Olympic notebook: Chinese swimmer DQ’d in women’s 100 free semi

Chinese swimmer DQ’d in women’s 100 free semi

Pang Jiaying of China has been disqualified after winning her semifinal heat of the women’s Olympic 100-meter freestyle.

Pang touched first in 53.49 seconds earlier today, but was disqualified for flinching slightly at the start of the two-lap race.

That cleared the way for world record-holder Libby Trickett of Australia to get into the final. Trickett’s time of 54.10 was good enough to secure the eighth and last spot, which she would have been denied if Pang hadn’t been DQ’d.

Gasol defends photo

Players on Spain’s Olympic basketball team defended a photo in an ad showing the players using their fingers to apparently make their eyes look more Chinese.

The photo, which has been running as a newspaper spread in Spain since Friday, shows all 15 players making the gesture on a basketball court adorned with a Chinese dragon. The photo was part of a publicity campaign for team sponsor Seur, a Spanish courier company, and is being used only in Spain.

“It was something like supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way,” said Spain center Pau Gasol, who also plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. “I’m sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive.”

Point guard Jose Manuel Calderon said the team was responding to a request from the photographer.

“We felt it was something appropriate, and that it would be interpreted as an affectionate gesture,” Calderon, who plays for NBA’s Toronto Raptors, wrote on his ElMundo.es blog. “Without a doubt, some … press didn’t see it that way.”

Where are the crowds?

There was a lot of talk earlier in the summer about the rush on tickets for Olympic events by the Chinese people.

So where are they?

Give the Chinese credit so far. They have organized the Games well. But many of the venues aren’t even half full of spectators.

To be fair, this is a common refrain during the Summer Games. The crowds can hardly be called crowds during the first week of competition. They start coming during the weekend. And the momentum carries over until the closing ceremony.

The International Olympic Committee is concerned about the attendance, especially because of the way it looks on television. But the IOC also doesn’t want to say anything that in any way can be interpreted as criticism.

Most in U.S. back China

Most Americans think staging the Olympics in China was a good decision despite its government’s human rights abuses, Beijing’s smog and threats of attacks by militants, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The Associated Press-Ipsos survey found that, by 55 percent to 34 percent, respondents said the International Olympic Committee’s selection of China was the right choice rather than a mistake, a sentiment expressed evenly across party and ideological lines.

The poll was conducted during the games’ early days, which went smoothly, although an American was stabbed to death at a tourist site in an incident apparently unrelated to the Olympics.

Dancer injured in opening ceremony rehearsal

A dancer was injured in a rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, and Chinese media reports she could face a life of paralysis.

Beijing organizing committee spokesman Wang Wei on Wednesday confirmed the injury to 26-year-old Liu Yan, but did not confirm reports that she was paralyzed below the waist.

“This is a very private question,” Wang said. “I understand that she was seriously injured, but I’m not sure whether she is paralyzed or not. She’s hospitalized at this moment.”

The accident took place July 27 in a rehearsal at the National Stadium — also known as the Bird’s Nest — but was reported only this week by several Chinese-language newspapers.

3 Chinese critically injured in bus crash

Three Chinese were critically injured and a Croatian coach was taken to the hospital following a collision between a bus from the athletes’ village and a van on the way to the Olympic rowing park.

The accident happened near the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.

Australian rowing team doctor Greg Lovell, a passenger on the bus, said three of the four people traveling in the van were critically injured in the “major” collision. Lovell was treated for a minor scrape on his knee.