Usain Bolt cemented his status as The World’s Fastest Man in the 100m final at the Beijing Olympics. Bolt’s record setting time of 9.69 was .003 seconds faster than the mark he set in May, and it could have been better if Usain hadn’t slowed down to glorify himself the final 20 meters.

Physicist from the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo decided to take on the task of figuring out exactly how fast Usain Bolt could have run. The physicist analyzed position, speed, and acceleration using footage of Bolt and runner-up Richard Thompson.

From ESPN.com via AP:

“We estimate that he could have finished the race in a time between 9.55 and 9.61,” Norwegian physicist Hans Eriksen said Friday in a telephone interview.

“We don’t mean to say that this is the final and ultimate result,” Eriksen was quoted as saying in New Scientist magazine. “Instead, it’s a fun application and simple physics.”

A time of 9.55 would have rocked the Olympics, but I think Usain Bolt did the right thing. By slowing down with the record in hand Bolt has turned every race he runs into must see tv. The world knows he can run faster and is waiting for him to set a new record.

Team USA basketball got off to a good start in their quest for gold with a 101-70 whooping of host country China. LeBron James tore up the first half while Dwyane Wade was the team’s leading scorer with 19 points. Team USA struggled shooting the ball early but got it going in the second half to cruise to victory.

Yao Ming sprained his ankle in the game but he did return to the game. Before he got hurt he welcomed Kobe Bryant to China:

Team USA, China, basketball, video, youtube

A global ticketing scam has taken advantage of hundreds of people hoping to attend the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The phony tickets were sold via internet on a website with official looking Olympic logos that were attractive enough to sucker people from the US to down under.

From the Times Online:

The website, www.beijingtickets.com, is being investigated after the International Olympic Committee received complaints from hundreds of people in Britain, the US and Australia who had handed over up to £30,000 for tickets to events in Beijing, only to find the tickets did not exist. The IOC is launching legal action in a Californian court today to shut down the site.

The site is currently down, but it’s too little too late. The company has been getting over on people all year.

The website has previously been accused of fleecing British music fans in a similar scam. In March a newspaper investigation found that the site’s parent company, XL & H Ltd had sold non-existent tickets to Take That fans for concerts in Manchester and Glasgow.

There’s no word on how people that paid for the Olympic tickets will be reimbursed, but this once again proves why Joe Paterno doesn’t own a computer.

Beijing Olympics, ticket scam, Summer Games