hearing herself introduced as No. 1 this winter in Europe, where she has won four or five meets and run the three fastest times in the world.

"I would hear someone being called bronze medalist from Beijing or Olympic champion in Beijing and wondered what they would say about me,'' she said.

Beijing. It won't go away.

"Every race helps, but I'm still getting over it,'' she said.  "I will use it as motivation for the next four years.''

-- Philip Hersh

The post-Olympic void

BEIJING -- The OIympic Green returned to being a vast, desolate space Monday.

All the security fencing remained in place, limiting access to accredited people -- media clearing out of the Main Press Center, Olympic organizing committee staff and volunteers.

There weren't many of those people out and about as I walked around many of the venues, giving myself a final look.

In fact, there was so little human or vehicle noise that an odd call and antiphon resonated across great distances:  the hum of cicadas, answered by the beep-beep-beep signals for the visually impaired at traffic lights.

While the volunteers remained as resolutely helpful and friendly as they had been during the Olympics, there was backsliding in other areas.

One worker openly defied the anti-spitting campaign Beijing had run for a year, and cigarette butts lay on the ground.

The place briefly will come back to life when the Paralympic Games begin their 12-day run on Sept. 6, and the exterior surface of the Water Cube still glowed with its changing color scheme Monday night.

But the Bird's Nest no longer shone red as it had when its interior walls were bathed in light.  The cauldron holding the Olympic flame was snuffed out Sunday, and the building was a looming, grayish hulk.

It was as if the energy that filled it for two ceremonies and nine days of track and field rather than electricity had been the light source.

That energy is gone forever.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo:  A worker takes a nap at the Bird's Nest, with the Olympic flame caldron in the background, a day after the closing ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. Credit: Ng Han Guan / Associated Press

It's tough to say goodbye

BEIJING -- Sunday night and today have been kind of like the last day of school. Everyone is cleaning up and packing. Editors and writers were working last night, some with wine glasses on their desks. People from different news organizations were hugging each other and saying goodbye.

When they get home and return to their regular beats, they'll be at each other's throats -- as they sometimes were here. But for now, the Beijing Olympic motto -- One World, One Dream -- reigns.

Everybody is wild about the volunteers, and people are getting teary-eyed saying goodbye to them. Everybody wants to go, but no one wants to leave.

One colleague of mine, who has covered more Olympics than he cares to remember, joined other writers in running a lap around the track after the final race Saturday, then became very emotional when he realized what that lap signified: the end of the Games.

"That was four years of my life," he said.

Yet he still doesn't want to go home.

-- Kevin Baxter

Photo: Soldiers stand outside the Bird's Nest, otherwise known as the National Stadium, during the closing ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on Sunday. Credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times.                         

PhilCam's focus at 10 a.m. Monday in Beijing

BEIJING -- Here's the 10 a.m. Monday view from PhilCam's perch, high above Beijing's Olympic Green.

And here is the first post-Olympics report from PhilCam operator and blogger Philip Hersh: "Day after. Monday, 10 am.  Torch out.  Gunk returning to air."

Here's another shot from PhilCam's perch, which is 14 stories above the Olympic Green.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau website has relevant air pollution data. The Chaoyang District is home to the Olympic Green, where much of the Olympic action was.

IOC President Jacques Rogge: "no white elephant has been built"

BEIJING -- Speaking to reporters as the Beijing Olympic Games wound down, IOC President Jacques Rogge said that China and the citizens of Beijing will be far better off thanks to the Games. Declaring that none of the stadiums or buildings will become "white elephants" to the city, that the improvements to the airport and the subway will be bright spots for locals, Rogge said the legacy of these Games will be a positive one for the Chinese.

As far as the athletes and nations went, it was a huge success, according to the official website of the Olympic movement, olympic.org:

A record 204 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) sent athletes to China, and a record 87 NOCs joined the medal count.

