| Closing Ceremony |
[Oct. 16th, 2008|12:59 am] |
And this is it! I can't believe I posted all these ridiculous entries, many so late after the Olympics ended. But now it is over.
- Venue: Bird's Nest
- Commentators: Bob Costas, Dan Hicks, Mary Carillo, and Joshua Cooper Ramo. Much better than the Opening--I generally like Hicks and Carillo.
- TO BE COMPLETED.
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| Wrestling |
[Oct. 16th, 2008|12:45 am] |
I generally watched the Americans wrestle until they lost. Wrestling is kind of like boxing (and judo and taekwondo) in that you sort of know what gets a score but don't understand it at the same time. I especially don't get Greco-Roman wrestling. In that discipline, most matches go 0-0 into a "par terre" position. Often both wrestlers get a point for defending in that position, and the round goes to the one who defended last. This means that the round, and often the match, is decided by picking a ball out of a bag. I remember one match in which an American dominated round two but lost rounds one and three (and the match) by this arbitrary procedure. Awful--freestyle is much better.
- Venue: China Agricultural University Gymnasium
- Commentators: Matt Devlin and Rulon Gardner. Gardner may be an Olympic hero, but he was a lousy commentator. He would repeat the same things over and over and give no real insight, as far as I was concerned.
- Henry Cejudo of the U.S. won gold in the lightest freestyle division. Cejudo is the son of illegal immigrants and, as we were told by NBC over and over, once didn't even have a bed to sleep in. He seemed like a cool guy on Leno, especially when his mom surprised him.
- The U.S. got two more medals, bronzes for Adam Wheeler in Greco-Roman and Randi Miller in women's freestyle.
- Controversy erupted when Swede Ara Abrahamian, protesting an earlier decision, left the podium in the middle of the medal ceremony, laid his bronze medal on the mat, and walked away. His medal was stripped, and he was expelled from the Games, but apparently the Court of Arbitration for Sport agreed that the wrestling federation did not appropriately hear his appeal.
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| Weightlifting |
[Oct. 16th, 2008|12:18 am] |
I actually watched quite a bit of weightlifting and enjoyed it immensely. The athletes and crowd really get into it. In fact, I think this would be a great event to attend (London 2012, maybe?).
- Venue: Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics Gymnasium
- Commentators: Pete Pranica and Shane Hamman. Former lifter Hamman did a fantastic job explaining things and getting appropriately excited during the lifts. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed weightlifting, and Hamman was a big part of that.
- The Chinese took 8 gold medals (4 men's and 4 women's), adding to their large haul.
- One memorable Chinese winner was babyfaced rookie Long Qingquan, who won the lightest weight class.
- Hungarian János Baranyai suffered a horrifying injury--a dislocated elbow that became a Youtube sensation.
- American Melanie Roach was a highlight. She just missed the Olympics in 2000 and then started a family. One of her sons was diagnosed with autism. But she kept her dream alive to reach the Olympics. Not only did she compete, she set an American record in total weight and was completely ecstatic about her performance. Melanie was a great example of the Olympic spirit and representative of America!
- Her weight class was won by Thai lifter Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon, who changed her name before the Olympics because a fortune teller told her it would bring her luck. I guess it worked.
- And finally, one of the best moments of the Games: German lifter Matthias Steiner won the heaviest weight class. For Steiner, it was bittersweet because his wife died in a 2007 car crash. Steiner won by 1 pound after a tremendous last lift. He then collapsed to the mat in tears; later, he brought a photo of his wife to the medal stand. Definitely a Beijing highlight.
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| Water Polo |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|11:49 pm] |
Water polo is somewhat hard to watch on TV because (1) the ball is sometimes hard to see and (2) there are tons of whistles that make no sense. But I watched a good amount.
- Venue: Yingdong Natatorium
- The U.S. men were led by Terry Schroeder, former player and model for the male athlete statue at the L.A. Coliseum. He managed to bring the team back from a bad few years.
- The first signs of something special came when the U.S. beat Italy. They lost to eventual bronze medalist Serbia, but they upset favorites Croatia. They actually earned a bye to the semis, where they then beat Serbia! Unfortunately, Hungary defeated them, but for this team, silver was quite the Cinderella story.
- On the other hand, the U.S. women were a heavy favorite. But they were upset by the Netherlands in the final.
