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Home > Jeff Schultz > Archives > 2008 > August > 09 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USDifficult to see clear through the fog
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Juyongguan, China — When the various beleaguered dynasties in Chinese history were convincing themselves that a wall might actually cure themselves of those pesky Mongolians, it probably never occurred to them that they would be mocked centuries later by a goofy guy in spandex.
“If I was in charge back then, I wouldn’t have built something like this,” U.S. cyclist David Zabriskie said as he looked up at the apparently not-so-Great Wall. “It’s just like a waste of time. I mean, you can get over it with a grappling hook and a ladder, right?”
Cycling at the Wall. Maybe this can be the start of some new series of historical Olympic mutations. When the Games move to London in 2012: table tennis at Stonehenge.
One day after Opening Ceremonies, the Olympic cycling road race. It started in downtown Beijing at Yongdingmen Gate, the former entrance to Beijing’s old city wall, and finished 2,200 feet up a mountain. It was the first time the event began and ended in different locations, the local organizing committee figured they would make the most of it. So the finish line was placed at the JuYongGuan Pass, adjacent to the Great Wall.
About 800 years ago, Genghis Khan plowed through the Wall and took over northern China and, well, that should have sent a strong enough message that a winding and deteriorating wall wasn’t a great defense, even if it did stretch 4,000 miles. But when you combine smog, heat, humidity and an uphill climb over 245 kilometers (152 miles), it doesn’t make for great art.
Players gasped, coughed and generally wilted. After dropping out, Stefan Schumacher of Germany said: “It feels like you’re at 3,000 meters because of the air. You cannot breathe. The air is thick, and there is smog.” Juan Jose Haedo of Argentine said: “It feels like you have hot cream all over your body.”
The greater Beijing area doesn’t necessarily have the world’s worst air. There are plenty of nuclear-waste facilities. But you wonder why IOC president Jacques Rogge has gone to such great lengths to spin this matter.
His comment the other day: “The fog you see is based on the basis of humidity and heat. It does not mean to say that this fog is the same as pollution. It can be pollution, but the fog doesn’t mean necessarily that it is pollution.”
Rogge speaks five languages. Maybe it made more sense in Dutch.
Four members of the U.S. cycling team arrived in Beijing wearing masks over their nose and mouth — presumably to protect them from Rogge’s fog. That didn’t go over real well, and the USOC strongly suggested they issue a quick apology.
So it follows that when other team members were asked about the smog Saturday, they verbally tiptoed a response. “I’ve got to approach it with a little bit of reserve after the other members of the team got in a mess,” Zabriskie said.
But he couldn’t help himself. When reminded of Rogge’s fog comments, he said, “It’s best to give things like this a happy name. … We do the same thing in America. We call it haze.”
Zabriskie has lived in California. Doesn’t he know what smog looks like?
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s looks … familiar.”
If nothing else, Saturday’s race finally ended the myth that the Wall is visible from outer space. Because, like, I stood on what many consider the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” and I had an easier time seeing the other seven.
If walls could talk, what would this one say? How about, “Please, just let me be.”
Some cyclists sort of got into the backdrop. Christian Vande Velde of the United States said of riding the course through the Wall’s tunnels, “You feel like you’re going through a fake amusement ride.”
Probably a safe analogy.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Post your comment | Categories: Beijing Olympics
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Comments
By Ted Striker
August 9, 2008 4:00 PM | Link to this
Hey, dude, pick me up some Mo Shu pork, an order of eggrolls, and Kung Pao beef. If you have time.
Thanks,
Ted
By Whocares
August 9, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this
Let me see if I can get this right: the AJ-C is losing money by the bushel, buying out people by the dozens and you send a staff to the stinking Olympics? What happened to the “know Atlanta best” motto of the week? Who cares about the Olympics? Not UGA fans, tell you that. could have used all that travel money and saved someone’s job.
By Howard
August 9, 2008 4:45 PM | Link to this
Jeff…in the world of liberal journalism, I always thought the USA was the big bad polluter of the planet and tortured and imprisoned folks and put restrictions on free speech. It is indeed enlightening to see you, as a full fledged liberal, having to report that China is one of the major polluters and human rights violators…why is it that everyone, including you, always give them a pass in areas like this??
By singndblues
August 9, 2008 4:48 PM | Link to this
Terrific. All we get is another bashing of China. The ajc sends you to China to report this crap? Why? The problem with the air quality has been reported ad nauseum. You should have stayed home and just submitted this story from your favorite bar, which would have been easily done from all the insight you have offered. Or maybe you did?
