From Beijing: Day 5

Well, this is the last full day in Beijing, and we be began it by going to the women's triathlon. As an explanation, we went to that event because my dad really likes triathlon, and the men's triathlon isn't until after we leave. In any case, the three Americans came out of the water in the top eight, and Laura Bennett was the first athlete onto the bike portion. All three Americans stayed with the lead pack until the run. During the run, the Australians literally ran away with the gold medal (as well as the bronze). Portugal took the silver medal, and American Laura Bennett finished fourth. All three Americans managed to make it into the top 20.

In other Olympic news, the United States track and field team seems to be doing rather poorly: a bronze in the men's 100m, and absent from the women's 100m. In addition, none of the Americans (one of whom, Bernard Lagat, was a contender for the gold medal) made it to the finals of the men's 1500m. One of the marquee events for the Chinese, the men's 110m hurdles, turned out to be a major disappointment when Chinese superstar Liu Xiang didn't even race in the prelims due to an Achilles injury. Liu was the gold medalist in Athens, and is perhaps one of the biggest Chinese sports stars (along with Yao Ming of basketball and Guo Jingjing of diving). The Chinese have literally been waiting for four years to see Liu defend his Athens gold medal.

Some things to watch over the final week of the Olympics include the 400m dash, where the Americans hope to sweep the medals, as they did in Athens, the women's open water swim on Wednesday, where Natalie du Toit of South Africa will compete...without her left leg. The United States men's basketball team looks to complete its "Redeem Team" image, and Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the United States women's beach volleyball team look to defend their Athens gold medal.

Tonight's dinner will be Peking duck, the iconic dish of Beijing Chinese food. We'll see what that ends up tasting like. Anyway, my battery continues to die, so for today it's so long from Beijing. Tomorrow we may be going to the morning session of Athletics at National Stadium, and then tomorrow evening we head off for Seoul.