- Overall, U.S. team sports were a HUGE success at these Olympics!
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| Volleyball |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|11:29 pm] |
Beach volleyball was again a major event on NBC, which makes sense because the Americans did very well. Indoor volleyball wasn't often featured in prime time, but it got plenty of coverage (often live in late night), and was the final event shown before the closing ceremony.
- Venues: Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground (beach), Capital Indoor Stadium and Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium (indoor)
- Commentators: Chris Marlowe, Karch Kiraly, and Heather Cox (beach). Marlowe and Kiraly did a great job as usual. Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett (indoor).
- Favorites Todd Rogers ("The Professor") and Phil Dalhausser ("The Thin Beast") were upset in their first match by the unheralded Latvians. Luckily, they turned it around to make the elimination round.
- To get to the finals, Rogers and Dalhausser had to beat an oddly named team: Brazilians Renato "Geor" Gomes and Jorge "Gia" Terceiro, who now compete for...Georgia! Yep, they went by just "Geor" and "Gia."
- Brazilians Márcio and Fábio defeated their favored countryman Ricardo and Emanuel (the eventual bronze medalists) to reach the final. There they barely lost the first set to Rogers and Dalhausser and took the second set. But in the third, Dalhausser became a dominant blocking force, getting a bunch in a row (very cool!) to get the gold.
- On the women's side, the Americans didn't have so much trouble. That's because they were Misty May (-Treanor) and Kerri Walsh! My favorite girls dominated again, not losing a single set en route to a second gold medal. In the final, they had to defeat a hometown team in the pouring rain, but they prevailed. China took bronze as well...seriously?!
- Misty scattered her mom's ashes on the court again after the win.
- Misty and Kerri also had a big fan present early on--President Bush, who was playing volleyball with them and apparently slapping Misty on the back or ass...WHAT?
- Misty was also adorable doing a ridiculous dance on the Great Wall...and wearing a huge colored wig while watching the men play.
- Yes, these girls are awesome.
- The U.S. men's volleyball team was struck with tragedy on day 1 of competition. Head coach Hugh McCutcheon's father-in-law and mother-in-law were attacked by a random lunatic (who then jumped to his death). The father-in-law later died of his stab wounds, but the mother-in-law recovered. McCutcheon was away from the team for a while.
- The team, led by (great name) Lloy Ball, must have been inspired or something, as they went 5-0 in pool play.
- They then made it to the semis, won a great match against Russia, and then took on Brazil for gold. And won! This was the last event NBC showed, and I was already spoiled. But it was still great to see--I never imagined such a happy ending, even though it was still shrouded in tragedy.
- Meanwhile, the women's team, led by former Chinese player "Jenny" Lang Ping, went 4-1 in pool play, losing only to Cuba. But then they beat Cuba in the semis to advance to the final!
- Unfortunately, they couldn't complete the volleyball sweep, losing to the Brazilians. But still, a great performance, the best since another silver in 1984.
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| Triathlon |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|11:22 pm] |
Triathlon came and went so fast! But I managed to watch a good portion of the races, sometimes too much (since they showed them in their often boring entirety).
- Venue: Ming Tomb Reservoir Triathlon Venue
- Aussie Emma Snowsill wasn't selected for the 2004 team, but in 2008 she managed to hold off rival Vanessa Fernandes for gold. Another Aussie got bronze.
- In the men's race, there was a thrilling finish as underdog German Jan Frodeno, discounted by the announcers until the last second, outsprinted all the favorites to win gold! Fun ending.
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| Tennis |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|10:48 pm] |
USA showed a lot of live tennis early in the mornings. I couldn't really watch all of this, but I did watch the complete men's singles and women's doubles finals by fast-forwarding between points!
- Venue: Olympic Green Tennis Court
- In men's singles, Roger Federer continued his slide by losing to American James Blake in the quarterfinals.
- Blake, however, lost in the semifinals to Fernando Gonzalez, blowing three match points. A controversy erupted when Blake felt (correctly) that a shot he hit out actually hit Gonzalez' racket. He believed Gonzalez should have alerted the referee due to the honorable nature of tennis. Blake then lost in the bronze medal match.
- Rafael Nadal continued his fantastic year by beating Gonzalez for gold.
- In women's singles, both Williams sisters were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
- Russia swept all three medals, led by Elena Dementieva.
