China goes the extra half meter

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images

Whatever considerable flaws China may have as Olympic hosts, you can't accuse them of not sweating the details. Just ask Brazilian triple jumper Jadel Gregorio:

His Chinese hosts, who are wowing foreign guests with their organizational feats, had already figured out Gregorio's 2.03 meter (6 ft 8 in) frame would overhang the Olympic Village beds and had tacked on a special half-meter extension.

They had also raised his shower head -- to as high as they could without lifting the ceiling. "These people think of every little thing," Gregorio told Reuters as he finished a high-carb pasta lunch in the Olympic Village, his impossibly long legs somehow folded under the table.

At 6-foot-8, Gregorio barely reaches Yao Ming's chin. I imagine his room must be something else.