THE OLYMPICS!.....Ambien coming through the cables.....Dopamine raining from the studios of NBC, the former Nothin'ButClinton network........

As insignificant and boring as the Olympics are, I did feel embarassed for the USA when I saw our cutesy, pampered ELITE athletes at some Chinese airport wearing surgical masks to ward off the "terrible pollution" that casts a constant filter of white over the landscape of Mao's Monument to Communism, Chinese-style......

Dudes...and dudettes....come on.....SUCK IT UP. While you are getting all this attention with your little toity-woity masks, real Americans are fighting, being maimed and dying in worse toilets than the one you will be merely playing games in......combat soldiers of the Marines, Army, and combat air-crews of the Navy and Air Force are in danger every damn day in the butthole of the globe......they put on masks only when some incredibly lethal gas is suspected in their area, or when they have to pilot an F-18 festooned with bombs to 40,000 feet where there IS no oxygen....

Our U.S. celebrity-athletes......can it get worse than this?

You're really trying to compare an olympic athlete with a soldier in a combat zone? Please. That's like saying: "C'mon NASCAR! Really?? Do you really need those "special" tires, "special" brakes, and that carbon-fiber chassis to compete? C'mon! The good'ole Michelin's on my Honda Civic would do just as well!"

The masks are only being worn before competition; not during. They'll show up for their events as ready as they can possibly be and that's that.

An athlete doesn't want to develop a hacking cough the day before the big race, and a Marine wouldn't want to show up for his first combat patrol with diarrhea.

Funny, I read the same thing as you and drew a completely different conclusion. I don't think the athletes are being pampered.

I think the athletes are being used as pawns in order to insult China. How would you like it if some Chinese guy walked into your house and refused to breathe the air in your kitchen?

It's really rude and China is right to be offended by the American snobbery.

At the same time, China does have a real pollution problem that these Americans are purposefully drawing attention towards.

China needs to do some housekeeping before they can be considered a good host, but the Americans are being lousy guests by complaining about the filth in the air.