- Roger Federer got redemption in men's doubles. He and partner Stanislas Wawrinka upset the favorite Bryan brothers (of the U.S.) in the semifinals, then went on to win gold--and Federer's first Olympic medal. Mike and Bob Bryan recovered for bronze.
- In women's doubles, Venus and Serena Williams got their own redemption, winning gold pretty handily. It was fun to see these two great tennis champs get so excited about winning (another) Olympic medal--they were really into it, talking about how they used to watch the Olympics on TV as kids and were proud to represent the U.S.! Way to go, girls! (Nadal and Federer were also very excited about winning.)
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| Taekwondo |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|10:33 pm] |
Taekwondo was one of the three sports not shown on TV. I caught exactly one match online, and apparently I was a curse...
- Venue: Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium
- For the U.S., the Lopez siblings were impressive. Mark won silver, while Steven and Diana won bronze. (Their older brother Jean is their coach.) It was the first time since 1904 that three siblings have been on the same Olympic team.
- Steven, however, had won gold at the previous two Olympics. He also hadn't lost since 2002. He had been up 2-1 in the quarterfinals, but the match was sent into OT after a controversial penalty call. Then he lost. Yep, this is the match I watched live. (I had no idea what was happening.)
- The U.S. tried to protest but were refused. They complained because they were apparently pressured into signing a document that said they wouldn't protest at the Olympics. They claimed the international federation (run by Koreans) wanted to put on a "pristine" image at the Games, instead of trying to get things right. Apparently taekwondo is as controversial as boxing.
- After Angel Matos of Cuba was disqualified for taking too much injury time, he took matters into his own hands, er, feet--he kicked the referee in the face! He and his coach were then banned for life, but Fidel Castro supported them...shocker.
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| Table Tennis |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|10:21 pm] |
Table tennis got a lot of coverage on NBC--maybe they are trying to inspire Americans, since it is one of the three sports in which we have never medaled!
- Venue: Peking University Gymnasium
- Doubles was replaced with an odd team competition. Each team had three members, and they played up to five matches (first to win three won the whole contest). The first two were singles, the third doubles, and the last two (if necessary) were singles.
- As expected, China dominated, winning both team golds as well as sweeping the medals in both singles competitions. And they want to get rid of softball because it's not competitive?!
- The U.S. women (all of Chinese descent) did quite well, going 2-1 and making it to the round before the bronze medal match. They lost to the defensive-minded (and boring to watch) South Koreans.
- The men's singles winner, Ma Lin, had choked away a big lead at the 2007 Worlds. After the match, he found out his grandfather had committed suicide--no one had told him, but he sensed something wrong anyway.
- American Wang Chen made it all the way to the quarterfinals in women's singles, the best ever performance by an American. Gao Jun was eliminated a round earlier.
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| Synchronized Swimming |
[Oct. 4th, 2008|10:15 pm] |
I watched a handful of synchro routines, but not as many as 2004 when Victoria was here.
- Venue: Water Cube
- In the duet, Russia won, followed by Spain and Japan, with China, the U.S., and Canada after them. Wasn't the U.S. once good at this sport?
- The same six teams did the best in the team competition. Russia and Spain got gold and silver, but China got bronze--making this another sport they (successfully) put a lot of effort into. Canada took fourth, followed by the U.S. and Japan, who received a penalty for touching the bottom!
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| Swimming |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|10:05 pm] |
The biggest event of the 2008 Games. Kudos to NBC for using their influence to get swimming in the morning, so we could watch it live. They knew they had a real life drama with Michael Phelps' continuing quest for eight gold medals, and man, did it deliver!
- Venues: Water Cube (pool) and Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park (open water)
- Commentators: Dan Hicks, Rowdy Gaines, and Andrea Kremer (pool); Craig Hummer and Rowdy Gaines (open water). Dan and Rowdy are one of the best Olympic duos--especially Rowdy, whose voice gets really high whenever something exciting happens!
- Phelps won his first gold easily (over 2 seconds) in the M 400 IM. Hungarian László Cseh took silver. Ryan Lochte of the U.S. got fourth.
- Park Tae-Hwan won South Korea's first swimming medal with gold in the M 400 free. American Larsen Jensen got bronze.
