Right on. Stefanie, I am so glad that you called Bob Costas out the way that you did. I get so tired of the pontificating of the announcers like Bob Costas I'm a former Marine, and I was a world-class amateur boxer, but I feel that too many fans take sports too seriously. It should be about fun. So thanks again for expressing my sentiments.

And I'll be honest and admit that this time, it was personal. The story about the Olympics was one of the best written framing texts Havrilesky has written. It just pissed me off because it praises athletes. You know how I'd like to see athletes? Six feet under, with tombstones marked with biohazard signs, in unconsecrated ground sewn with salt.

Athletes pound their fists into their chests only if there aren't any normal people like the readers of Salon for them to pound their fists into. Anyone who praises athletes doesn't know any athletes personally - or are being punched in the face while held in a choke hold by an athlete, and ordered not to say anything bad about them.

Sorry, but Bolt was showboating and it was obnoxious. I'm no fan of Bob Costas, in fact, I think he ruins sporting events just by showing up. And it was priggish of him to dwell on the Bolt issue, true. But he had a bit of a point.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that Bolt's behavior flies in the face of the vaunted "Olympic spirit," but it was at the very least incredibly stupid to slow down and begin celebrating before crossing the finish line in a race that is decided in less than ten seconds.

By how much more would he have broken that world record had he not decided to declare himself winner before the race was finished? It's not the wildly joyful celebrating that Bolt rightfully enjoyed after the race that seemed foolish, it was the shenanigans during the event that were foul.

I can't even imagine what its like to work for years with focused dedication for a race... to find yourself during that race so far ahead of the worlds best with 30 meters to go... I'd have done a damn backflip and clicked my heels in joyful exuberance.

Costas got it totally wrong, it wasn't about showboating, it was an unfettered display of pure unadulterated JOY! It had absolutely nothing to do with disrespecting opponents.

Kudos Heather. Right on. Exactly.

MGB, what possible difference does it make if Bolt beats the record by more. If he doesn't care, why do you? He isn't there to be a puppet.

And Costas? Is very very short. He seems to need his pseudo-superiority to keep his head above water. He doesn't belong in that job.

If you're a liberal who likes to hear how terrible war is while secretly jerking off to the image of the military as righteous, stoic noble warriors, this show's for you. It helps if you appreciate what passes for witty and deep philosophical thought in college sophomore dorm rooms. A show that navel-gazes endlessly about how terrible it is to kill innocents and blow shit up, while making it seem cool as hell to kill innocents and blow shit up, makes a great recruiting tool for the next generation kill.

Fuck yeah, Heather.

Heather, as usual, you get it right. Your column is the most entertaining reading on the net. Keep it up.

Now for Bolt. Winning that race was huge accomplishment. Why shouldn't he express outright joy at that moment? He is not a robot. He is a human being. The feelings that he must have been feeling at the moment could not be contained. So what? Don't we have more important things to get outraged about like the treatment of the Tibetans by China? Where is Costa's outrage about that?

I was the kid in high school that got stripped down to his tighty-whities by the popular/athletic kids, and thrown into the girl's locker room.

It's scarred me for life, which is why I'm busy posting on the internet on a Saturday night.

Please love me!

Well said. Is that not Costas in a nutshell? If all those commentators would just shut up and let us watch and listen to the athletes and the crowds we would all be happier.

De-Stroy White Boy.

the Jamaica Observer, said in an editorial Sunday that the behavior the IOC chief "sees as unseemly, disrespectful and immature" from Bolt is part of "the face of Jamaica we like to sell our tourists, whom we greet with song, dance and unbridled joy as opposed to a stiff upper lip, meaningless small talk and other diplomatic gestures of insincerity."

". . . he slowed down slightly, looked around him, and then, seeing that no one was even close, beat his chest with pride as he crossed the finish line. Naturally, to Costas and a few other pundits, this was a complete and total outrage."

Bolt is an amazing athlete, but an embarrassment to the USA AND the Olympics. A course in humility is in order. He beat his chest with conceit--not pride. His antics were despicable.

Don't even compare Bolt's achievements with Phelps'. Costas spoke for Americans in censoring Bolt's behavior, just as Boris Karolyi spoke for us when criticizing the abominable scoring of both men's and women's gymnastics.

America is clearly not behind its Olympic contestants this year. Are we so anesthetized by the numbing everyday world and local news that we can't share the pride and joy of the Olumpics? What a sad comment on what our country has become.

Costas was right. There is a difference between exuberance and showboating, and from what I could tell Bolt crossed that line. Hardly a tragedy, and Bolt seems like a good guy (he's giving some of his money to charity in China) but still a valid point for Costas to make. A member of the British 4 X 400 team did something similar (worse, actually) in a heat--a heat!--and was called out by the announcers too. He was a white guy, and one of the announcers who called him out was a black guy, and, like Costas, he was right. What planet is he from? No, never mind, I don't think anybody wants you to answer that one.