...or in such gruesome ones as boxing. The middleweight contest in which our guy won gold was all clinching and wrestling and biting. Does it have to be this way? I'm a huge fan of Mohammed Ali's- and I don't remember his fights being so ugly.
Our middleweight boxer was a rank outsider. I like it when the little guy wins. It happened again with the women's high jump, where the favourite was beaten by a Belgian girl in glasses. Fancy jumping in glasses! You'd think she'd be afraid of breaking them and hurting herself. There was a male hurdler who wore glasses too. He had them fastened round the back of his head with a leather strap.
So much human perfection, but it's the quirky things that stick in the mind.
Usain Bolt's performance, for instance- not because he runs supernaturally fast, but because he's a dude who broke the unspoken protocols and annoyed Jacques Rogge with his clowning around.
And especially the glasses. I suspect I'll remember the glasses when I've forgotten most everything else.