- In the women's 400 IM, Stephanie Rice of Australia won gold, Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe silver, and American Katie Hoff bronze. Rice took the WR from Hoff, who maybe was a bit disappointing? (Don't say that to Victoria.)
- The Netherlands beat out the U.S. (silver) and Australia (bronze) in the W 4x100 free. The U.S. team contained Natalie Coughlin (who has won a medal in every Olympic event she's entered) and Dara Torres (who is 41).
- The W 100 fly was won by Aussie Libby Trickett, while American Christine Magnuson took silver.
- Brendan Hansen had a chance to avenge his Athens loss to Kosuke Kitajima in the M 100 breast, but he sucked and got fifth. Kitajima won again.
- The W 400 free contained drama. Defending champ Laure Manaudou lived a tabloid lifestyle after her win in Athens. After she broke up with her boyfriend, lewd pictures of her appeared online, and her boyfriend started dating rival Federica Pellegrini. Neither finished in the medals. Instead, Katie Hoff blew a lead at the last second to settle for silver.
- The M 4x100 free was probably the best event of the entire Olympics. The final team consisted of Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones (an African-American in a sport devoid of them), and Jason Lezak. This was Phelps' toughest event in the chance for eight golds, partially because he didn't have all the control. In the leadoff leg, Phelps set an American record, and Eamon Sullivan set the WR. Going into the last leg, the French had a second lead over the Americans, with (previous) WR holder Alain Bernard up for the French. Bernard had previously said, “The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for.” Well, that must have fired up Lezak, because he swam the fastest relay split in history to come back for the win. A great race in its own right, but by keeping the Phelps story alive after such an early scare, even better. Even Rowdy got into it, mocking the French: "Who's talking now?" The image of Phelps screaming with delight is one of the iconic ones of the whole games, but it's Lezak who was the hero here.
- Phelps had an easier time winning the M 200 free over Park Tae-Hwan and Peter Vanderkaay (whom Victoria's brother used to swim against in HS).
- In the W 100m back, Natalie Coughlin seemed to have trouble staying straight in her lane, but she managed to get the gold, beating out Kirsty Coventry (having a great Olympics) and American teammate Margaret Hoelzer, former roommate of Coventry.
- The U.S. went 1-2 in the M 100 back, as easy-going Aaron Piersol defended gold and Matt Grevers took silver.
- Aussie Leisel Jones finally got an individual gold in the W 100 breast. American Rebecca Soni got silver.
- Katie Hoff only got fourth in the W 200 free, leading to more charges of disappointment (from me). Federica Pellegrini took gold.
- Phelps again beat Cseh--but not by as much this time--in the M 200 fly. He got water in his goggles during the race and couldn't see.
- In the W 200 IM, Stephanie Rice again took gold, Coventry silver, and an American bronze--but this time it was Coughlin. Hoff got fourth (again).
- The Americans won the M 4x200 free relay as well, but that was MUCH easier than the 4x100. Five golds for Phelps.
- Hansen didn't even qualify for the team in the M 200 breast, and Kitajima defended that title too.
- China went 1-2 in the W 200 fly. What, they can swim too? This was a slight lull in American swimming dominance.
- In the M 100 free, Alain Bernard got some redemption, beating out Eamon Sullivan for gold. Jason Lezak tied for bronze.
- The U.S. (including Coughlin and Hoff) got bronze in the W 4x200 free relay, behind Australia and China. It was Stephanie Rice's third gold medal.
- Rebecca Soni beat out Leisel Jones (silver) in the W 200 breast.
- In the M 200 back, Ryan Lochte got his first individual gold, beating out defending champ Piersol, who got silver.
- In the M 200 IM, Phelps got gold #6, beating out Cseh again. And Lochte got bronze...again.
- In the W 100 free, Britta Steffen of Germany beat out Trickett (silver) and Coughlin (bronze, always medaling!).
- In the W 200 back, Kirsty Coventry finally got a gold, beating out former roommate Hoelzer (silver).
- In the M 100 fly, Phelps went for gold #7. I was behind real time and had been called by everyone in my family, so I knew something interesting happened--I hoped he wouldn't lose! He seemed about to as he got to the wall just after Serbian Milorad Čavić. Or did he? The sensor came up with Phelps first--by 0.01 second!! I went crazy, Phelps went crazy, Rowdy went crazy, and Mrs. Phelps disappeared behind another spectator. (She originally was watching the board holding up 2 fingers.) Replays still made it look like Phelps lost (which the Serbians used to protest), but a great photo from SI showed that Phelps did indeed touch first. Čavić glided too long, and Phelps took an extra half stroke--both mistakes, but Phelps got luckiest. Wow, what drama!
