Blog Archives

A Beautiful, Heart Warming Moment GEORGE BRAINE The two high jumpers, one from Qatar and the other from Italy, briefly speak with an official. The Qatari grins and nods to the Italian, who leaps on the Qatari, embracing him tightly, and spins around, wailing. He rolls on the ground, gets up and falls again.  Sinking to his knees, he picks up a leg cast on which is written “Road to Tokyo”, lifts it to the sky, and screams. The Italian flag draped around him, he begins a mad run around the stadium. Meanwhile, the Qatari, more subdued but wiping a tear, walks over to his compatriots, who close protectively around him. What is going on? Why is the Italian athlete going crazy? I am in Japan, obsessively watching the Olympics on four local channels. All in Japanese, a language I don’t understand much. So, only when the English news reports ...