Olympic Friday

Lots of disturbing news coming out of Beijing China these days.

Chinese Dancer Liu Yan Paralyzed After Fall During Opening Ceremony Rehearsal

After at first covering it up, China has now acknowledged that one of its greatest dancers, Liu Yan, was paralyzed when she fell off a platform during a rehearsal for the Olympic opening ceremony.

It's heartbreaking to think that a woman with such grace will never dance again.

The New York Times reports that Liu was rushed to a hospital and underwent six hours of surgery, but had already sustained nerve and spinal damage.

She has no feeling below her chest and cannot move her lower body, and doctors have told her family that it is unlikely that she will ever walk.

"I never imagined I could suffer such a tragedy," she told the Times. "I hope one day I can just stand up like a normal person."

Sad deal there and for some reason China hid the fact it happened.

Too Young to Compete?

BEIJING - Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government's news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

The Associated Press found the Xinhua report on the site Thursday morning and saved a copy of the page. Later that afternoon, the Web site was still working but the page was no longer accessible. Sports editors at the state-run news agency would not comment for publication.

Fake fireworks, a 7 year old girl sings but the Chinese decided she was not deemed pretty enough for the cameras so they had a 9-year-old lip sync to the 7-year-old's voice.

Yeah, China only has beautiful people.

So far other than the swimming events I have found NBC's coverage boring.

Exciting events I haven't been able to find on TV so far:

Sailing, Rowing, Handball, Table Tennis, Water Polo, Archery, Badminton, Canoe / Kayak Slalom and Artistic Gymnastics.

Coming up are other events that are just as exciting:

Synchronized Swimming, Trampoline, Cycling BMX, Cycling Mountain Bike and Rhythmic Gymnastics.

What I have seen is Cycling Road, Fencing and Beach Volleyball. The fencing was so exciting, the bicycle riding was so boring and the beach volleyball is not even near an ocean beach.

The rules for women's beach volleyball state that bikinis are the mandatory dress for the contest.

It appears that the bikinis won't be outsourced to India.

Indian beach volleyball players refuse to wear bikinis.

The Indian women's team participating in the World Beach Volleyball tournament have declined to wear bikinis, declaring them objectionable and against their traditions.

"We want to give a good fight in the game and not the dress code," said Kanaka Mahalakshmi, a member of the Indian team, adding that she would rather not play if required to wear a bikini that is the recognised dress code for all international beach volleyball tournaments.

As a result, the rules, which state that bikinis are the mandatory dress for the contest, have been relaxed and the Indian contingent will now play in t-shirts and long shorts.

That seems wrong and unfair to me. It might give them an advantage of not having issues with sand if you know what I mean.

Why do the women players wear skimpy bikinis anyway? I don't think any of them are doing any swimming?

Actually the swimmers wear more than the women beach volleyball players wear.

What's up with that?

Have a great weekend!!