- Janet Evans' 19-year-old WR in the W 800 free was finally beaten by gold medalist Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain.
- The M 50 free was won not by Bernard (bronze) or Sullivan (a disappointing sixth), but by César Cielo Filho of Brazil.
- In the W "splash and dash," Dara Torres almost defied age to win gold...and then lost by 0.01 second to Steffen! Poor Dara still has no individual gold, but what an accomplishment anyway! And she was a class act, going over to an official during the semifinal introductions to let them know a competitor's suit had ripped and she was changing. Maybe it was a little overplayed by Dan and Rowdy, but it was still nice.
- Aussie Grant Hackett failed to threepeat in the M 1500 free, getting silver behind Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia.
- The U.S. (featuring Coughlin, Soni, Christine Magnuson, and Torres--almost right after her 50 free race) took second to Australia in the 4x100 medley relay.
- And in the final event, Peirsol, Hansen, and Lezak helped Phelps get record gold #8! Woo hoo! I love the medley relays, by the way--they are like a greatest hits of the meet.
- And on a non-medal note: American swimmer Eric Shanteau was diagnosed with testicular cancer, but came to the Olympics before having surgery so he could live his dream.
- Open-water swimming was new to these Olympics and TOTALLY BORING. Unlike a long foot or bike race, you can't even see the people--they are just blobs in the water.
- The women's race featured amputee Natalie du Toit, who competed in both the Olympics and Paralympics. She finished 16th of 24.
- Before I finish--I have to mention how weird "feeding stations" are in open-water swimming.
The end! |
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| Softball |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|09:51 pm] |
I only watched the gold medal game in full, and maybe I shouldn't have bothered.
- Venue: Fengtai Softball Field
- The U.S. rolled through their preliminary games with a 53-1 run differential. Three of their games were no-hitters (two mercy-shortened), and one of those was a perfect game.
- In the semifinals, they had trouble with Japanese star pitcher Yukiko Ueno. They finally won 4-1 in the 9th (extra) inning.
- After those nine innings, Ueno went on to pitch 12 more ON THE SAME DAY in a close game against Australia, letting Japan get a second chance at the U.S. in the gold medal game.
- Ueno then pitched again the next day against the U.S. as Japan went on to upset them 3-1. What a terrible loss for the Americans.
- After the loss, the Americans commemorated the last Olympic softball game by leaving their shoes on the field like wrestlers.
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| Shooting |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|09:31 pm] |
They showed shooting on TV, but not much. I think I saw a little bit of the indoor events on TV and watched some of the skeet and trap online.
- Venues: Beijing Shooting Range Hall and Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field
- Kateřina Emmons matched the WR in 10m air rifle qualifying with a perfect score of 400. She went on to the gold. She also got a silver in 50m rifle three positions. She is the wife of American Matthew Emmons, whom she met in Athens.
- Matt Emmons got silver in the 50m rifle prone, but...
- After blowing a lead on the last shot in the three positions event in Athens by firing at the wrong target, Emmons did it AGAIN in Beijing. This time he squeezed the trigger a little too hard as he was bringing the gun down. He still got a 4.4 for the shot, but he finished fourth.
- In the middle of the night, when I should have been in bed, I saw that Walton Eller set an OR in the double trap qualifying. I tuned in and watched the final live--and saw him win gold! This was one of my favorite "die hard" experiences of the Games.
- I also watched Kimberly Rhode win silver in skeet. Trap and skeet are fun to watch.
- Kim Jong-su of North Korea was stripped of his silver and bronze when he failed a doping test.
- Abhinav Bindra won India's first Olympic individual gold.
- China did very well here, with 8 medals.
- The U.S. won 6 in all, 2 of each color.
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| Sailing |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|09:21 pm] |
Sailing was the second sport not shown on TV. Therefore, I was forced to watch it online. The text commentary, while not always informative, definitely conveyed the excitement that I couldn't get from just watching alone.
