Faster than a cheetah, higher and stronger

'Yeah! She won," was our headline for the first great gold medal of the London Games. It was about the record-breaking 400m individual medley swim of Ye Shiwen and was drowned out somewhat by all that followed after a US coach suggested it was "unbelievable" - a well understood euphemism for drug cheating. The suggestion was that a maturing teen with freakishly big hands and feet couldn't swim as fast she did unless her performance had been enhanced by drugs, or even augmented body parts.

Well, my point would be that you're innocent before guilty and there has been no taint whatsoever despite stringent testing of Ye. But actually do I care? Her double kick in the last 50 meters, which appeared to be the key to her astounding speed, was thrilling to watch. I wonder when the days of the Augmented Games isn't far off.

I belatedly saw The Hunger Games this week, and I guess it would be a bit like that, in terms of TV technology, politics and the limits of humanity. It would also have a science fiction-laboratory atmosphere and to begin with seem a little freaky. But like Formula 1 racing, technological improvements would eventually filter down to the masses, making life better for those in need of help or improvement.