FanHouse Olympics

For a few swigs, anyway, he tried to have a peaceful couple of beers with his U.S. swim teammates. But soon enough, inside this Budweiser-sponsored party tent in Beijing, word circulated that Michael Phelps not only was in the house but was roped off within a VIP area in THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM.

Forget the economy, the war in Iraq, health care and all that other stuff. President-Elect Obama needs to focus on bringing the Olympics back to the United States.

Okay, that isn't the most important item on Barack Obama's honey-do list. However, Obama's victory over John McCain on Tuesday should have a positive effect on the games returning to America in 2016.

Chicago, the city Obama calls his hometown, is one of the frontrunners to win the bid to host the 2016 games. The Windy City is up against Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid. Obama has already pitched Chicago to the International Olympic Committee and may do so again.

Obama's victory was met with a positive response from nearly every corner of the globe. Like I said, the Olympics aren't the most pressing need right now but being able to win the bid and showcase the U.S. in this manner is huge. We have an image problem as both a player on the world stage and in the eyes of the IOC.

With the Beijing Olympics coming to a close this past week and the NFL season nearly upon us, one can't help but think ... how much would USA absolutely obliterate the competition if football was an Olympic sport? If Peyton Manning has his way, we'll get to find out in London circa 2012.



Yes, he's got a petition. You can sign it by visiting his "Make Football An Olympic Sport" page.

For the record, this isn't even remotely realistic, but it's fun to imagine the bloodbath that our football players would inflict on the opposition from around the world.

Of course, it can't hurt to sign it. We can never have too many medals here in America, land of Olympic dominance.

Hat tip: Steady burn.

So has your DVR received a workout rewinding moments in women's beach volleyball? Especially, the repeated NBC replays (YouTube) of the American women celebrating their gold last Olympics. Maybe it's just my husband who does that.

King Kaufman at Salon wondered why the women wear bikinis and the men wear shirts. I came across a genius ploy for page hits video essay at Yahoo! that explains this more than just saying "duh, so men will watch."

Basically, the short answer can be found on not-as-gratuitous picture on page 6. Beach volleyball Olympian Holly McPeak explains that though men typically train wearing board shorts and no shirt, for competition,

"[T]he governing international body for the sport prefers a cleaner look with their country, names, and numbers on their shirt."

Jason Kidd has a head cold.

We could pretty much leave it at that, but where's the fun then? Kidd missed practice Wednesday (all days here are Beijing time. I don't have my abacus on me to do the calculations, okay?), and said he felt "terrible" when he showed up for Team USA's media availability on Thursday night. He's not expected to miss the Olympic Basketball opener on Sunday.

Of course, Kidd's trying to not make it into a huge deal.

"I just came here because I didn't want this to become a big story," he said, adding that despite fighting the cold for three days he will be fine for Sunday's opener against China. "The rim is still 10, the ball is still round, so I didn't have to go see another gym. And I don't shoot that much, anyway."

The fact that Kidd thinks anything about Team USA's experience in Beijing will not be a big deal is a little naive, don't you think? This isn't just the Finals, it's the Olympics, and a comparatively big one at that. Still, you have to feel bad for a guy that's sick in a city suffering with severe pollution, and has to deal with a million questions about his sniffles on top of it. Now, I would still keep him as far away from the rest of the team as possible. Dwyane Wade has looked good, but the man's body breaks down more than my first car. And having Dwight Howard come down with pneumonia would just not be good at all. See how we made a whole little story out of Kidd needing some Dimetap? Welcome to the Olympics.

Even with pollution levels in Beijing at readings that even the Chinese find dangerous, a senior Olympics official claims that the yellow-grey haze in the air is not pollution. It's uh, mist.

Arne Ljundqvist, chair of the IOC medical commission claims that the pollution concerns are overblown by the media:

"The mist in the air that we see in those places, including here, is not a feature of pollution primarily but a feature of evaporation and humidity. We do have a communication problem here. Once the misconception has become sort of established in the minds of people, it's not that easy to get the right message through."

Right-o. And the excrement that comes out of cows is really heart healthy dark chocolate. Try it!

