It’s time for a few quick observations about the 2008 Olympics.

Michael Phelps is of course the story of these games, setting 7 world records as he won 8 gold medals, the most golds ever for any athlete in a single Olympics.

He brings his lifetime haul to 16 medals (14 gold and 2 bronze). The only person to ever have more medals is Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina, who earned 18 total medals (9 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze) over the course of three Olympics (’56, ’60, ’64). Expect Phelps to eclipse her mark in 2012, as he is only 23 years old. If you’d care to see his astonishing 12,000 calorie-per-day diet, you can find it here.

Now I’d like to offer my condolences to Paula Radcliffe, the British distance runner whose failure to win gold is again a huge disappointment. Radcliffe holds the world record for the 10k and holds the course record for several marathons.  She is a tremendous runner. But she failed to complete both the marathon and 10k races in Athens in 2004, reportedly because of the side-effects of medication she was taking. Beijing was supposed to be her redemption, but this spring she suffered a stress fracture in her femur, and she was not able to recover sufficiently. She was forced to stop 19 miles into the 26-mile race the other day. Unlike in 2004, this time she continued and was at least able to finish the race, but when you are expecting to win gold, finishing in 23rd place is not gratifying.  At 34 years of age, we might figure that was her last shot. But then again this year’s gold medalist is Romanian Constantina Tomescu-Dita, who is 38 years old. And the next Olympics are in London. So I think we will see Radcliffe, and I am willing to bet she is in top form. It would be inspirational.

I offer condolences also to Terrence Trammell (USA) and Liu Xiang (China), two hurdlers whose dreams fell apart due to injuries. In fact, condolences to all athletes who worked and trained so hard, but suffered untimely injuries. It’s one thing to get beaten by an opponent, but it’s tragic for any athlete to be sidelined for such a prestigious and rare competition as the Olympics. As my father told me back when I was a hurdler in high school, it’s more honorable to finish second behind a superior athlete than to have him watch you from the sidelines, knowing he could have bested you. The most glorious competitions are those where the top competitors are all healthy at the same time, and can compete more on merit than chance.

And one final personal note, I’d like to congratulate a young athlete named Queen Harrison for representing our nation so proudly at the Olympics.  Queen has made it to the semifinals in the 400-meter hurdles. I met Queen very briefly when she was in high school. I coached against her — quite unsuccessfully of course. I remember wishing at the time that my athletes would stop being so awestruck with her athleticism and instead start being inspired to work as hard as she did. I also remember thinking that she would probably do well in college track and field, but I honestly didn’t expect her to go to the Olympics. Thankfully, her expectations mean more to her than mine do.  That’s what elite atleticism is all about.  I wish her well.

[Correction: I originally wrote that Phelps had set 8 world records.  In fact Phelps set 7 world record times during these games.    He did set an 8th record of a sort, by winning more gold medals than any athlete had ever done before, but that’s not actually what I was referring to when I originally wrote that he had set 8 world records.  I just made a mistake.  Thank you Scott for the catch.]

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