Olympics: Rise of the new Power

And some blue skies...

clipped from www.salon.com All is right with the world, for as long as the world lasts, and I've even had a stroke of Olympic luck. But here, at my first gold medal ceremony, with the whole crowd wailing out a national anthem they once saw little use for, I feel like a very small and weak foreigner, unable to lift the load of this new history from my back. Maybe that's all sour grapes from a falling superpower. Maybe it's OK if new rivalries emerge, sporting or otherwise, to replace tired ones.