DARTS & LAURELS: On gold, deserved, undeserved

Laurel — To Michael Phelps, for becoming the winningest Olympic athlete and setting a standard that may never be topped. As we write this, Phelps was a few hours from trying for his seventh gold, one short of the eight he hopes to win in the games that opened on 08-08-08. He was favored to win the 100-meter butterfly last night. On Friday — ho-hum — he captured the 200-meter butterfly with his fourth world record in four races, eclipsing records held by Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis among others to become the winningest Olympian of all time with 10 gold medals. “If you’re not involved in the sport, I’m not sure you can fully appreciate it,” said Jack Bauerle, who coaches the U.S. women’s team. “He is way past anything you have seen. He is incredible.”

Dart — To the Chinese gymnastics team, which used underage female gymnasts to win the overall team gold. China denies that it falsified passports of the female gymnasts but reporting by the New York Times and Associated Press has produced strong evidence that three of the girls on the Chinese squad will not turn 16 this year as required. USA Today columnist Christine Brennan noted that the Chinese squad shot ahead of the U.S. team after the uneven bars. “It really is an issue of the size of the woman or the girl’s body,” Brennan said on a National Public Radio report Wednesday morning. “It’s why figure skaters are tiny, it’s why gymnasts are tiny.” How tiny? The Chinese girls average 4 feet 9 inches and 77 pounds versus 5 feet and 106.5 pounds for the Americans. “That’s an incredible difference in a sport where such a premium has been placed on twisting, turning and flying through the air,” Brennan said. It looks like the International Olympic Committee and International Gymnastics Federation will do nothing. “They say they believe the Chinese passports and that’s that,” Brennan reported. This news of fakery in the sports arena comes after we found out the dazzling fireworks display on the opening night was actually a computer animation and that 9-year-old Lin Miaoke lip-synched “Ode to the Motherland.” Congratulations, cheaters. You’ve won the Junior Olympics.

Laurel — To Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, the head coach who we predict will guide the U.S. basketball team to the gold medal next Sunday. A lot has been made of the team’s defense, team play and focus. Who does that sound like? Coach K, of course. The American team no doubt has the most talented squad in the world but arguably so did the unsuccessful 2004 Olympic edition. Krzyzewski has made the difference. “We chose the team to fit the type of defense that we felt needed to be played in the international game,” Krzyzewski said. “We’ve been playing very good defense. That’s been the one constant — that and effort.” Both Duke trademarks.