Swimmer Michael Phelps smashed his own world record to take a first gold on Sunday in the quest for an unprecedented eight wins, but violence in the far west again marred the Beijing Olympics party.
Arriving at the block listening to hip-hop on his headphones, Phelps won the 400m individual medley final in Beijing’s futuristic Water Cube in a time that was 1,41 seconds quicker than the previous best he set just six weeks ago.
Watched by George Bush Senior and Junior and cheered by flag-waving compatriots in a capacity crowd, Phelps raised his arms after comfortably winning what he calls the weakest of his events.
”I’m pretty happy with that, it was a pretty emotional race,” said Phelps, who described the US leader’s presence as ”cool.”
Even if the lanky 23-year-old wins only half his eight race competitions, he will hold more Olympic gold medals than any other athlete. He won six golds at Athens 2004 and wants to better Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven wins at one Games.
Despite the Phelps phenomenon, the Games’ second day was spoiled by pre-dawn explosions and shooting in Xinjiang, more than 3 000km west of Beijing. Suspected Muslim militants killed 16 policemen in the region a week ago.
”Casualties of the incident may still rise,” the official Xinhua news agency said, without elaborating on who was behind it.
China says it has foiled plots to sabotage the Olympics by separatists in Xinjiang. Critics accuse Beijing of exaggerating the threat to justify repression of dissidents.
Chinese authorities hope the Games will finally put the spotlight on sports after a build-up dominated by accusations of rights abuses and concerns over pollution despite Beijing’s desire to showcase its modern face and economic might.
On the Olympics’ first day, though, a Chinese man stabbed to death the father-in-law of the US men’s volleyball coach at a Beijing tourist spot.
Georgia stays despite crisis
Beyond China too, distant crises spoiled the Games’ intended spirit of international harmony.
Georgia’s team offered to withdraw over the conflict with Russia in South Ossetia. But President Mikheil Saakashvili sent a message overnight instructing them to stay.
”The whole team has had hardly any sleep,” team spokesman Giorgi Tchanishvili told Reuters, saying Georgia’s First Lady informed the athletes at 2am.
”We were ready to leave the Olympic Games and we were waiting until very late for this decision,” he said. ”[She] told us we should stay in the best interest of the country.”
After Phelps thrilled the Water Cube, Park Tae-hwan won the men’s 400m freestyle to give South Korea a second gold.
China came second in the medal table in Athens but aspires to outstrip the United States this time.
With 14 golds up for grabs on Sunday, the hosts were well-placed to add to their first-day tally of two, with favourites in shooting, fencing, judo and diving.
Chinese diving queen Guo Jingjing, the supermodel of the springboard, steps up to defend her three-metre synchronised title.
If Guo, China’s best-known female athlete, retains the synchronised and individual titles she will hold more golds than any female diver. China dominates world diving and has a reasonable chance of winning all eight golds in the discipline.
Chinese fans are also focused on Sunday’s basketball blockbuster between the host nation, led by 7ft 6in NBA player Yao Ming, against a star-studded US team still smarting from its bronze in Athens 2004.
It could be the most-viewed sporting contest to date in China.
Women cyclists face a tough but shorter road race on the same route between Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Wall that the men had on Saturday. A third of the men withdrew from their race, blaming suffocating heat, humidity and pollution.
The agonies endured by the men’s cyclists bode ill for other endurance athletes, such as marathon runners.
At least there was light rain in Beijing on Sunday morning, cooling temperatures and raising hopes of clearer air.
Treading a delicate line between pushing China on human rights but not embarrassing its Communist leaders during their big moment, US President Bush worshipped at a Beijing church.
”God is love and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion,” Bush, who has criticised China over religious freedom, said outside the Protestant church. – Reuters