Finding Balance On a Dizzying Day

"I reached back for the baton and -- whoa -- it wasn't there," said Gay, who misconnected with Darvis Patton in a heat in which the Americans probably could have advanced if they'd run backward.

"It's been tough," said Gay, who graciously took "full blame" for what is seldom a one-person mistake. "This has just been a bad meet for us."

And it got worse fast. Torri Edwards seemed to slap the baton too hard into the hand of Lauryn Williams, then release it too quickly -- the opposite of Patton being too delicate in his pass to Gay. But who really knows? The baton pass may be the most deceitful simple act in sports.

"We're not real sure what happened," Williams said. "The stick had a mind of its own. It wasn't either of our faults." That's what the Titanic and the iceberg said, too.

Williams, however, saved some dignity by recovering the baton, then sprinting every inch to the finish even though she was almost 100 yards behind. "I knew I was not walking to the finish line in the Olympics," she said.

At roughly that moment, a night that might have been awful for the United States began to regain its equilibrium. In the 400 meters, Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt were prohibitive favorites; however, Merritt's win over the more celebrated Wariner was a surprise as the Athens winner simply found he had "nothing left" for the last 200 yards after a long season.

The treat of the evening was David Neville's dive for the tape for a bronze medal to complete the sweep even though seven of the eight men in the field had run better times than his career personal best. The Indiana grad who plans to be a jazz percussionist or a minister, didn't quite belong in that Olympic photo-finish frame, but there he was -- with one chance in a lifetime.

"I knew it was going to hurt," said Neville, whose full-speed dive brought a gasp from the crowd as he belly-flopped -- and a stretcher came speeding onto the track. The film showed Neville had won an Olympic medal by perhaps three inches. "Within 15 minutes, I was okay. I didn't even get hurt much," he said, fingering his medal. Bronze, in a certain light, looks a lot like a gold medal.

"For me, it is," Neville said.

In a certain light, the United States let a lot of chances for gold or silver medals get away on Thursday as China has pulled away to a stunning insurmountable lead in gold, 46-29, after trailing America, 36-32, in first-place prizes in '04.

The balance of Olympic power has not only shifted, but dramatically, and perhaps for a long time, even if China piles up many medals in obscure sports while the United States, by and large, does best in the marquee events.

Let's turn a brighter shade of light on the proceedings, too. Despite plenty of disappointed hopes, the United States got 11 medals in a day, and still leads in total medal count, 99-83; granted, that's far from 102-63 over China in Athens.

Perhaps America's days of clear-cut world dominance are passing. Maybe the time is coming when we must pass the baton between ourselves a bit more carefully and, when necessary, throw dignity and fear aside to dive full-length for the finish line.