Sunday, July 29, 2012

I Am Watching the Olympics (Day 2)

Twenty-four sports on tap today, with medals to be awarded in archery, cycling, diving, fencing, judo, shooting, swimming and weightlifting.

It's so fantastic that the London organizers held off the women's 100m butterfly final until 1:30 p.m. Central so that all of us Hilltoppers have time to get home from church before WKU's Claire Donahue gets in the pool. Go, Claire Donahue!

In terms of the medal standings, one of the most interesting events today is shaping up to be women's archery. China beat Italy in a round-of-16 match early this morning, and, at 10:15 this morning, it is scheduled to face the United States in the quarterfinals. China (1), Italy (2) and the United States (3) were atop the medal table after yesterday's first finals.

Previous reports:

28 comments:

  1. The women's cycling road race is being contested in a glorious heavy rain. Seeing these pictures of the fans cheering in long sleeves and from under umbrellas along the London streets ... wow ... this must be the getaway longing that most Kentuckians feel when they hear Kenny Chesney or Jimmy Buffett sing about getting baked on some beach.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elizabeth Armitstead of Leeds is leading this race, which has just passed a Starbucks about four miles away from its finish near Buckingham Palace. She is vying for what would be Great Britain's first medal of its games.

      Delete
  2. Armistead comes in with silver, behind what seems like about the 200th Vos from the Netherlands to win Olympic gold in something fast. This one is 25-year-old Marianne of 's-Hertogenbosch, which looks nice. Russian Olga Zabelinskaya takes bronze.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Russians just advanced to the semis of women's archery, and now we've got the United States and China coming up in the quarters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The archery crowd and announcers are lively!

      Delete
    2. YEAH! The United States, which received a bye through the first round, gets rolling with a bullseye on its first shot.

      Well, I'll catch up on how this came out later ...

      Delete
    3. 27 points apiece through the first three of 24 shots for both teams!

      Delete
  4. China 53-United States 52 through six of 24 shots apiece ... OK, got to go ... urgh, traditional mainline worship schedule!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, rats ... China ended up beating the United States in the quarters.

      The women's archery team gold goes to South Korea (as it has in every Olympic women's archery competition), the silver to China and the bronze to Japan (which beat Russia).

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. China rocked 3m women's synchronized diving again. Wu Minxia won her third-straight gold medal and first with He Zi; her former competitive partner, paparazzi-fave Guo Jingjing, retired. Kelci Bryant of Springfield, Ill., and Abigail Johnston of Upper Arlington, Ohio, took silver for the United States' first-ever medal in the event. Canada took bronze.

      Delete
    2. As previously mentioned, Kim Rhode took women's skeet gold. China won silver; Slovakia, bronze.

      Delete
    3. China (gold), France (silver) and Ukraine (bronze) medaled in women's 10m air pistol.

      Delete
  6. Now minutes away from WKU's Claire Donahue medal bid ...

    NBCOlympics ‏@NBCOlympics
    COMING UP in 10 minutes: #Swimming FINALS in W 100m fly, M 100m breast, W 400m free & the M 4x100m free relay! LINK: http://nbco.ly/QVZHU1
    1:12 PM - 29 Jul 12

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The British commentators on NBC's live feed just said that Claire Donahue "studied social work at Western Kentucky University"!

      Delete
    2. Congratulations, Dana Vollmer of Granbury, Texas!

      Delete
    3. Vollmer sets a new world record in winning gold for the United States in the 100m butterfly. China wins silver; Australia, bronze.

      Jeremy Brown ‏@JBrownWKU
      Donahue finishes 7th in 100 fly final. What a run by Claire. Way to cap a banner year in #WKU Athletics. #HilltopperNation is proud!
      1:37 PM - 29 Jul 12


      Hear, hear!

      Delete
  7. Tuning in for NBC's prime-time coverage and am thrilled to learn that U.S. swimmers won bronze in the men's 100m breaststroke (Russia gold and Australia silver) and silver in the women's 400m something (France gold and Great Britain bronze). I'm not going to get out on any web sites to learn their names or the exact events, as I don't want to stumble into any other spoilers on other medals.

    I am surprised but so totally not bothered by NBC's decision to hold out broadcasting a lot of this stuff until prime time. For someone who grew up waiting several days to watch tape delays of Muhammad Ali's fights, the U.S. hockey team's victories or about 60 percent of UK's basketball games, it's really no big deal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow. What a crazy men's 4x100m swimming relay, with France coming from behind on Ryan Lochte's anchor leg to take gold after Michael Phelps had opened a substantial lead in his second leg. Bronze goes to the Russians.

      Delete
    2. Shame on me on the men's 100m breaststroke ... It was South Africa, not Russia, that won gold there. And the women's event was the 400m freestyle.

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Men's 123-pound weightlifting: North Korea gold, China silver and Azerbajain bronze. I'll have to say that I didn't remember ever hearing of Azerbajain winning a medal, but, alas, they have a pretty phenomenal history in the tough-guy/gal events.

      Funerals in Azerbajain are reportedly a big deal.

      Delete
    2. Women's half lightweight judo: North Korea gold, Cuba silver and France and Italy (?!?) bronze.

      Delete
    3. Women's 117-pound weightlifting: Kazakhstan gold, Taiwan silver and Moldova bronze.

      Men's fencing individual sabre: Hungary gold, Italy silver and Russia bronze.

      Men's half-lightweight judo: Georgia gold, Hungary silver and Japan and South Korea (?!?) bronze.

      Delete