Beijing 2008 wrap-up: The it's official. The whole country is on a suicide watch edition

Day 7

Your daily Olympic wrap-up.

Notable Canadian performance: Ryan Cochrane – Ok, so we’ve established that Canadian records in the pool aren’t really that impressive (there is a feeling that if you put the suits in the pool without a swimmer attached they would still swim a 47.5 second free). But, Olympic records? I think we can all agree that an Olympic record is a pretty nice little swim. Although Cochrane only held the record for about 15 minutes he remains the second fastest person of all-time to race the 1,500m freestyle. Based on his performance today he isn’t a medal contender. He’s a medal lock (and gold, nah, I’d best not go there…).

Notable international performance: Usain Bolt - Good God, the man ran a 9.92 100m while reading a paper and having a drink of orange juice (or so it seemed). Keep in mind that 9.92 was the world record for about 15 years until our very own Ben Johnson broke it (and we all know how he did it). If the wind is of legal limit, expect the 9.7 second barrier to be broken tomorrow in the final.

The Maple Leaf Gold: Dylan Armstrong – One centimeter was all that separated him from a medal. That’s gotta suck.

Maple Leaf silver: Melanie Kok and Tracy Cameron – The pair’s lightweight rowers won their semi-final going away to advance to the final where they will be one of the gold medal favourites. Canada advanced five boats to the rowing finals. All five are in the hunt for medals. (prediction – We come away with four -- one gold, the men’s eights, silver Kok and Cameron, silver David Calder and Scott Frandsen and bronze women’s eights).

Maple Leaf bronze: Jessica Zelinka – The heptathlete had the second highest hurdles score of the day and finished a solid sixth overall with three events remaining. She would need to be perfect tomorrow to medal, but this is another athlete that will be a gold contender in London if she is provided with proper support over the next four years.

Maple Leaf tin medal: Pierre Browne – The Canadian men’s 100m champion was never in the race, eliminated in the second round with a pedestrian 10.32 seconds. Long gone are the days of Canadian sprinting glory, and that’s a shame. The Olympics are so much more compelling when you have a horse in the glamour event.

The WTF was the Ceeb thinking award: With both track and swimming going there was a lot of live events to show through the early morning hours. The CBC dealt with that problematic issue by…showing taped coverage. When the Ceeb lost the Olympic rights for 2010 and 2012, I was worried about what that mean for the coverage. I’m not anymore. The CBC needs the break beause it’s becoming very American in the way it’s showing us these games.

[rant] WE DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT GYMNASTICS ENOUGH FOR YOU TO REPLAY IT THREE TIMES. SHOW US LIVE SPORTS. I know that a lot of "soft" sports viewers watch the Olympics and you like to hook them with features and “pretty” sports like diving and gymnastics. Here’s the thing though…those viewers aren’t watching at 3 a.m. Only The Olympic nutters are and they’ve already seen the damn American girl do backflips many, many times. In this PVR world some of us actually are watching every second of coverage. If there is live coverage going on SHOW IT. You have the 6 – 10 p.m. EDT period to show the fluff. [/rant]

Honorary Canadian award: Gotta go with Bolt again. Seriously, 9.92 after shutting it down at 30m??? CRAZY!

Canadian highlights for day 8: You all have permission to freak out if Canada doesn’t have a medal by this time Monday. If everything goes to plan Canada could have as many as eight medals over the weekend. About four should be expected. The men’s rowing pairs is the first great shot early tomorrow morning.

International highlight for day 7: The men’s 100m final is one of those whole world watching events. It could be the most watched sports event in the world (The World Cup final might surpass it). Saturday morning. Bolt’s going to run a crazy 9.64.