I didn't see Aly Raisman win her Olympic gold medal in floor exercise, as it was shown past even my Olympic-extended bedtime. But I did watch the balance beam competition earlier, and that's where I saw her gold-medal performance. Yes, I know she won bronze on balance beam. But until her shockingly low score was re-evaluated and raised by the judges, she thought she had lost to Romanian Catalina Ponor.
What did Raisman do when she realized she had lost the bronze? Did she cry, or swear, or sulk? No, she walked over to Ponor and gave her a congratulatory hug.
Frankly, I find the Olympics mostly boring these days, now that the competitors and their performances are no longer amateur. As a friend of ours, a National Football League referee, once said of football, "Don't kid yourself. This is about business, not sport." Raisman's display of good sportsmanship was the best thing I've seen from the London Olympics so far.
