Have you noticed those women who carry the medals on a tray to
the podium for the guy to drape over the winning athletes' heads? Those women
have been coached relentlessly at a school.
For example, you might think that a smile is a natural thing.
Think again. They have been told that the perfect smile shows exactly eight top
teeth and no bottoms. No more or less. They have worked to get that down.
It's just another example of what extent the Chinese have gone
to to make these Olympics as close to perfect as possible.
These women, who are all to be roughly 5-foot-4 and between 18
and 25 years old, have to bow at a perfect 45-degree angle, and then to a
15-degree bend, holding the tray at exactly 90 degrees.
The precision of the Opening Ceremony was almost scary. It was
sort of an artistic perfection in so many things they did.
``Once, we trained for 48 hours (in the Bird's Nest stadium),''
said Fan Weipeng, a 19-year old Taiji martial arts performer. ``It rained while
we were training. We trained until three in the morning and then we all fell
asleep in the audience seats. When we woke up, we continued. So we trained for
two days and nights.''
Xue Mingrui, a martial arts official, said that during practice
in the rain, 16 performers got hurt one day. One, he said, ``fell down with his
head touching the ground and lost consciousness, but his fellow players helped
him up and he sustained to the end. All of the players stayed at the rehearsal
and did not go for medical treatment until they finished the training.''
Also, I wrote yesterday about Michael Phelps, wondering if his chills and then his iffy relay mean that there might be something wrong with him. After watching him today, I'll just say this:
Never mind.
