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As Jamaicans dominate, Americans disappear
By Alan Abrahamson, NBCOlympics.com
Posted Sunday, August 17, 2008 9:53 AM ET
BEIJING - The Olympics are all about who shows up when it's time to show up.
In three nights of track and field at the Bird's Nest, it's clear the Americans are not showing up as many had expected. And while there is considerable action left, the U.S. performance so far has to be a concern to American officials sizing up medal counts.
It's also clear that the Jamaicans -- at least in the sprints, races Americans are used to dominating at the Olympics - are showing up big time.
.....
For the first time in Olympic history, there were no American men finalists in the high jump.
What's going on?
Is it that the U.S. Olympic Committee vowed to send a clean team to these Games?
How is it that Jamaica, an island nation of not even three million people, has produced four medal winners in the marquee Olympic sprints? On Saturday, in the men's 100m, Usain Bolt ran 9.69, a world record that looked frighteningly easy.
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Torri Edwards, who finished eighth, got caught in what she believed was a false start - her own.
Muna Lee, fifth, said she, too, believed the race would be called back. "I've never had a bad start like that," she said.
American officials late Sunday filed a formal protest "looking at whether Torri Edwards false-started and whether the race should have been called back," USA Track & Field spokeswoman Jill Geer said. The protest was promptly rejected.
Lauryn Williams, fourth, said, emphasizing that she was speaking with respect for her rivals in the race, said, "Definitely Jamaica has it out for the U.S. They have very strong competitors. We dominated for all the years prior to this. Everybody deserves their one chance in history to do well."
Is that it?
The Jamaicans have undergone rigorous and extensive testing here overseen by anti-doping officials. Is there, Williams was asked, any reason to suspect anything undue about the Jamaicans?
"Not at all," she said. "I have confidence in my competitors and I really look forward to competing against them and getting to the finish line before them, clean and drug free."
