Finding Balance On a Dizzying Day

BEIJING

Inside the Bird's Nest, the U.S. track and field team didn't know whether to wrap itself in the flag and take a victory lap after a sweep in the 400-meter final. Or hide its head in collective shame after both the men and women's 4x100 relay teams dropped the baton in preliminary heats, knocking themselves out of what would have almost certainly been silver medals by week's end.

Everywhere you looked, a U.S. star like silver medalist Allyson Felix was describing herself as "devastated" after failing to win the 200 meters, an event in which she was world champion this year. But take a quick look around and you'll also find smiles. Why, there are delighted David Payne and David Oliver (of Howard University) celebrating after taking silver and bronze behind Cuba's imperial Dayron Robles in the 110 hurdles, the race China's Liu Xiang never got to run.

What happened in front of 91,000 fans at the Nest on Thursday evening should not have been a surprise. A stunning, thrilling, embarrassing and dizzying day at the Olympics left the U.S. team, and its fans, almost too disoriented to know whether to cheer or mourn.

No bigger favorite is going to blow a gold medal at these Games than the U.S. softball team, which had won its last 22 Olympic games and, after rolling up a 57-2 combined score here, was ready to take its fourth straight gold. Then a Japanese pitcher, Yukiko Ueno, who already had pitched 21 innings in two games the day before, beat the U.S. team, 3-1, with seven more innings.

The U.S. women's water polo team, ranked No. 1 in the world, lost in the gold medal game, 9-8, to the Netherlands on a shot with 26 seconds left. The U.S. team, trying to move from bronze in 2000 to silver in 2004 to gold here, hit the post with a shot in the last 10 seconds.

So, a bad day for U.S. women's teams in finals, correct? Not really. There will be few sweeter upsets here than the soccer team's 1-0 win in extra time over arch rival Brazil.

In the Olympics, especially in this one, you can only take handicapping and predictions so far. Too many athletes from too many countries are now too close in ability to pretend you can make meaningful distinctions at the most elite level. The balance of power in a sport can shift suddenly.

Few, for example, guessed Jamaica would emerge here and obliterate the traditional powerhouse United States in every sprint -- the 100 and 200 for both men and women.

When the island's Veronica Campbell-Brown dusted the slightly favored Felix, the United States suddenly found itself outclassed in speed by a country with one-one hundredth of our population. American sprinters were so rattled by this sweep, and the prospect of meeting Jamaica again in the 4x100 relays, that both teams disintegrated within 20 minutes of each other.

"It's just been one thing after the other at this Olympics," said relay anchor Tyson Gay, a pre-Games contender in the 100.