Random Thoughts on the Olympics

- It's always good when you're watching a group of runners lined up on the track without hearing the earlier announcements, and you can tell the event purely by the competitors involved. Hmm, Kenyan, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Kenyan, Ethiopian ... it's starting inside the track, so it's not the marathon, meaning it's got to be the 10,000m. Sure enough, it is. Correlations, man - is there anything they can't tell you?

-It was grimly hilarious a few days ago to watch the Australian Olympic officials trying to put on a brave face after winning Sweet F. A. when the swimming was all done.

http://au.oztips.yahoo.com/news/article/-/14433008/aussies-not-panicking-over-low-medal-count/

But fear not, says Australia's deputy chef de mission Kitty Chiller.

"Very early days, we're only just starting the second quarter," she said.

"We've got rowing, we've got track cycling, we've got sailing, genuine gold medal hopes - three in each of those events.

"We're certainly not panicking. There's a still a very positive feel amongst management and the athletes.

"Sure, we maybe have missed out on a few medals that we thought we could've one but we've also won others - 4x100m freestyle wasn't a gold medal favourite.

"There's certainly no fear at the moment that we've failed, that we're not on track.

"We still believe we can genuinely finish in the top five overall."

Translation: the tanks are descending on Berlin from both the east and the west, but the German Army is about to fight a glorious rearguard action!