What they're saying

By Compiled by Times staff writer

In summation

This is easy. So easy that the medal shutout and utter collapse of U.S. gymnastics could rank as the top 1-2-3 of the Kansas City Star's Bottom Five list of regrettable or forgettable stories at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.

Mike DeArmond, Kansas City Star

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At gymnastics, we had drugs. At the track and field venue, drugs. At weightlifting, drugs. At the pool there was frank talk of drugs. ... It was all drugs, all the time.

Michael Wilbon, Washington Post

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There were near-unanimous plaudits for Sydney's staging of the spectacle -- creating an event considerably richer in tone than what came to be known as the Atlanta Flea Market of 1996.

For all that good stuff ... the 2000 Games will also be remembered as games of charges and counter-charges, disqualifications and expulsions, all related to the vexing issue of performance-enhancing drugs.

Dave Krieger, Denver Rocky Mountain News

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There have been a few venomous moments during Sydney 2000, but mostly this Olympiad has been a model for how the Games should be organized and executed -- provided, of course, you can find a government willing to shell out nearly $2-billion (U.S.) to float this huge barge down the river.

Bob Ford, Philadelphia Inquirer

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Dear Juan and Dick,

I've spent the last two weeks in total awe of you dudes, smoother in deep water than Hoogie and the Thorpedo, tighter than C.J. and Marion, braver than Rulon Gardner grappling with the Siberian Meanie. So what if your Games bombed? That's show business. Sets you up for a box office smash in 2004.

If you implement my three simple suggestions, that is.

1. BRING BACK A COLD WAR

2. IMPOSE A DRUG TAX

3. RETURN TO TRADITIONAL VALUES -- The shame-free celebration of the male body ... was one huge Olympic moment in the ancient Games. Men competed naked.

Robert Lipsyte, New York Times

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They were an eternity, nearly 14 seconds, behind the winner of the heat. Whoever they were. Wherever they were from. I had to look it up on the scoreboard. Slovenia. Only Uzbekistan finished slower. I looked them up, too.

But there on the track, the women of Slovenia's 1,600-meter relay were jumping and cheering and hugging one another as if they had won gold.

"What did they do?" I asked a reporter after they left.

"They set a national record," he said.

"Oh," I said, underwhelmed.

He looked at me. "Everyone doesn't need gold for happiness."

That's how I'll remember the Sydney Olympics.

Dave Hyde, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

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The (fans') 24-karat anticipation never left this place. ... The games still have power over the Games. Away from the drug laboratories and scandal-plagued IOC offices, the athletes still own this event.

Steve Kelley, Seattle Times

Olympics cha

I feel so sorry for all the gymnastics girls. The vault disaster surely affected all the other rotations. Also, was the floor mat incorrect? Why did so many step out of bounds? Or did we only see those