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You've Come a Long Way Baby - Women were not allowed to compete in the 1st modern games (1896 Athens). The next Olympics in Paris (1900) women made up 1.6% of the participants. As recently as 1984 (Los Angeles) women only made up 14% of the athletes. This year, women make up 40% of the athletes.   With the addition of the Pole Vault, all track and field events are now competed by both sexes. Women's sports mirror all mens sports except boxing and wrestling. Expect those barriers to be broken in the next few Olympiads. By mid-century women participants should be 55-60%, mirroring the world population make-up. Olympic sports currently exclusive to women are synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. Don't expect to see male versions of these very soon.

Incidentally, the Ancient Olympics did not allow women to watch the games let alone compete. All the athletes were nude. The only females involved were by the Olympian Priestesses of Zeus who offered the prayers and lit the torch. Of course, women did compete in other sports festivals in various city-states. In Sparta, naked boys and girls competed together.

TechnoCool - It's not new to the Olympics but I love the cameras that follow the divers all the way into the water. They are like the "rabbit" cams that give those crystal-clear pictures around the track with no shake.

Nit-picking - Though spelled Romania, Gary Thorne (Rowing Venue) pronounces it Rumania. Perhaps he's just caught up in where he's at and it's 'roo Mania.

Awww Commercial - Airing in Australia, McDonald's shows a swimmer ready to compete, then shows, "What happens next doesn't matter. She's already a winner."

Team Juarez - USA Boxer Ricardo Juarez's brother, Carlos jr nearly got ejected from the arena for yelling too much. Carlos says "I'm just trying to do my job."

Channel surfing - Syndication - Xena: Warrior Princess - Joxer is killed by Xena's daughter?

Sign at Bondi Beach - site of Beach Volleyball - "No ballplaying allowed"

Necessary oxymoron - Tom Hammond (track)- James Carter is ready for the opening heat in chilly conditions

Channel Surfing - Pay per view - WWF Unforgiven - Stone Cold Steve Austin returns and puts the Stunner on the man who "ran him down", Lethal Weapon steve Blackman.

Costas quip - after the running of the 400 meter heats - I'm a bit disappointed that Costas Bocanas (Greece) was a bit pokey

GM Moments - John Glenn's bond with Perth Australia. In 1962, the city turned on all it's lights to greet Glenn during his historic flight. When he returned to space in 1998, they repeated the greeting.

Channel surfing - A&E - Las Vegas: Gamble in the Desert - Former chairman of Mirage Resorts Steve Wynn says "Everyone who comes to Vegas makes fun of it. Then they come back and back and keep coming back."

Name of the Day - Zamolatchikova. She was the Gold Medal winner on the Vault.

Comebacks of the Day -

1) The USA Beach Volleyball team losing momentum and was given a red card for delaying (one point awarded to the opposition), bounced back to win the match.

2) Laura Wilkinson (USA) was in 8th place after the compulsories in Platform Diving. She won the Gold Medal - key dive was sticking a dive where she had injured herself in a previous meet.

Busch strikes again - a guy is preparing dinner for his date, when the main course, a lobster steals his Budweiser 6 pack. As the man chases after the lobster and sees a bottle of Bud outside the apartment. When the guy goes to retrieve it, the lobster slams the door behind him and winks.

Channel surfing and Olympic memory - CBS Sunday Morning - Bob Simon interviewed Abou Daoud, the man who masterminded the siege at the Munich Olympics in 1972. His main reason was to put Palestine on the map. Posing as a Brazilian tourist, he was actually given a tour of the Olympic Village by the Israeli team, giving him the opportunity to work out details of the attack plan. He said he is not proud of what happened but did what was necessary to get Palestinian issues into the limelight.

Medal Count- Djibouti still has no medals.