Over the next few days I will be previewing the races that will take place at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.

What to watch for: Freestyle, otherwise known as the crawl, is the fastest and most efficient of all competitive strokes and is swum in a variety of distances from a sprint to the everlasting mile. This event was made famous by Aussie Ian Thorpe, who dominated the distance at the last two Olympics and holds the current world record. With Thorpe now retired, the race for the gold is much more wide open than it was in previous Olympics.

What it takes: The 400 free is considered one of the middle distance events and therefore one that requires a little bit of strategy. An all-out sprint at the start will guarantee that the athlete won't have any gas at the end, but start out too slowly and there's too much ground to make up at the end. Watch for swimmers who settle into a rhythm after about 50 meters, but have a strong middle 200 meters to finish high in this event

Unlikely underdogs: Almost surprisingly, Michael Phelps is seeded fifth in this event, the lowest seed in any of his nine events and he is actually nearly four seconds behind the first seed. Keep an eye on Phelps to see if the 400 IM he has to swim earlier in the day will affect his performance in this event.

My prediction: Peter Vanderkaay is favored to win this event and will be swimming against some longtime Olympic veterans, including Klete Keller, Erik Vendt, and Ryan Lochte, as they compete for two Olympic berths. In the end, Vanderkaay will pull out another trip the Games and he'll be joined by Phelps.

With the news that Chicago will be the American bid city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, an interesting question must be raised: Will there be Olympic baseball at historic Wrigley Field?

Well, as we previously mentioned, the International Olympic Committee voted both baseball and softball out of the 2012 Olympic games in London. However, both sports have a chance to return to the games in 2016. Although Wrigley Field might be the more popular choice, the newer U.S. Cellular Field -- which has a much better parking setup -- might be the more practical one. Or, perhaps both sites will be used if baseball returns to the 2016 games.

If so, then the White Sox and Cubs are both in for one heck of a road trip. When the Olympics were held in Atlanta back in 1996, the Braves played 17 straight games on the road, as Fulton County Stadium was used for Olympic baseball competition. They went an alright 9-8 during the extended trip. So, do the Sox or Cubs fight against their stadiums being used so they don't have to go on a hellacious road trip? Do they defer to each other? Or, do they simply take what's handed to them?

The games might be great for the city and spectators, but probably not for the ballplayers who normally reside in the Friendly Confines and the Cell.

Previously at FanHouse:
Chicago Will Bid For 2016 Games

Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario (the plumber) will serve as mascots for the 2008 Beijing Games, and are coming together for the first time in "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games" for the Nintendo Wii and DS. In a related story, you might actually be able to purchase a Nintendo Wii by the 2008 summer games.

But finally, Sega's Sonic and Nintendo's Mario will get it on in a series of Olympic events to decide, once and for all, videogame supremacy. The game will include the 100m spring (advantage Sonic, because Mario is an overweight plumber), tennis (advantage Mario, since hedgehogs lack thumbs and cannot hold rackets), and swimming (advantage Sonic, since overalls don't do very well in the pool).

It works for the Olympics, because they get to pander to a younger demographic, while Bob Costas still handles the 70+ demographic for NBC with his endless features on the poor Lithuanian gymnast who overcame ADD and a hairy back to win Olympic bronze.

And it will finally help to build that bridge between video game dorks and sports dorks. This is about togetherness.

Read between the lines of the City of Los Angeles' bid for the 2016 Olympics and one thing is clear: the NFL ain't coming to the Coliseum.

The keystone of the proposal to the USOC is a $100+ million temporary improvement to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Among the upgrades are the return of the track around the field, a new level of luxury suites rimming the stadium and Romanesque shades like those installed in Berlin's Olympic for the World Cup.

For the Coliseum's main tenant, the USC Trojans Football team, the move likely means there will be no NFL renovations, and this, no NFL team, and therefore USC should expect to get the master lease on the building. It would possibly also mean the loss of some 10,000 seats, which may not matter if Pete Carroll isn't around in 10 years.

I have to wonder how "temporary" a $100-million structure will be, however, and whether, if, after hosting an Olympic Games, someone could argue that the new construction has become historic?