The British waited until after the Olympics began to send a team to Bulgaria to investigate a recent terrorist attack that resulted in mass Israeli casualties ("Israeli official: Terror won't deter tourists," Web, July 23). The International Olympic Committee, mass media and British authorities seem more concerned about erecting screens between the Israeli athletes and Muslims and attacks on the dignity of Israelis and Jews than they are about addressing security issues. Perhaps the British left Israeli security solely to Shin Bet and the Mossad.
When he's eligible — and healthy enough — to run, it's very hard to catch LaShawn Merritt.
Perhaps we should have seen this coming. Back in 2007, a butcher at the Fantastic Sausage Factory in the quaint English county of Dorset was told to remove a window sign depicting sausage meat twisted into the shape of the the five Olympic rings.
First a ban. Now a bad leg. Just getting to London has been difficult for LaShawn Merritt.
Four badminton teams were kicked out of the women's doubles at the London Games on Wednesday for trying to lose on purpose, conduct that a top IOC executive said strikes at the heart of Olympic competition.
Just why Muhammad Ali was trotted out to make a cameo appearance at the opening ceremonies remains a mystery that organizers have yet to fully explain. Surely, the sight of the former gold medalist so terribly frozen by Parkinson's couldn't have done anything to further the Olympic ideal or help the sport that made him, at one time, perhaps the most famous man on earth.
Just why Muhammad Ali was trotted out to make a cameo appearance at the opening ceremonies remains a mystery that organizers have yet to fully explain. Surely, the sight of the former gold medalist so terribly frozen by Parkinson's couldn't have done anything to further the Olympic ideal or help the sport that made him, at one time, perhaps the most famous man on earth.
NBC's Bob Costas noted a controversy over honoring Israeli athletes killed at the Olympics 40 years ago during his coverage of the opening ceremony but stopped short of offering his own protest.
The Olympics motto is "Faster, Higher, Stronger," but it should be "Dominated, Captured, Enslaved." The official motto may apply to the athletes at the 2012 Olympic Games in London -- at least those who uphold the motto by not cheating or letting politics, religion or ideology blight the competition -- but it certainly doesn't apply to the games themselves. The Olympics have been dominated, captured and enslaved by Islamists, and as a result, Olympic ideals have been tarnished forever.
