Five-Ring Circus Is Winding Down

Which USA men’s basketball team will show up for the bronze medal game, the one that shows no heart and doesn’t care, or the one that doesn’t care and shows no heart?

Mer Valdez

Long Beach

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Should I feel bad that my job has a start value of 9.9 and that keeps me from staying up every night until midnight just to experience the Olympics on NBC? I am not quite sure if the opening ceremony has even finished.

Bryan Wiedeman

San Clemente

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How can Paul Hamm continue through life knowing full well that he has that gold medal only because of a math error? What does his attitude say about his character? What kind of individual cares more about keeping a bauble than doing the right thing?

This is a sad, sad world we live in anyway and particularly when the spirit of the Olympic Games is so badly ignored by someone who represents us. Paul Hamm can do amazing things that I could never do, but he is behaving like a 3-year-old at the expense of the big picture.

Brian Dzyak

Encino

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The primary question surrounding Paul Hamm’s performance in the Olympics doesn’t involve his earning a gold medal, but whether his or Mia’s pronunciation of the family name is correct. To settle the issue, I called the guy in Minnesota who brews the beer of the same name, but he had unfortunately been eaten by a bear and was unavailable for comment.

Allen E. Kahn

Playa del Rey

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For those of you who are upset about Paul Hamm winning a controversial gold medal, just remember Roy Jones Jr. getting robbed in the Seoul Games of 1988. Nobody ever gave Jones his medal back.

Rafael Meghnagi

Venice

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Whatever happened to the so-called superior top-shelf Olympic security corps that was supposed to be in effect at Athens? Apparently some security personnel let a clueless French ice-skating judge and a myopic professional boxing judge slip in and work at the gymnastics venue.

Meghan McFadden

Renton, Wash.

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In regards to Jeremy Wariner’s comment, “It doesn’t matter what race you are” when told “you’re pretty fast for a white guy,” I would like to add, “It doesn’t matter what race you are, but what race you won.”

Jorge Enciso

Long Beach

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I am tired of hearing about our men’s basketball team and its failure to live up to the Dream Team label. They had their chance and blew it.

I wish the media would pay more attention to a real Dream Team -- the U.S. women’s softball team. They absolutely annihilated their competition and exceeded all expectations with class and professionalism.

John Calabrese

Mission Viejo

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Maybe the Dodgers should consider signing one of the U.S. softball pitchers as an eighth-inning reliever.

Jason Nyhan

Glendale

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To the Iraqi Olympic soccer team:

You’re welcome.

Stan Kaplan

Santa Monica

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After watching the otherworldly performance of the Lithuanian basketball team against the U.S., would it surprise you to learn that other great Lithuanian athletes include Johnny Unitas and Dick Butkus?

Peter York (Yorkunas)

Ontario

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Gold medalist Felix Sanchez. Born in the USA. Raised in the USA. Educated in the USA. Trains in the USA. Lives in the USA. Competes for the Dominican Republic. What an American.

Bob Therrien

Mission Beach

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Bill Plaschke got it right in his Aug. 27 column on ugly Americans and amazingly he didn’t need to use an impoverished, one-legged, blind shotputter to prove his point.

Tiffany Weigel

Studio City