By bud melman
August 9, 2008 5:16 PM | Link to this
Jeff,
I implore you to share whatever your sitting on in your peculiar picture, the joy the apparatus brings u must be known and shared with the masses
By R
August 9, 2008 8:07 PM | Link to this
Hey whocares…. I CARE!!!! Im a UGA fan, a sports fan and I love the Olympics. Did you know UGA swim coach Jack Bauerle is there coaching the women’s team? That Reese Hoffa, a former UGA grad, is taking part in Track and Field? If you really care about UGA, you’d watch the Olympics. “
It’s not just a sports event, it;s a travelouge.” Jim McKay
By Dan
August 9, 2008 9:40 PM | Link to this
Jeff - are you going to channel the spirit of George Vecsey of The New York Times and “journalists” who covered the Atlanta Games (aka the Southeastern Regional Olympics) by writing nothing but snarky columns about the ambiance of the Games in China during your stay?
Might consider the glass house you departed in Atlanta next time you take aim at how the Games are being conducted elsewhere
By Ted Striker
August 9, 2008 11:01 PM | Link to this
Geezus jimminy crickets, folks, your cups-o-hostility runneth over.
Hey, I’m as p** at anyone at Shultz — still waiting on my takeout order of authentic chinese — but what some of you are squawking about is beyond me. I don’t normally feed the blogging trolls but I’ll say this.
1) Till you pay the bills of the AJC, don’t you worry about what the AJC spends covering the Olympic games, the most notable sporting event in the world. (Since 776 B.C. or just before Uga I was a puppy).
2) If you say you pay the bills of the AJC because ‘you subscribe’ get a grip. As a blogging troll, chances are you don’t pay a dime in subscriptions to anyone except your internet service and a porn site or three. You just log on and b*** to the AJC at no expense to yourself.
3) If, on the outside chance you are a genuine subscriber and you believe this is an entitlement to b***/moan incessantly about the AJC, consider a second, less expensive option. Feel free to cancel your subscription. For that matter, cancel your respiration if you’re of a mind to. Concerned about bad air quality in the world? Hell, do your part. Stop breathing. For the betterment of the rest of us.
4) Lastly. As for Jeff Shultz either ‘bashing China’ — or ‘giving China a pass’ — depending on the comments of the particular blogging troll: YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS! Wait? You are? Really? Oh yeah…I forgot. Nobody really cares.
Striker, over and out.
By Dan
August 9, 2008 11:08 PM | Link to this
Striker
So let me get this straight
Nobody really cares what gets posted here but you are posting = walk me through why you engage in activity you regard to be pointless
By Ted Striker
August 9, 2008 11:28 PM | Link to this
Dan, I’ve already fed the trolls. Next feeding isn’t for another week or so.
How about swallowing a teaspoon of shush to tide you over?
By JSS
August 10, 2008 8:52 AM | Link to this
Even half a world away I can smell the stink of old negative Jeff…
I see TS missed that newspaper 101 finance class at Chatahoochee Tech back in the day…
Jeff, never visit Hong Kong or Auckland, the fog there will wear your out shape a** out…
By Long Wang
August 10, 2008 11:04 AM | Link to this
Chou cho chong ya mi wi chou cho yaa chi lo chu yang long dong po pee chi yo yu wii mua cha chi lo pi ching chang yaaa Schultz!!!
By Brendan
August 10, 2008 11:14 AM | Link to this
Hey, I’d schmooze a free trip to China, if I could get it. I am writing a book on the Olympics, but I didn’t have a title. Until now. Thanks Jeff! When Rogge’s Fog comes out, I’ll be sure to send you an autographed copy. As well as credit you for the title of the book. It’s a rather compelling tale of corruption surrounding how the Games are run and how Olympic cities are selected.
It’s better than the U.N.’s “Oil for Food” program. You’ll like it. But I digress.
I hope you are enjoying China. I’ve got a hankering for some General Tsao’s chicken. Steamed rice, not that fried stuff! And would it kill ya to throw in some fortune cookies? On second thought, when they ran out of “You will find happiness with a new love” fortunes, they replaced them with “Stick with your wife” inserts. I’ve been mistrustful of fortunes ever since.
Keep these Olympic updates coming, Jeff. From the Atlanta end, I’ll give you Kyra Phillips sightings. Today, she worn green. She thought she could hide. How silly. :)
By Brendan
August 10, 2008 11:38 AM | Link to this
I rather enjoyed that Ted Striker post. I am one of those bloggers who has 7-days a week home delivery. Shoot me. I think newspapers should crinkle and smudge your fingers a bit. I dread the day when you cannot put $0.50 into a vending machine and pull out a print edition. I will find it rather sad when it becomes commonplace to ask, “What did the homepage of the website look like when ‘X’ happened.” I still have the print edition of the AJC that reads, “World Champs!” when the Braves won the World Series, back in 1995. Word to the wise, laminate.
