Bradley Wiggins’ pursuit is 4km while Sarah Ulmer’s is 3km.

Chris Hoy raced 1km for his gold medal while Anna Meares raced 500 meters.

The men’s points race encompasses 40km while the women race for 25km.

The men have additional exclusive events such as the keirin(interestingly, the women have a keirin in the world championships but not in the Olympics), team pursuit, madison, and team sprint.

Are the IOC and the UCI flaunting their inner troglodyte? Track and field certainly seems more progressive with virtually equal events and distances for men and women (although not without some quirky exceptions: men’s high hurdles is 110m while women run 100m, women don’t have a steeplechase, men have a decathlon and women have a heptathlon, the women don’t have a 50km race walk). Swimming has virtually equal events and distances (with the exception of the endurance freestyle which has the men swim 1500m while the women swim 800m). The triathlon has equal distances for men and women. Rowing has equal distances for men and women. There is near parity regarding the distribution of athletes when tallied by gender at the Athens Olympics, but when will women cease to be be insulted by having having abbreviated competitions? I don’t think Sarah Ulmer’s heart will explode if she rides an extra kilometer. I doubt her legs will spontaneously combust. Even though Hein Verbruggen undoubtedly yearns for the power of Zeus, I don’t expect that lightning bolts will smite her if she dares pedal beyond 3km. With Hein’s pervasive retro-ification of cycling I’m surprised that the women aren’t required to compete decked out in bloomers and parasols.

What? The Violet Ray is stuck in customs?…

I’m an Olympics junkie. Even as my partisan fascination with cycling leaves me somewhat frustrated with NBC’s coverage, I’ll watch just about any Olympic sport under the Sun. While watching the beach volleyball, the announcers put up a graphic which detailed the extensive support crew that Australia sent with their beach volleyball competitors. All the usual suspects are represented (a few doctors, a chiropractor, a masseuse, a physical therapist, a nutritionist) but the last entry in the list certainly caught my eye: the Australian beach volleyball contingent has an official, credentialed guru on the payroll. While I realize there is a valid need for world-class athletes to embrace the cerebral elements of performance excellence (I know people who swear by Tao-lite as well as Tao-heavy), my inner joker wondered what befell their team phrenologist, Violet Ray technician, and snake oil mystic.