The Olympics are full of "dreams come true" fairy-tales.
Rebecca, our Cyclists, rowers, Bolt, the guy from Toga who Medalled, da de da, it's just lovely to see these extraordinary tales unfolding.
A young British lady called Rebecca Romero won a Silver at the previous Olympics in Rowing - & this time she won a Gold - in Cycling! How about that?
But because of those damn dumbass idiots like
Ben Johnson & Dwayne Chambers, my first thought these days is always "are they "clean"?".
The Jamaican sprinters have been awsesome, & no doubt has been cast upon their integrity, nor should it.
But if you think about it, it's almost beyond belief, what they've done. Jamaica is a tiny, tiny, country. And that Bolt fella won the 100 - not even his main event! - doing handstands. 100 metre races at the top level are always blanket finishes, but he was yards ahead.
And thern came the Jamaican women sprinters, in their 100 metres. A gold -
their first ever Medal in the ladies 100 metres? - & 2nd & 3rd too - well, 2nd & 2nd, technically. A clean sweep, anyway, & that's never been done before, either.
And I'm thinking - again - "oh
please let them be clean".
Assuming they are clean, it'll be extraordinary what Jamaica have done here.
And that's the debt that those cheating lying sods like
Ben Johnson & Dwayne Chambers owe us - they've removed the innocence, the purity, the belief we have when dreams come true. There is no price you can put on that.
Merlene Ottey won 8 Olympic medals including several in the 100m.
In my opinion, Ben Johnson was treated worse than several other cheats because of two main factors: 1) he won the big race and 2) he was wasn't as eloquent as runners such as Carl Lewis. In no way do I condone his actions (indeed I share Tikay's abhorrence of cheating) but at least he wasn't self-righteously accusing his fellow competitors.