I had to Google Eric Lamaze's name, not being Canadian. I thought he might be the young Canadian who was one of the few non-Chinese to win a medal in diving, and I was embarrasssed not be sure of knowing his name. I forgot that Canadian kid's name, but I did watch and admire his performance at the "Water Cube" venue the other night.

Turns out Eric is an equestrian jumping champ. I'll go back and read the news articles that Google found for me, and look forward to learning his feel-good story.

But I have to admit that, to me, horse-riding is not only of little interest, but definitely one of those marginally-athletic pursuits that has little to do with "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ~ for the horses, surely, but not so much for their riders.

It also smacks of the aristocratic elitism that was behind the founding of the games and the original cult of amateurism, but which is deservedly headed for the scrapheap of history. This is an event, after all, that has seen Olympic medals go to senior citizens and Royal Family members. I hope that, when I read the stories in the Canadian press, it'll turn out that youg Eric is a working-class kid who went to his local riding academy on scholarship.