Let the (smoggy) games begin!

Hello, everybody. Before we get to the Olympics, some sad news: Actor and comedian Bernie Mac, whose credits included "The Bernie Mac Show", "Mr. 3000", "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle", and the "Ocean's Eleven" movies with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, died this morning from complications of pneumonia at a Chicago hospital; he was 50. He will be sorely missed.

Now then...the Games of the 29th Olympiad in Beijing may be a day old (kicked off by a spectacular opening ceremony), but they wasted no time handing out the hardware. Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic got the first gold of these games in Women's 10-meter Air Rifle, and here's the real kicker: her husband is former Alaska Nanook Matt Emmons, who got gold himself at the last Olympics in Athens and is hoping to add two more this time in the 50-meter prone and the 50-meter three position.

Host country China got their first golds in Men's 10-meter Air Pistol and Women's 48-kilogram Weightlifting, while the United States' first medals were all in Women's Individual Sabre fencing. As a result, we lead the medal count with three followed by China and Korea with two apiece.

Of course, the one factor that's facing the Olympics has to be the pollution. Beijing is known to have the worst kind of air quality this side of Los Angeles (or Fairbanks when the weather is 30 to 40 below), and for the athletes and others getting around the area that's a big concern.

We don't know what scandals have been brewing this time, but both the summer and winter Olympics have had several. One of them was "Skategate" at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, which I commented on in a February 16-17, 2002 "Plain Truth." Here it is again from the Allen Report archives:

Well, well, well...After four days of controversy, "Skategate" during the Winter Olympics came to an end on Friday when the Canadian figure skating pair of Jamie Sale and David Pelletier finally got what they should've got Monday...gold to go along with the silver they already have. The culprit was despite the Canadians giving a flawless performance that should've won them the gold, the French judge didn't give a damn and ruined Sale's and Pellitier's dreams. They and the rest of the skating community were crying "foul!"

Now for decades, the Olympics have been known for incidents like these; all going back to 1980. That's when months after the "Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid, the United States boycotted the summer games which were held in Moscow. NBC at the time paid big money for broadcast rights, but because of the boycott the network's coverage only consisted of late-night updates. I guess that boycott definitely cost Jimmy Carter the presidency.

Then four years later, the games returned to America, this time in Los Angeles. We took part; the Soviets didn't. As far as Canada was concerned, we all remember Ben Johnson at the 1988 Seoul games. But when Johnson tested positive for steroids, Johnson was stripped of his gold medal and it was given to American Carl Lewis who finished second.

Let's flash forward to 1994, and the historic Nancy vs. Tonya feud in Lillehammer that resulted into one of the most-watched events in television history. All the magazine shows (Hard Copy, Inside Edition, A Current Affair, Entertainment Tonight) were working overtime on this, but in the end Kerrigan prevailed by copping silver. Let's not get to this whole "corny" stuff we overheard her saying at Disney World.

And now, it's Sale and Pelletier, as they're going to get their second medal this weekend; the French judge meanwhile has been suspended for misconduct. Let's hope the judges doesn't screw up Michelle Kwan's chances for a gold next week.

Major slips by Michelle Kwan have cost her the gold twice, first to Tara Lipinski in 1998 and Sarah Hughes in 2002. Kwan withdrew from the 2006 games in Turin, leaving America's chance at that elusive gold in the hands of Sasha Cohen; she fell and it ended up around the neck of Japan's Shizuka Arkawa. Sasha's second chance is coming up in 2010 in Vancouver, when the Olympics return to North America.

By the way...it was also at the Turin games that a new scoring system for figure skating was implemented because of what happened in Salt Lake City. No more scores of 4's, 5's, or 6's from different judges, there is now one overall score.

Anyway, we've only got 13 more days to go in Beijing, and you can bet Team USA will clear the air as only they can. So long and stay strong!