by Mitch Albom | Aug 18, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
DAY 11: The Mommy factor.
BEIJING – You can’t just go to church on Sunday if you’re Chinese, not under a government whose official religion is atheism. But you still can find inspiration. I found some Sunday in, of all places, the women’s gymnastics competition.
Normally, this is where apple-cheeked Tinkerbells flip and twist, while spectators use magnifying glasses to find them. The minimum age is 16, and teams want their girls as close to that as possible.
by Mitch Albom | Aug 17, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
DAY 10: The big race, the big climb, the big difference.
BEIJING -“Fruits? Almonds?” he says in Chinese.
His “store” is a table. He sits on it, offering plastic bags to visitors. The sun is hot and the mountains loom overhead, and there are half a dozen vendors trying to sell us the same stuff, and besides, on the way into this village we passed a donkey sitting in the middle of the street, so to be honest, business is slow.
“Can you take us up to the Wall?” we ask.
by Mitch Albom | Aug 17, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
BEIJING – If it isn’t about representing your country, why do they play the national anthem when you win? It is time, once and for all, to end the hypocrisy over who competes for whom in the Olympics. Athletes who switch countries as if ripping off one...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 17, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
BEIJING – The journey ended, fittingly, with Michael Phelps not in the pool but above it, cheering on his teammates. The greatest Olympian of all time may indeed now hover over his sport, but he could not have achieved such heights without a little help from his...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 17, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
DAY 10: The big race, the big climb, the big difference.BEIJING – “Fruits? Almonds?” he says in Chinese.His “store” is a table. He sits on it, offering plastic bags to visitors. The sun is hot and the mountains loom overhead, and there...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 16, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
BEIJING – A swimmer wins with the slightest touch. One straining hand. One lonely finger. The barest graze can be the difference between almost everything and
everything. Michael Phelps grazed the pool wall this morning with two outstretched hands in the...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 15, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
DAY 8: Medicine, gold medals and how this little piggy went to market.BEIJING – So my big toe is being squeezed between this guy’s knuckles, shooting a pain up my body and straight out my ears, when I notice the guy’s eyes are shut tight and his head...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 14, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
DAY 7: Gym wars and pigtails. BEIJING – What did you expect? Any country that would lip-sync out a 7-year-old singer because she wasn’t cute enough for the opening ceremony wouldn’t hesitate to use underage children to capture gold medals....
by Mitch Albom | Aug 13, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
BEIJING – Fifty-eight minutes. What can you do with that? Almost watch a TV drama? Nearly finish a business lunch? Fifty-eight minutes. You get change back from your hour. In normal human life, it’s not much of an opportunity. But there is little normal or...
by Mitch Albom | Aug 13, 2008 | Detroit Free Press
DAY 6: Hell hath no fury like
BEIJING – The subject today is women, and the girls in pink are waiting.They hover. They beckon. They call to you in clipped English, “Hello.
You like? … Come look.”They are not hawking themselves. They are...
