The rollercoaster carries on, with some odd little sideshows dotted around the place.
The Yanks have managed to set up this Games's schedule to suit him down to the deep end, and he's cashing in. It's safe to say the bloke is the greatest swimmer in Olympic history - but I'm not sure you can take swimming all that seriously on one level.
There's not another sport where you can win so many medals for getting from a start to a finish in as many different ways as possible. It's always struck me as bonkers.
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Having slagged off opening ceremonies before seeing Beijing's effort, you have to say that the .
Just when you thought they couldn't fit another 4000 people in the stadium, up they popped. It was like one chunk of magic after another.
In fact it was so blinking perfect you longed for a Chinese to be just one step behind everyone else just to prove that human beings were involved.
Amazing stuff. Your thoughts are already drifting towards
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I'm really looking forward to seeing the Olympic Games, which is more than can be said for most of the inhabitants of Beijing who can't see a bleeding thing right now.
At this rate they're going to have to have the Olympics, the Paralympics, and the Asthmalympics.
The smog was pretty dire in Athens but things have come to a rum do when officials are threatening to cancel long-distance events altogether.
Surely they could compromise a little - anyone else remember Fun Size marathons?
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First of all, . Shows what a bright bloke he is that he ducked out before the selectors had to fire him.
Interestingly, national selector Geoff Miller had no intention of sacking the skipper and was sure he had a big score around the corner. There must be a lot of bloody corners at HQ is all I can say. English Test players seem to have that luxury all too often. was magnificent but he shouldn't have been playing - the same with Strauss last year. The selectors have spent so long with their fingers crossed, there must be a severe threat of digital arthritis.
Me, I'm not glad to see the back of Vaughan, not least cos that's where the straggly bits of his heinous mullet gather. That hairstyle alone is proof positive that his judgement had become clouded. It has been clear that Vaughan was the best skipper around, not least during , but his batting has been pretty rank for a while. The gap between his bat and pad has been marginally smaller than the gap between reality and fiction in the brain of the average Newcastle United fan.
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I'm Derek Robson. People call me Robbo. Legend has it I was raised in the furnace and smog of Teesside. Some might say I took the hard road. I like to tell folk I had trials for Middlesbrough, for Hartlepool and for burglary (not guilty). I've always loved sport. My job is to say it as I see it - whether it's in the bar of the Blue Bell or on this blog. You won't find me calling a spade a soil-redistribution implement.
