My Olympic Rankings: Seoul No. 6

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BEIJING -- The telephone rang in my room at the Olympic Media Village in Seoul at about 4 a.m.

Bill Dwyre, the Times sports editor at the time, was on the line.

‘Randy,’’ he said, ‘’I let you sleep as long as I could. But you’ve got to get up to get to work. Ben Johnson tested positive.’’

Bill had received the call informing him from a source within the Seoul organizing committee at 2 a.m. and had decided to have mercy on us. After all, we were several hours from deadline for the sports section.

That is an example of how much the lives of journalists have changed in recent years.

Now, Bill would have been on the phone to his writers right after he received the call, ordering us to get up and file for the Web and start blogging. No one lets you sleep in the Internet age.

Except for the drugs and rumors of drugs and other incidents, such as the United States’ unruly behavior during the opening ceremony, the stealing of a ceremonial mask by U.S. athletes, the stealing of a gold medal (not literally) that should have been won easily by Roy Jones Jr., the boorish behavior of South Korean boxing fans and officials, the even more boorish behavior by U.S. basketball coach John Thompson ... that’s a lot of misery, isn’t it?

I’m not sure why I recall the Seoul Olympics in 1988 as fondly as I do. Perhaps it was the role the Olympics played in democratizing the country as the government decided at some point during that year that it was counter-productive to its national image to tear-gas and beat demonstrators, mostly students.

Perhaps it was the accommodating nature of the organizers. When NBC complained about the glare in the pool, the South Koreans knocked it down and built a new one.

Perhaps it was that there was no Internet yet for us to tend every minute of the day.

Next: Athens

Previously: Atlanta, Montreal.

-- Randy Harvey