Beijing 2008 wrap-up: The If you want me to do something ask me today because I ain't gonna be available for two weeks after that edition

Day –1

Your daily Olympic wrap-up.

Notable Canadian performance: The Air Canada official that actually used some common sense to resolve a misunderstanding. Don’t get me started on Air Canada. One day when things are real slow around here I’ll tell you the story of the day that I had to pick up my cats at the Calgary airport. I was nearly arrested.

And, what? We didn’t compete yesterday so what were you expecting here?.

Notable international performance: Let’s go with Lionel Messi, who put aside all the controversy about whether he will remain in China to score Argentina’s first goal in a 2-1 win over Ivory Coast. .

The Maple Leaf Gold: Kyle Shewfelt – you’re going to be sick of his story by the end of the week, but we shouldn’t forget that it is pretty impressive that he is competing less than two years after breaking both his legs. And, he appears to be handling the attention and leadership requirements well.

Maple Leaf silver: Dave Perkins. The grump, likely bitter that he’s not at the PGA Championship, somehow managed to make a Sidney Crosby reference in a story about Chinese table tennis. And we wonder where the stereotypes come from.

Maple Leaf bronze: Doug Smith (yes, I do read more than the Star, but, well, you know): Somehow it impressed me that his blog post from today was almost entirely about drinking and smoking. Now that’s a sportswriter!

Maple Leaf tin medal: Gymnast Brandon O'Neill. Injuring yourself two days before you are scheduled to compete in the Olympics. That just sucks.

Honourary Canadian award: The Italian soccer team. As a Canadaian soccer fan it’s easy to be envious of the damn Italians. They had the only real blow-out today, defeating Honduras 3-0.

Canadian highlights for day 0: Watching that flag come is gets me every time.

International highlight for day 0: The Glorious Chinese Culture will demonstrate why it is superior to all others during a sappy, touching and way, way over-produced opening ceremony. It will climax when Yao Ming, Liu Xiang, a ping-pong player we’ve never heard of, or the corpse of Chairman Mao (you just never know what tricks those Chinese scientists may have up their sleeves—although Mao wasn’t big on the Olympics, so…) will light the flame and even the most cynical of us will get goosebumps.

Note – because of the time difference (12-hours in Central Canada) a "day" goes from noon EDT to noon. Sports will be on the tube starting tomorrow night