Today's Olympic story is the opening ceremonies. A Reuters article I'm reading now notes the "worldwide television audience" that saw the ceremonies, which is funny given that NBC's not airing it until tonight. It's like I'm reading news from the future.

I am interested to see who the final torch bearer is, but I'm not going to peek. I was going along with the idea of Kostas Kenteris, who won the 200 meter race in Sydney, but his current imbroglio (missed a drug test) may bump him. The next logical choice was Katerina Thanou, who took silver in the 100 meters in Sydney, but she's got the same problem as Kenteris.

Both runners have some history with being tough to track down for drug tests, and they were involved in a motorcycle accident hours after they were supposed to be tested (they'd asked for an extension for the test, claiming that they needed to get personal effects). It's a strange run of events, to be sure.

Add on to this that two players on the Greek baseball team (American citizens who qualified to play for Greece) were dropped from the squad for drug test violations. Not the best start for the hosts.

Assuming Kenteris and Thanou are out as final torch bearer, I wonder if Spiridon Louis has a great-great-great grandchild who could do the honors.