Setting The Bar High

Alexei Nemov. What an athlete! And it's not because of his spectacular routine on the high bar in the individual gymnastics events. Six, count them, six release skills in one routine. But the real reason he's a great athlete is because of what he did after the horrible judging fiasco that followed his routine.

When the crowd held up the next competitor, Paul Hamm, for almost ten minutes, booing Nemov's low score, he could have basked in the attention. But that would have made him arrogant. He could have at the very least ignored them. That would have made him a competitor.

But Nemov actually got up and requested them to settle down. And that made him a champion. That made him a man who competes in the true Olympic spirit. Who appreciates the true meaning of the Olympic oath where athletes "...promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules that govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams... "

It may be that already having won four golds, two silvers and six bronzes gives him a slightly better sense of perspective. But it's hard to ignore an act of magnamity and grace in an event and a week that has seen Hamm's childish I-did-nothing-wrong-so-why-should-I-be-the-bigger-person-waaaaah act and fellow-Russian Svetlana Khorkina's preening and complaining.

Talk about a "high bar!"