The competitors established 43 world records and 132 Olympic records, although some lasted only until the next heat.

Meanwhile, the U.S. cleaned up in swimming, on the basketball court, in both arenas of volleyball, in several areas of track and field and, most important, in the Nielson ratings.

-- Tony Pierce

Medals per capita goes to the Bahamas

Just as England once lived under the Tudor, China once lived under the Ming and the American League East once lived under the Torre, we earthlings live under a dynasty these days.

It’s a benevolent dynasty, the Bahamas dynasty -- they do let us come visit their islands and serve us drinks with tiny umbrellas sticking out of them -- until it comes to the quadrennial test known as the Olympics, when they fluster the rest of us again.

The rest of the world tried everything we could to overthrow the Athens 2004 kings and queens in the crucial, vital-to-life, telltale Medals Per Capita ranking. We sent our Australia, runner-up in Athens with its population of just 20,600,856 and its vast collection of studs and studesses. We proposed Armenia, wrestling and weightlifting with the best from a population shy of three million.

We offered Slovenia, No. 5 in Athens, and we sent in Jamaica, No. 6 in Athens with its bolting Bolt and other track prowess, and we tried New Zealand, hearty archipelago, and as it concluded we even summoned Iceland with its 304,367 population and its gaudy handball team. Mongolia, a nation with cold weather and disagreeable soil, showed it mettle with two early medals and then, on Sunday, two boxing medals, from Serdanka Purevdorj (silver) and Badar-Uugan Enkhbat (gold). That made four for 3 million hardy people and made an impression.

U.S. not so far off-track

BEIJING -- By the numbers, it wasn't all that bad for USA Track & Field.

Yes, U.S. runners botched baton exchanges in both sprint relays, throwing away two almost certain medals.

Yes, only four of the 22 U.S. men in field events (throws and jumps) made the finals, and three were in one event, the shot put.

Yes, Bernard Lagat, the man of a million excuses, flopped in both the 1,500 (no final) and 5,000 (ninth), the events in which he was the reigning world champion.  He cited an Achilles tendon injury after the 1,500, then mentioned a virus after the 5,000 -- this from the man who covered up the date he became a U.S. citizen so he could still compete in the 2004 Olympics for Kenya.

For all that, the U.S. had 23 medals -- seven gold, nine silver, seven bronze.  That is just one gold and two total medals fewer than Athens, which had been the best U.S. performance since 1992.

Russia was next with 18 medals, six gold.

Jamaica swept the sprints, and Usain Bolt was not only the star of the track competition (100, 200 and sprint relay golds, all with world records), but in most of the world, he was the star of the Olympics, because far more countries care about track than swimming. 

Kenya had a particularly satisfying performance, capped by Samuel Wansiru's marathon win Sunday in Olympic record time.  That gave a country renowned for distance running its first Olympic gold in the marathon.  Earlier, Kenyan women had won their first Olympic golds, in the 800 (Pamela Jelimo) and 1,500 (Nancy Langat).

Once again, Ethiopia dominated track distance running.  Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba won the 5,000 and 10,000.

For many of these athletes, the season continues full force, with the biggest one-day meet in the world, the Zurich Weltklasse, taking place Friday.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Usain Bolt acknowledges the cheers of the crowd after helping Jamaica win the men's 400-meter relay in world-record time. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Well done, and thanks

BEIJING -- Most Americans I’ve spoken to were anxious to get back to their homes and families, but in no way was this a poor reflection of their time in China. Everyone I spoke to went on about how hospitable everyone in China has been. It’s understandable that after a couple of weeks away that feeling of homesickness starts to set in.

It was a concern of mine that the politics and protests leading up to the Games would heighten during the competitions. It didn’t, and I’m glad. My concern was that these issues would distract us from the athletes  who don’t have anything to do with politics, the athletes who have dedicated their lives to this endeavor, the athletes who earned our attention and respect for the days of the Olympic Games.

Job well done to the people of China.