- Venue: Qingdao International Marina
- The U.S. got gold from Anna Tunnicliffe (Laser Radial) and Zach Railey (Finn). I tuned in for the end of the Finn race, though I don't remember much.
- I also watched the Star finale, which was somewhat enjoyable due to the enthusiasm of the text commentator.
- In the 49er class, the Danish team was in the lead going into the gold medal race, but their mast broke. The eliminated Croatian team lent them their boat, and they barely crossed the starting line in time before continuing on to win the gold. Great sportsmanship! (Less so for the teams who protested.)
- Overall, Great Britain continued their great Olympics with 6 medals.
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| Rowing |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|09:11 pm] |
I watched a lot of rowing. It's a good thing to watch when you want to relax and not pay attention, because the races take forever. The bad part is that I was bored with it before the finals came. So many repechages! In fact, it became hard just to keep up with where the Americans stood every day.
- Venue: Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park
- The U.S. got bronze in the men's eight, failing to defend their Athens gold.
- The U.S. women's eight (with cox Mary Whipple), however, improved their Athens silver to gold! (That was delayed for primetime, so you knew had it to be good.)
- A single sculls silver for Michelle Guerette meant the U.S. did better overall than in Athens.
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| Modern Pentathlon |
[Sep. 24th, 2008|09:04 pm] |
I was worried I wouldn't catch any modern pentathlon, but they ended up showing the women's competition (edited) on TV.
- Venues: Fencing Hall of National Convention Center, Yingdong Natatorium, Olympic Sports Center Stadium
- American Sheila Taormina was the first female athlete to compete at the Olympics in three sports: swimming (1996), triathlon (2000 and 2004), and now modern pentathlon. She won the swimming by a mile, won the equestrian, and did quite well in the run, but her shooting and especially fencing were atrocious.
- I was wondering what they would do about the equestrian portion, since the regular equestrian was in Hong Kong, but I guess since the horses were randomly assigned and not brought along, there were no quarantine issues.
- The run was kind of ridiculous; it looped around and around in seemingly random fashion on a track. Come on, make a real cross-country course!
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| Judo |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|01:41 am] |
Judo was one of the three sports not shown on TV. I thought this was weird because last time they showed everything. I guess they figured the Internet coverage was good enough, but I'm surprised they didn't eventually show the one match I watched (see below).
- Venue: Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium
- American Ronda Rousey won bronze, the first American women's judo medal. I watched it after I knew the result--I knew it would be a good way to fill my judo quota! But I'm shocked they didn't show just the one match on TV. They just mentioned the result. In any case, good for Ronda--I enjoyed her spunky, off-the-cuff statements to the interviewer. (It was something like "If everything turns out terrible later in life, at least I can say that I have a bronze medal and no one else does" or something like that--very random just after winning!)
Finally, I have to ask--how is judo different from freestyle wrestling? Victoria: "They wear different outfits." |
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| Hockey |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|01:36 am] |
Yes, FIELD hockey. I actually didn't see much of this--never a full game, at least, which I consider a bit of a failure. I did some fast forwarding and watched the goals and some penalty corners, but I could have done much better here.
- Venue: Olympic Green Hockey Stadium
- The U.S. (women, men didn't qualify!) managed to tie its first two matches, including against future bronze medalist Argentina. This made me hope for some excitement, but ending up 1-1-3 wasn't good enough when only two teams advance in each pool.
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| Handball |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|01:31 am] |
NBC showed an impressive amount of handball--maybe they will inspire interest since it is one of the three sports we have never medaled in. Since it was a team sport with no rooting interest, I watched one full game early and then mostly fast-forwarded. It's cool, but I had a schedule. =)
- Venue: Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, National Indoor Stadium
- Underdog Iceland made it to the men's final, making it the biggest sporting event in Iceland pretty much ever. They ended up losing to France, but it was still one of only four medals in Iceland's history (still no gold).
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| Gymnastics |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|12:58 am] |
Artistic gymnastics is one of the marquee events of the Olympics (in the U.S. at least), so of course I saw a bunch of it. I do feel like I might have seen more had it not been live, since they had to keep cutting away to other live events. And when they came back, they would show the U.S. team sitting around while other people were actually, you know, performing. Geez!
- Venue: National Indoor Stadium (artistic and trampoline), Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium (rhythmic).
