Silver Salute For Captain Canada

The ninth time really was the charm for Ian Millar.
But amidst the celebrations with Jill Henselwood, Eric Lamaze and Mac Cone — who combined to bring Canada a silver medal in team showjumping, the country's first medal of any colour in that event in 40 years — it was a bittersweet time for the 61-year-old Olympic veteran lovingly known as Captain Canada in the equestrian world.
Millar, if you didn't know, competed with a heavy heart at these Beijing Games. Cancer took away his wife, Lynn, earlier this year, but Millar felt her every step of the way at the Shatin Hong Kong Olympic equestrian venue.
"This one's for Lynn," a teary Millar told reporters after the Canadians had dropped a dramatic jump-off to the U.S. for the gold. "I had an angel riding with me, that's all I can say."
With a record nine Olympics under his belt, going all the way back to Munich 1972 (it would be an even 10 save for the boycotted Moscow Games of 1980), Millar had accomplished just about everything in the sport that has been his life. All that was missing was an Olympic medal and there were two earlier close calls, in Seoul in 1998 and Los Angeles four years earlier, when Canadian showjumping teams finished fourth both times.
There was no denying the riders wearing the red maple leaf this time.
"What a team," Millar told CBC's Erin Paul in the moments after the silver had been clinched. "I've been on many fine teams but this was real fine, this one."
Call it one of the greatest testaments to perseverance ever.
"I remember back in the early '70s when I had a disastrous Grand Prix, my wife, Lynn, said to me, 'Don't worry, you're going to be a late bloomer,' " said Millar. "That's what she said to me and I've always held that thought. And so the Olympics don't go well and I'd say, 'Lynn said I'm a late bloomer. I'll go to the next one.'
"And sure enough, guess what happened? I bloomed."
Millar might not be done yet. He has spoken of the dream of riding with his two children, Jonathan and Amy, at the London 2012 Games. It isn't beyond the realm of possibility.
But before then, here's one more honour Millar deserves. No matter what happens the rest of these Games in Beijing, the Canadian Olympic Committee should hand the flag to our grandest Olympian of them all for Sunday's closing ceremony.
Nobody would be prouder to do it for Canada, a country he has always represented with the utmost of pride.
And for the "angel" who has been his biggest fan and inspiration every step of the way.

Eight Is Enough For Phelps

A few days back, as Michael Phelps marched inexorably toward Olympic history, CBC's Steve Armitage opined the following about the American swimming giant.
"We are running out of superlatives," said Armitage, whose booming voice Canadians have come to know so well over the past four Summer Olympics.
Everyone found a few more, though, on the final night of the Beijing Games swim competition, as the U.S. 4x100-metre medley relay team — with Phelps putting the Stars and Stripes ahead to stay with a crucial butterfly leg — maintained its spotless record in this event in Olympic finals.
Oh, yeah, did we mention it was gold medal No. 8 for Phelps, breaking the record set by another American swimmer, Mark Spitz, back in 1972 in Munich?
"Seventeen swims, eight golds," Armitage said in summing up the remarkable achievement he had witnessed all week at the Water Cube. "The great Michael Phelps. Now the greatest."
CBC Olympic Prime anchor Ron MacLean went further, calling Phelps "the eighth wonder of the swimming world."
To NBC, he's been the engine driving a massive ratings success story. With Phelps on almost every night during the first eight days of the Beijing Games, NBC Universal networks' total viewership had hit 185 million — on pace to be the most-watched Olympics ever in the U.S., even surpassing the 1996 Atlanta Games, which attracted the largest television audiences of any event in history.
NBCOlympics.com has already generated 628 million page viewers, more than the total for the entire Athens 2004 and the 2006 Torino Winter Games combined (561 million).
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With the swimming competition in Beijing now in the books, a much-deserved hat tip to Australia's Channel 7, which produced the host broadcast feed at the Water Cube.
The underwater camera shots, in particular, were fabulous, often showing us the minute difference between winning and losing. We also enjoyed the overhead views and the slo-motion replay close-ups of the race victors.
Of course, watching it all in high-definition format was just the icing on the cake.
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Photo of the day: Debbie Phelps, mother of you know who, receiving heartfelt congratulations from Aussie swim legend Ian (Thorpedo) Thorpe after her son claimed his record-shattering eighth Olympic gold.

NBC's Ratings Dream Alive By A Fingertip

The man they call the Baltimore Bullet might just be human after all, it turns out.
American swim phenom Michael Phelps (a.k.a. NBC's ratings gravy train) couldn't have cut it any closer at the Beijing Olympics tonight, edging Serbia's Milorad Cavic by a scant one-hundredth of a second in the men's 100-metre butterfly to win his seventh gold medal in seven events at a single Games. That allowed Phelps to match the once-thought unassailable feat of another U.S. swimmer, Mark Spitz, who went 7-for-7 in Munich back in 1972.
Phelps was fourth after 50 metres, 0.62 seconds behind, and appeared beaten until the final touch. An overhead replay showed the remarkable finish, with the American's massive wingspan getting the job done in the end.
Even then, it still seemed hard to believe. Phelps clocked 50.58 seconds; Cavic 50.59.
"I had no idea the race was that close," Phelps told NBC's Andrea Kremer afterward.
Now the chase for eight golds in the Games of '08 heads to its conclusion Saturday night with the men's 4x100-metre medley relay (10:58 p.m. ET, if you want to set your clocks).
Hard to say who's more relieved about it all, Phelps or NBC.
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Speaking of that crazy Olympic time ...
Anyone living in the eastern part of Canada had to heave a bit of a sigh of relief when they saw the semi-final start times for the men's 100 metres, the glamour event of any Summer Olympics.
They're set for 8 a.m. and 8:13 a.m. on Saturday. The final hits the track at 10:30 a.m.
Not the best for TV ratings. Far from the worst for anyone left sleep-deprived by these Games.
Oh, and the big rowing eights final on Sunday, in which Canada is favoured for gold? Try 5:30 a.m. ET.
Get a head start on your extra sleep now.
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So Ben Johnson is suing the estate of his former lawyer for $37 million, alleging Edward Futerman took advantage of his "diminished mental capacities" all those years ago after the former Canadian sprinter went from national hero to national disgrace at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Call me a cynic — and I'm guilty as charged if you do — but isn't it interesting this piece of news hit the newspapers just a day before the men's 100-metre final in Beijing?
Coincidence? I think not. Desperate plea for attention? Might be a little closer to the point.