Heroics and Cowardice at the Olympic Pool

Michael Phelps bags his first of what will likely be many gold medals:

BEIJING — Michael Phelps got one of his toughest races out of the way, and it couldn't have been any easier.

With President Bush cheering him on, Phelps dominated his first event of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday morning, crushing his own world record and all hopes of his challengers with a mark of 4 minutes, 3.84 seconds in the 400-meter individual medley.

This was thought to be a potential stumbling block in Phelps' quest to win eight gold medals after fellow American and good friend Ryan Lochte matched him stroke for stroke at the U.S. Olympic trials just over a month ago. Both went under the previous world record in the 400 IM then, with Phelps touching first in 4:05.25.

But Phelps beat Lochte when it really mattered. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary took the silver in 4:06.16, while Lochte faded to third in 4:08.09 — more than 4 seconds behind the amazing Phelps.

"I'm pretty happy. That was a pretty emotional race," Phelps said. "I knew it was going to be a tough race all the way through."

Curiously, the recording of the Star-Spangled Banner used at the swimming venue broke and stoopped playing before the song was finished. They better get that fixed because they're going to need it a bunch more times.

While Phelps was drowning his opposition, an Iranian swimmer withdrew from his heat race because he was to be matched up against an Israeli:

An Iranian swimmer pulled out of the Olympic Games men's 100m breaststroke heats on Saturday, just minutes before he was due to compete against an Israeli rival.

Mohammad Alirezaei's lane one was empty when the field left the starting blocks while Israel's Tom Beeri, starting in lane seven, finished fourth.

Israel, the Middle East region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, considers Iran its main strategic threat because of its nuclear programme and repeated predictions of the Jewish state's demise by senior Iranian leaders.

During the 2004 Athens Olympics, Iran's judo world champion Arash Miresmaeili, one of the country's prominent gold medal hopes, refused to compete against Ehud Vaks of Israel in the first round out of solidarity for the Palestinian cause.

Miresmaeili, twice a winner of the flyweight world title, still received a 5,000-dollar award the Iranian National Olympic Committee had promised to medal winners and he was hailed by former President Mohammad Khatami for his stance.

Beeri made no mention of Saturday's non-appearance of Alirezaei post-race.

The Iranian media, which is often given to flights of fancy, reported the story a little differently:

Iranian swimmer Mohammad Alirezaei has pulled out of the Olympic Games on Saturday because of illness.

The 100-meter breaststroke swimmer was carried to a hospital in Beijing, according to the Iranian Swimming Federation officials.

I'll bet he was carried, all right...kicking and screaming that the mad mullahs wouldn't let him compete because he might lose to an Israeli. Cowards.

If the Iranians can't face Israel in a swimming pool, the Israelis don't have much to worry about in the event of a war.