- Commentators: Al Trautwig, Elfi Schlegel, Tim Daggett, Andrea Joyce. The first three are the "Terrible Threesome." Trautwig was OK--his ignorance about gymnastics led him to repeat simple things over and over, but this may have been a good thing for new viewers. Daggett was the most irritating son of a bitch ever. Whenever a Chinese gymnast competed, he would go absolutely crazy ("We're going to hear that song [the Chinese anthem] again!!!"). When an American made a tiny mistake, it was the end of the world. Seriously, Tim, how much did the Chinese pay you? And he provided no useful comments. Neither did Elfi, who was basically there to be his yes-woman. Andrea Joyce was on the sidelines, but she almost stole "biggest asshole" away from Daggett when she kept pressing Alicia Sacramone about her screw-ups. Bitch.
- Men's team was dominated by the Chinese men, to Daggett's delight. The Japanese were supposed to challenge, but they underperformed.
- The big surprise was the U.S. men. They lost both Hamm twins and had to put in two alternates: Raj Bhavsar, whose "human interest package" was kind of endearing due to his "never give up"-type signs he made for himself, and Alexander "Sasha" Artemev, who was known for being great on pommel and also for messing up all the time.
- The men qualified only in sixth, but they had a great run in the final, even holding the lead for a while, then the silver position. But Raj and Kevin Tan sucked at pommel. It was all up to Sasha, who was brilliant and secured the bronze.
- All throughout, the guys, especially Jonathan Horton, had a lot of spirit talking to the cameras.
- The U.S. women took on China for team gold. But Alicia Sacramone fell on beam and again on floor, pretty much ending their chances and giving Andrea Joyce a chance to be a total bitch.
- BUT various news reports had said that several of the Chinese girls were under the minimum age of 16--oops! The controversy seemed to be over pre-Games, but it came back after all the gymnastics competitions were over. Specifically, personal info about He Kexin was found in Chinese search engine caches by a blogger. The FIG decided to investigate, even though Jacques Rogge decided he would rather kiss Chinese ass and yell at Usain Bolt.
- Yang Wei finally won the all-around. Yang Wei is sort of cool, because he later did a little exhibition routine pretending the pommel horse was an actual horse.
- The U.S. women took gold (Nastia Liukin) and silver (Shawn Johnson) in the all-around. Both finished on floor, where Nastia did a great routine enhanced even more by Bela Karolyi ("Come on girl...come on...BEAUTIFUL...SHE IS OLYMPIC CHAMPION...I AM TELLING YOU" ) and then Shawn laid down one just as good to keep silver away from China.
- In men's vault, Marian Dragalescu did the best vault I've ever seen but fell on the second one to fall out of the medals.
- China won men's golds in floor (Zou Kai), pommel, rings (plus a silver for Yang Wei), parallel bars, and high bar (Zou again). Daggett went crazy.
- Jonathan Horton added difficulty and pulled off a fantastic high bar routine to get silver!
- In the women's vault, Cheng Fei fell on her ass, but unlike Dragalescu, she did medal--just beating out Alicia Sacramone, who did two easier but *successful* and *complete* vaults. Something is wrong with this scoring. Meanwhile, 33-year-old Oksana Chusovitina won silver--she moved from Uzbekistan to Germany, where her gymnastics income allowed her son to get cancer treatment. Great story. Sadly, she lost to a North Korean who stepped out of bounds.
- On floor, Cheng fell again, but didn't medal thankfully. Shawn Johnson edged ahead of Nastia Liukin, but then the final competitor, Sandra Izbaşa, did a golden routine to give Romania a little of its former glory. Still, two U.S. medals.
- In uneven bars, Nastia tied with 14-year-old He Kexin, but an obscure tiebreaker gave He gold. Fucking China.
- In balance beam, Nastia picked up another silver, but Shawn was the star, finally getting a gold medal.
- In trampoline, China took both golds despite sucking at this sport 4 years ago. What gives? Canadians put up good fights and took silvers, and another Chinaman, Dong Dong (real name), got bronze.
- In rhythmic individual, there was no ball this year. A Russian, a Belarussian, and a Ukrainian won medals. In team (5 ropes and 3 hoops/2 clubs), the Russians dominated again, but the Chinese came out of nowhere AGAIN to get silver. I wish I knew how they control those clubs and hoops so well. It's fun to watch.
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