LONDON -- Ten reasons why the Olympic Games actually begin Friday, when track and field commences at the Olympic Stadium (assuming they have successfully removed that big grassy berm and that multi-tentacled cauldron from the floor of the place). Please note: In addition to these 10, there are approximately 247 other reasons to watch track, but my fingers would bleed typing about all of them before a race is run.

The Hundreds

Late Wednesday night I ran into Carl Lewis, who was eating dinner with family and friends at a pub near St. Pancras Station in London. I asked him about the men's 100 meters. His response: "I try to stay quiet," but he added this: "Too many variables."

He's got that right. The Beijing men's 100 turned into a superhero movie, with Bolt running 9.69 while pounding his chest over the final 10 meters, foretelling the possibilities that he fulfilled a year later by running 9.58 in Berlin, by which time he was among the biggest sports celebrities on the planet...