Taiwanese player booted
A Taiwanese baseball player has been banned from participating in the team’s first Olympic game after failing a drug test.
Taiwan Baseball Association Secretary-General Lin Tsung-cheng said that third baseman Chang Tai-shan did not suit up for Wednesday’s opener against the Netherlands after the International Olympic Committee informed the association of the test results.
Taiwan is one of eight baseball teams participating in the Beijing Games. The sport is widely popular on the island and millions of fans follow the team.
We’re watching
NBC’s first four nights of broadcasts from the Beijing Games have averaged 30.4 million viewers during primetime, according to Nielsen Media Research. That’s five million more viewers than the network drew during the comparable period of its 2004 Athens Games broadcasts.
NBC’s audience translated into a 17.1 primetime rating, according to Nielsen data, or a 16 percent increase over the first four Athens Games broadcasts.
NBC’s primetime numbers peaked just after 10 p.m. when the NBC showed (live in the east, delayed in the west) Michael”Primetime” Phelps was winning his third in Beijing, and ninth career, Olympic gold medal.
In addition to Phelps’ gold rush, NBC also benefited from viewer interest in the slew of medals that U.S. athletes won at the Water Cube.
Through four nights, NBC Universal’s “family” of networks (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Oxygen, Bravo and Telemundo) has drawn 157 million total viewers (folks who’ve watched at least some Olympics action), up from 142 million during the like period from Athens.
The media company also said that NBCOlympics.com already has surpassed the total number of page views, unique users and video streams from the entire Athens Games in 2004.
Marathon champ pulls out
Reigning Olympic champion Mizuki Noguchi has pulled out of Sunday’s Olympic marathon because of a lingering left thigh injury.
The Japanese delegation announced her withdrawal on Tuesday.
Noguchi, the 2003 world championship silver medalist, had hoped to become the first woman to repeat as Olympic marathon champion.
The 4-foot-11, 88-pound runner had been bothered by the injury for some time and underwent a series of tests in Japan after returning from her training in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Britain’s Paula Radcliffe, 34, the world record-holder, told the BBC on Tuesday that she would race in the marathon in Beijing. She too has been bothered by a thigh injury.
More deception
For those of who thought there was something weird about Beijing’s flawless-but-sterile opening ceremony, well, you were right.
People suspected something was strange when the Chinese and Olympic flags blew dramatically in a breeze that did not exist anywhere else in the suffocating National Stadium.
Turns out, they were powered by special devices in the flagpoles.
Thinly clad
As anyone who has watched any women’s beach volleyball can attest, there’s not much to the uniforms.
And we’re not talking about the design. We’re talking about the amount of fabric. Centerfolds have been photographed wearing more.
But apparently officials with very good eyes detected something amiss with the uniforms that Mexico’s Mayra Garcia and Bibiana Candelas intended to use in their first match Sunday because the bathing suits were banned, leaving Garcia and Candelas subject to disqualification.
So Garcia and Candelas — who lives in Los Angeles, where she played indoor volleyball for USC — borrowed some uniforms from Germany for their first-round loss to Brazil.
According to the Mexican daily El Universal, the uniforms the Mexicans brought had three problems: They were made by Atletica, which is not an approved Olympic sponsor, and the Mexican flag on the front of the top was in the wrong place. And the logo of the Mexican Olympic Committee, also on the top, isn’t permitted at all.
So the Mexicans played Sunday in Germany’s colors, black with red and gold trim. On Tuesday, they were back in more traditional colors, wearing sky blue tops and white shorts, in a victory over Greece.
Associated Press
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