By the time you read this we will have passed the halfway stage in the London Olympics and so far it has certainly been a sporting spectacular to remember.

Because she is Chinese, she must be on drugs- James Calvert

We’ve had delightful mixture of broken records, stunning performances, heroic failures and unexpected triumphs. There have been a fair few rivers of Olympic tears shed, both of joy and despair, as you would expect.

In organisational terms things have gone pretty smoothly. Yes, there have been hiccups and glitches but nothing that you wouldn’t expect when organising an event of this magnitude.

Team GB, who I have been following with particular interest, got off to a rather inauspicious start by failing to win gold on any of the first four days. But then things started to improve considerably and they shot up the medal table thanks, in particular, to some brilliant performances in the rowing and cycling.

Considering they are the home nation and have had six years of fully focussed preparation, I have to admit I expected more. I thought, for example, there would have been greater improvement in the disciplines in which they are traditionally weak.

It’s going to be a tall order, but I still feel they have what it takes to reach their pre-games target of beating their Beijing medal haul.

Talking of Beijing, if Great Britain were somewhat slow out of the blocks in London then the Chinese were anything but. They grabbed these games by the scruff of the neck and don’t seem to have much intention of letting go.

The way they have dominated the diving, for example, is awesome. (At least we now know why Didier Drogba was so keen to move out there).

In just about every diving event they have entered, other nations have known they were only fighting for silver even before they got a toe wet.

But these first eight days have not all been fun and games.

Badminton, not a sport normally associated with controversy, saw four doubles teams disqualified for effectively throwing matches. The two teams from South Korea, one from China and one from Indonesia all entered their final group games having already qualified and knowing that losing would give them a favourable route in the tournament knock-out stages.

So they lost.

This is very reminiscent of when two football teams ‘play out’ a draw that confirms both will progress from a group. Only much more glaringly obvious.

The crowds were booing and jeering as the players went through the motions. The only way they could have made it any more obvious was if they had played the match with their eyes closed while facing the wrong way.

To their credit, Badminton’s ruling body got tough quickly, disqualifying all eight players within hours. And rightly so.

However, as uncomfortable as that incident was, the one that disturbed me most during the first half of these Olympics revolved around China’s Ye Shiwen.

This young swimmer, just 16 years of age, has won two gold medals at the games, shattering a world record in the process. Her performances have been so good they would have been enough to give many of her male counterparts a run for their money.

But instead of hailing this young girl as a sporting genius and revelling in the fact that we have witnessed a star being born, there was an almost instantaneous campaign set in motion to discredit her by linking her to banned substances. Never mind that there was not a shred of evidence in that direction.

For days all we heard about was how this girl must have been hitting the steroids in order to perform so well.

Instead of allowing her to enjoy the greatest moment in her young life, people who should know better, like a senior American swimming coach, decided it would be more appropriate to associate her with doping.

Where is the Olympic spirit in that sort of character assassination? Is it possible to act less sporting than to try and ruin such a special moment in a teenage girl’s life based on nothing more than blatant jealousy?

If Ye Shiwen had been American, English, German or Australian the world would have been hailing her achievements. But because she is Chinese, she must be on drugs.

Like all athletes, Ye Shiwen underwent numerous doping tests in the run-up to the Games just like she has done throughout her career. And never, not once, has she tested positive for anything. Not even an innocent sniff of decongestant.

Yet the accusations flowed. And frankly, I found them truly sickening. China may be a somewhat secretive nation, and their training techniques in some sports may be a little morally questionable. But that doesn’t by default make them, or their athletes, cheats.

I’m actually quite surprised none of these closet racists tried to claim Ye Shiwen is actually a man posing as a woman. I guess that must be an accusation these morons reserve for black athletes…

At times like that you begin to wonder if the entire concept of Olympic spirit is dead and whether or not these Games, like so many others in the world of sport, are just about winning at all costs.

Still, onwards and upwards. Week two promises to be a cracker and I’m certainly not going to let unsporting behaviour and misplaced accusations ruin my enjoyment.

They doth protest too much

One thing this first week will certainly be remembered for is the number of protests that have been made. Maybe I am getting old but I don’t remember the Olympics ever having been like this.

We had the South Korean fencer who lost her bout in the very last second of her match. She believed it was an unfair call and decided it was worth disputing.

Unfortunately for her, fencing rules state that if you leave the stage (I know that’s not the proper name but work with me here) then that means you accept the result.

So she was left sitting down on the edge with her head in her hands for over 90 minutes while officials sorted it all out. The result stood.

Then we had a protest by the Spanish waterpolo team who believed they had scored a last gasp equaliser in their match against Croatia only for it to be ruled out as not having crossed the ‘line’ (when it had).

They refused to leave the pool in the hope that the decision would be overturned which it obviously wasn’t. Serves them right really for employing Frank Lampard as their shooting coach.

However, there was one team for whom the protest system worked out well – Japan. Things were looking good for their men’s gymnastics team as they entered the very last part of the contest.

Sadly their star performer had an absolute nightmare on the pommel horse, dismounting in a way that was not entirely dissimilar to a drunken cowboy with his boots on the wrong feet.

That dropped the Japanese team out of medal contention. So they protested. And won. And claimed silver. And broke the hearts of the Ukrainian team in the process who had spent half an hour celebrating their historic bronze medal.

Effective? Yes.

Sporting? I’m not so sure.

A key Olympic moment

I said earlier that the Games had run smoothly in logistical terms. Well, actually that’s not entirely true.

One of my favourite stories of the week was when it was revealed that the police had mislaid the keys to Wembley Stadium.

That’s right, the keys to Wembley Stadium. Not the front gate or the souvenir shop, but the entire, three-quarters-of-a-billion-pound stadium.

How on earth do you manage that?

It’s not like these aren’t your average door opening devices. No. They are a set of laser keys that cost up to £40,000 (€50,600) to replace. You would imagine they aren’t that easy to mislay.

Apparently a squad of policemen, who visited Wembley to double check it was secure, forgot where they put them down and then spent days retracing their steps through the stadium trying to find them. Which they didn’t.

I can only conclude none of them bothered checking down the back of the sofa…

Nice one William

Finally, a brief word on William Chetcuti.

Malta’s shooting star may have missed out on making the final in the double trap event but he certainly did the nation proud.

To be fair, the conditions in London were not ideal for him but he still put in a very good effort and was only a couple of misses away from making the final six. A comparatively weak first round, when nerves may have been playing a part, ultimately cost him.

In shooting terms, Chetcuti is still relatively young and I’m certain he has a few more Olympics to go.

There’s still plenty of time for him to have his finest hour on the biggest stage of all.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade