Olympics: Spitz Upset at Snub As Invitation Fails to Arrive

The International Olympic Committee has "demeaned" the man who spent more than 35 years as the most successful competitor at any single Olympic Games. That is the opinion of the man himself, Mark Spitz.

The American swimmer won a record seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, adding two more in Montreal four years later for a total of nine. The overall figure represented another record, shared with Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi and Larissa Latynina.

In such company - and with the overall record always likely to tumble to the all-conquering Michael Phelps as it did yesterday - Spitz understandably feels he could not attend without a formal invitation.

Spitz would have liked to present Phelps with the history-making medals if he makes it to eight at a single Games but the IOC, swimming's world governing body Fina and even broadcasters overlooked him.

"I never got invited," Spitz said to a reporter in Hong Kong earlier this week. "You don't go to the Olympics just to say, 'I am going to go' - especially because of who I am. [Am I] going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record anonymously? That's almost demeaning to me. It is not almost - it is."

At least Phelps paid tribute to Spitz. The record was clearly on Phelps's mind as, on his arrival in Beijing, he even sported a mustache, which his forebear was famous for. Scrum for place at Games

Bernard Lapasset, the International Rugby Board's chairman, has been lobbying hard for the inclusion of his sport's sevens format in the Olympics. Fluent in Spanish and English, the Frenchman has used his language skills to meet about 50 of the 114 IOC members to press his case. Rugby has been promoting itself since before London's anointment as the 2012 host city in 2005. Ty Votaw, the executive vice-president for international affairs at the PGA Tour, is heading golf's campaign for inclusion. He arrives on Saturday and will embark on a similar tour of flesh-pressing engagements.

Football hits great wall

The Premier League's hopes of conquering China have suffered during these Olympics, where China's performance in football - beaten 2-0 by Belgium on Sunday, right, and 3-0 by Brazil yesterday - has sparked an avalanche of indignation. After the Belgium game China's Alan Green, Li Chengpeng, promised he would immediately end his involvement in any discourse on the China team while other reporters refused to cover last night's drubbing. In a nation of more than a billion the league's rights sale to a pay-TV station with only 30,000 subscribers, from where they hope to "build the brand", looks ever more irrational.American spin

The United States is discovering at these Olympics, as in recent geopolitics, that hegemony is ephemeral. Only the one-man mint Michael Phelps has averted an alarming slide down the medals table but, as its sporting dominance dies before the eyes of the world, good ol' American protectionism is insulating it from self-doubt. Whereas everywhere in the world ranks nations according to gold, media in the US - where second is supposedly nowhere - have been doing so according to the quantity, not the quality, of medals.Amazing child's play

The BBC has justified the decision to send a legion of some 440 reporters, producers and cameramen to Beijing at the license payer's expense by saying that everybody is vital to its Olympic effort. But the me-too impression of the BBC delegation was underlined by the presence at Phelps's press conference after his amazing history-making swim of a Children's BBC reporter and crew? "How amazing is amazing, Michael?" he was insightfully asked. "Amazing like Christmas? Like your birthday? Or like winning the lottery?"