Sport: August 2008 Archives

ALL IT TAKES IS IMAGINATION. Michael Phelps.

The Chinese press, in a uniquely Chinese way, refer to him as the ‘American Superfish’, but as Michael Phelps waited imposingly on the blocks during the 4×100M Medley, it was their imaginations - and ours - which ran wild with the thought of what might unfold in the Cube, a pool paid for by China, but indisputably owned by the great wide-winged American.

ONE RUNNER SHOULD NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

Pierre de Coubertin brought back the Olympic Games at the end of the 19th century. His vision was a festival of stories to inspire, the marriage of muscular strength with the creative imagination. “Every human being belongs to the great orchestra of mankind,” he once wrote, yet some, through history, have played their parts greater than others; among them, Emil Zatopek at the Helsinki Games of 1952.