Beijing Even Has Smog Indoors

The air quality has been the hysterical pre-games story for journalists covering the Olympics, and thus far they've gotten a push. Sunday featured brilliant blue skies, Monday featured some traces of vintage Beijing smog, and I'm sure Wednesday will feature a rain of frogs.

Chinese smog is a different animal than your average smog, however: it's filled with lead, other heavy metals, dioxins, and all of the "dangerous" things that made our mighty forefathers great and strong. (Along with cigarettes, piles of red meat, scotch, voting for Eisenhower and watching Gunsmoke at least three times a week.) In fact, on a good day, one can hang heavy machinery in it, which makes moving all those construction cranes around a lot easier than you might think.

It's also different than American smog because American smog, while fierce in its own right, rarely intrudes on indoor swim practice.

When the Australian team trained for the first time at the Olympic venue on Monday, they were greeted with a cloud of haze, hovering halfway between the pool and the roof. Thompson asked officials for an explanation, but late yesterday had not received an answer.

Chinese smog: ask for it by name ... because it has ears, and can understand several different languages, and is coming to get you anyway.

(Also: nevermind the little terrorist attack in Xinjiang. Sincerely, the Chinese Government.)

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.