I’m the also the sort that says, “If you don’t vote, you shouldn’t complain.” You should register your complaint with your vote. That includes unsubscribing to the AJC, if you’re that unhappy with it. Shoot, I even voted in the primary runoff election. I believe in the 1st Amendment. I’m a free speech advocate. And I have nothing against pornography, unless it involves children or animals. Hard to believe there’s even a market for that. That there, apparently, is one … is a rather stinging indictment. At least there are laws against child porn. If a person is against porn, I suppose they could vote for candidates who oppose it. But I digress.
The Opening Ceremonies of these Beijing Games were tremendous. I envy Shultz for being there to enjoy them. Good for him! And I have no plans on cancelling my AJC home delivery. I love the smudgy finger prints all over my morning coffee mug.
By Ted Striker
August 10, 2008 6:11 PM | Link to this
Brendan, right on!
It’s refreshing to hear from others who actually read the AJC without a premeditated intent to vehemently disagree…no matter what a columnist writes. Yes, AJC blogging trolls would deem that idea communistic heresy — but they’ll complain no matter what. (Clues for trolls, $3.00: That’s why most columnists don’t give two-tenths of a scintilla about trying to appease self-appointed critics)
Keep smudging the coffee cup with newsprint, Brendon, and fight the good fight for free speech. I’m on your side.
p.s. I too, embrace the right of adult society to view porn if they wish. Within acceptable parameters, of course. You know — nothing with girls too young, relatives too old, animals too hairy, etc.
By Brendan
August 10, 2008 11:38 PM | Link to this
I shall, indeed. I see, all the time, about how newsprint is a dying medium. Well, that’s true, I suppose. I take a lot of heat in my office for paying for something that is free online. But the cost of the AJC isn’t “breaking” me. And there’s something nice about having something tangible to bring with you and refer back to, if need be. (Psst. Hey Brendan. It’s called a laptop. Allright, Quiet YOU!, thumping the dissenting cybervoice with a print edition.)
Online articles can and do get modified. Sometimes that’s for an update, but other times it’s to make some sort of immediate retraction. But with a print edition, there’s just no running away from that. It is what it is. And sometimes, certain things just have to be said and appear in print. Not that everything in the print media has passed the “fact” checker.
Others rag on the AJC, calling it a “Pinko Manifesto.” Well, I hardly think every employee of the AJC is some far left wing lunatic. I’ll at least listen to the argument that Cox Enterprises, Inc., which owns the AJC, has a Liberal slant. Fair enough, if that’s your opinion. But should that opinion prevent you from enjoying the Sports Section? Or the Funnies? Or the Business Section? Or “Home Finder?” Or the crossword puzzle? Who knows??, throwing my hands wildly in the air, maybe the “Peach Buzz” or the “Vent” is the whole reason someone buys the paper.
The best newspapers are the ones which present all sides of an issue. I happen to think there’s three (3) sides to every story. One person’s. The other person’s. And the truth. But really, it’s just about freedom of expression. Freedom of the Press. It’s what makes our country great. Including the right to IGNORE some expressed opinions.
What I cannot fathom, by ANY STRETCH, is what would drive a person to contiually monitor someone’s opinion that they did not value.
Digest that one, yet?
Some people have it out for Cynthia Tucker. Others have an ax to grind with Jeff Schultz. Here’s a tip. Ignore them, if you think they’re so stupid and offbase. If I thought a columnist was a moron, devoid of any real insight, who solely existed to advance an agenda, I wouldn’t keep reading that writer’s column. What for? To read the same stuff, on a different day? No, I’m pretty sure I’d just skip that column from then on, avoiding the broken record. But, I suppose, some people like an opinion columnist to raise their blood pressure. They like it. They want to be enraged. It gives them pleasure. Who knew??? “Sweet Dreams are Made of These,” by the Eurythmics, is now starting to make a lot of sense to me.
By TC
August 11, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this
Hey Jeff,
Were there any positive notes from the trip or interesting information regarding Chinese culture other than they built a wall you think was unintelligent? Out of all the statements I’ve heard from athletes participating at the Olympic games, you seemed to only cover the most sarcastic Chinese bashing ones.
Although it failed to keep the Mongolians out, the wall at least had a practical purpose. Based on your intelligent logic, other ancient structures in the world must be brainless as well. After all, the Egyptians built a HUGE pyramid TOMB. And that hardly served a practical purpose. But it does serve as a monument that the Egyptians once had a powerful empire. The Great Wall might have been a failure in keeping invaders out, but it is also a monument that reminds us of the empire they once had and the human ingenuity that made this 4000-miles structure possible. And that’s something we can all appreciate as human beings.
By monica
August 12, 2008 1:20 PM | Link to this
this is why i left atlanta. good riddance to bad attitudes. enjoy the games!!