Athens rates gold as Olympics host

ATHENS, Greece - Sights, sounds, and scenes as the Athens Olympics sprint for home:

The despair over Athens' preparations was all wet: Obviously, it was a race to the wire. But all the horror stories about facilities not being ready and chaos reigning in Athens were pointless.

Everything has been in place, everything works, every important aspect of Olympics structure has been intact since the night the Games began.

A group of us were discussing the issue of preparedness earlier this week. The consensus was this:

Perhaps more of the Greek ethic wouldn't be such a bad thing. If Greece wasn't quite as buttoned-down as some countries in getting ready for the Olympics, an event where things can't be left to chance, criticism is understood.

But these facilities and systems - transportation, making information available, etc. - have been splendid.

Add to that a Greek culture where hospitality and being helpful are core values that perhaps aren't always on display in more efficient cultures. What you get is a very admirable site for a world event.

If productivity lagged a bit heading into the Games, Greece's sense of civility has more than compensated.

Olympic Stadium's roof architecture: The sun roof added to Olympic Stadium looks as if it was built with segments from the Mackinac Bridge. Those massive moorings, the huge suspension cables - Olympic's spiraling awning is an awesome piece of architectural design.

You also realize after a day or two here why that canopy was mandatory. The sun during Saturday's women's pentathlon would have broiled 60,000 spectators alive had some kind of protection not been in place for an event that spanned so many hours.

As twilight arrived, the Olympic flame burned brightly, the night-time air was balmy without a trace of humidity, and never has an evening of competition been as easy on the senses as it was Saturday at Olympic Stadium.

What the U.S. women's softball players and artists share: A special kind of craftsmanship. It wasn't their 9-0 record, or the 54 2/3 innings in which they didn't allow a run, that was most impressive about these golden women.

It was their defense.

During two tough games against Australia, they made every play, every throw, and did even minor things with grace.

The third baseman, Crystl Bustos, had a tough squib grounder hit her way during Monday's finale. She didn't have a lot of time, but on a play where so many fielders would either hurry and botch snagging the ball, or make a hurried throw, she made sure the ball was secure in her glove and whipped a throw to first base that looked like something from the arm of the late, great Tigers player Aurelio Rodriguez.

Team USA's pitching and hitting were phenomenal. But it was their skill on defense that explains why they gave up one run during the entire nine-game Olympics run.

Paul Hamm's bittersweet Olympics: How a man could have performed so well and have been subjected to such grief is bad luck on his part. He deserved better in his men's overall gymnastics showdown and in Monday night's individual competition that turned into a jeering, whistling boo-fest.

Bad judging can make a mess of any night. As we now know from Salt Lake City's experience, it can also do permanent injury to an overall Olympics and to what people remember about it.

The International Gymnastics Federation needs to get things straight instead of having someone such as Hamm - not to mention South Korea's Yang Tae-young - pay a lifetime price by either missing out on a medal, or watching the prize in possession become tarnished.

Weightlifters are a different bunch: It was something of a beauty-and-the-beast evening Tuesday. Over on Greece's seashore, the Olympics' new glamour sport, beach volleyball, was wowing the world with its mix of athleticism and bigger mix of sex appeal.

So, why someone ended up watching the weightlifters go at it at Nikaia Olympic Weightlifting Hall is curious. But something about that endeavor is fascinating in that it forever comes across as an exercise in anguish.

The lifters march onto a stage, grab weights that reached 500 pounds, then - in a shower of perspiration - hoist the mass upward. Sometimes they fail to lift it much above the floor. Sometimes they tumble back on their rumps as 500 pounds bounces across their leg (nice, how the crowd applauds and the lifters acknowledge it even after they've gotten their tails kicked).

Even when the lifters triumph, the agony is almost too much to bear. Their faces contort, they scream primal sounds, and often - just as they push a quarter-of-a-ton toward the apex - a leg buckles or an arm gives out and the whole kit-and-kaboodle comes crashing down.

Tuesday night's medalists - Russia's Dmitry Berestov won gold - were pleasant gentlemen, especially Berestov and silver medalist Ferenc Gyurkovics of Hungary, each of whom seemed to laugh as easily as they hoisted 500 pounds.

What is it about this seeming exercise in masochism that they find so rewarding?

"It's a very addictive discipline," Gyurkovics said. "When you're hooked, you're hooked."

He spoke in Hungarian. The expression on his face, even more than anything conveyed by his English translator, explained a man's genuine love for his work.