Rene Henry writes that he is surprised that Beijing Olympic organizers haven’t looked at pollution data at the 1968 Mexico and 1984 LA Olympics. He does bring up a good point. Perhaps people are more concerned about the environment now than in previous Olympics.

He goes on to write: “On a hot and one of the smoggiest days in the city in weeks, in the very first event, Vladimir Salnikov swam to a world record. During a press conference following his race, the Soviet swimmer, one of the best in the world at the time, was asked about smog. His response was that if this is smog, give me more.”