Changing China
Giant on the move
How do you feel, George? Well, it was a speech of two halves…
Journalists don’t generally address politicians by their first name, they tend to ask them searching questions and it’s rare to see them fawning. Not so, sports reporters.
For the vacuous, how about this, heard in the handball mixed zone at the Beijing Games: “Congratulations, Anita. Fantastic match. How did you feel in the last 10 minutes?”
(Who are these people who seem to be on first-name terms with athletes of second-tier sports anyway)?
Or take the killer question thrown at the men’s kayak bronze medallist this week: “Benjamin, I saw you go over and hug your mum. What did you say to her?”
Imagine if the rest of the journalistic fraternity adopted the same fascination with touchy-feely trivia I’ve found while covering the Games. The White House press corps, for example:
Step away from the crisps, sir
You don’t often wonder, in all seriousness, whether opening a packet of crisps will result in instant death.
But there I was, not 10 metres from President George W. Bush, his father, former President George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger covering the blockbuster United States v China Olympic men’s basketball game.
Beach volleyball — the perfect Olympic sport?
When beach volleyball joined the Olympics in 1996, it was ridiculed in some circles as being an unashamed ploy to boost viewing figures with hotties in bikinis and beach dudes in bermudas.
Roll on 12 years and you could argue beach volleyball is the perfect modern Olympic sport.
Bush volleyball becomes an Olympic sport
U.S. President George W. Bush did what most people would do on a sticky day and took some time out at the beach on Saturday. The beach volleyball, that is.
The United States are favourite in both the men’s and women’s tournament and the president popped by to wish them good luck. He was not expecting to be made to actually play, nor to be proffered a pert buttock to pat.
