A Classic Spectacle

In only two decades, China has gone from Olympic outcast, with just five golds in 1988, to a powerhouse, with 28 in the 2000 Games. China's athletic czars have promised that 2008, when Beijing is host, will bring the nation an unprecedented medal trove. To better its chances, China has poured money into lesser-known sports like shooting that offer a bounty of medals. "If we plan very carefully, we could surpass Russia by 2008," boasts Wei Hongquan, a publicity official with China's State General Administration of Sport.

Over at the Aquatic Center there were no Chinese contenders in swimming. And no roof. The steaming Grecian sun that felt warm enough to boil water didn't seem to bother U.S. phenom Michael Phelps, who raised the temperature a few more degrees by winning his first Olympic gold in the 400-m individual medley in world-record time. It was the first gold for the U.S., and as impressively stoic as Phelps has been in pursuing Mark Spitz's cache of seven of them, the weight of the first medal brought on his own waterworks. "There were definitely tears," he admitted. "I've thought about this every day for my whole entire swimming career." Pulled along in his powerful wake, the U.S. medaled in every swimming event on the first day, launching the 43-strong swim team on its quest to surpass its haul of 33 medals in 2000.

Much of this athletic output went unnoticed in Athens. Apparently the Greeks were not so interested in keeping the festival atmosphere going for the actual events. Several high-profile ones — swimming, gymnastics, cycling — played in venues brimming with unoccupied seats. The small crowds underlined the problem of slow ticket sales, which will hurt the country's ability to defray the $7.5 billion it laid out for the Games.

But in the Olympic Stadium Friday evening, even as the athletes took their oath, committing to a Games "without doping and without drugs," it was still very much a party. The brotherhood of man doesn't get many chances to gather in one place, and when it does, it's kind of hard not to be buoyant. So in between wondering if Palau is actually a country and — hey, looking good over there, Eritrea!--marvelling at the discrepancy between 7 ft. 6 in. Chinese flag bearer Yao Ming and 4 ft. 8 in. Malaysian flag bearer Bryan Nickson Lomas, the Athenians lit cosmic flashlights and shook cowbells and stood for relentless wave upon wave, proving in the end that people the world over really are the same. We're all kind of goofy.