Clip of the Week - August 4/08

The 2008 Summer Olympics begin in four days in Smogtown, China and I'm kind of looking forward to them and perhaps watching some of the events.

I'm not a huge summer Olympics fan since Canadian athletes typically don't bring home many medals from the summer games.

Sure we've had some success in the pool and in rowing and kayaking. We've even had some luck on the trampoline and on the track but we seem to do a bit better during the winter games.

Of course I'll still be cheering for my fellow Canadians and I'm sure they'll represent us very well.

Over the years I've had some favourite moments from the summer games like Donovan Bailey winning the 100 metres and also the Canadian 4X100 relay team taking gold as well.

This year in Beijing one of our local boys will be swimming for Canada as Adam Sioui will swim in the 100-metre butterfly, the 200-metre butterfly and the 4X200-metre freestyle relay. I'll be sure to support him from afar.

You might find this odd, but my favourite Summer Olympic moment was actually the most controversial in Canadian history.

In 1988 in Seoul, Ben Johnson set a new world record in the 100 metre race beating rival Carl Lewis from the U.S. Of course a couple days later Johnson would lose the gold medal after testing positive for steriods but it still ranks up there as one of the most exciting races I ever saw. I remember my dad and I sitting on the floor in the living room watching it live and cheering and yelling out loud as Ben ran the race. It was one of those moments you always remember.

Years later, I don't blame Ben for what he did. I'm sure all of the others were doing it as well, they just didn't get caught.

Here now for your viewing pleasure is the race from '88. I wish it was the Canadian call but the NBC commentators were pretty good as well.