Thursday, August 11, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 6)

OK, here goes the golf tournament.

Standings:

United States 11 gold medals,11 silver, 10 bronze (32 total)
China 10, 5, 8 (23)
Japan 6, 1, 11 (18)
Australia 5, 2, 5 (12)
Hungary 5, 1, 1 (7)
South Korea 4, 2, 3 (9)
Italy 3, 6, 2 (11)
Great Britain 3, 3, 6 (12)
France 2, 3, 1 (6)
Kazakhstan 2, 2, 3 (7)
Thailand 2, 1, 1 (4)
Germany 1, 2, 1 (4)
Sweden 1, 2, 0 (3)
Netherlands 1, 1, 2 (4)
Belgium 1, 1, 1 (3)
Brazil 1, 1, 0 (2)
Colombia 1, 1, 0
Slovenia 1, 1, 0 (2)
Vietnam 1, 1, 0 (2)
Taipei 1, 0, 2 (3)
Spain 1, 0, 1 (2)
Greece 1, 0, 1 (2)
Switzerland 1, 0, 1 (2)
Argentina 1, 0, 0 (1)
Croatia 1, 0, 0 (1)
Kosovo 1, 0, 0 (1)
Kuwait 1, 0, 0 (1)
North Korea 0, 2, 2 (4)
Ukraine 0, 2, 1 (3)
Indonesia 0, 2, 0 (2)
New Zealand 0, 2, 0 (2)
South Africa 0, 2, 0 (2)
Canada 0, 1, 5 (6)
Georgia 0, 1, 1 (2)
Azerbaijan 0, 1, 0 (1)
Denmark 0, 1, 0 (1)
Malaysia 0, 1, 0 (1)
Mongolia 0, 1, 0 (1)
Mongolia 0, 1, 0 (1)
Philippines 0, 1, 0 (1)
Slovakia 0, 1, 0 (1)
Turkey 0, 1, 0 (1)
Egypt 0, 0, 2 (2)
Uzbekistan 0, 0, 2 (2)
Czech Republic 0, 0, 1 (1)
Israel 0, 0, 1 (1)
Kyrgyzstan 0, 0, 1 (1)
Poland 0, 0, 1 (1)
Portugal 0, 0, 1 (1)
Tunisia 0, 0, 1 (1)
United Arab Emirates 0, 0, 1 (1)

144 comments:

  1. Here are the medal events today.

    8:12-9:44 am

    — Rowing, men's quadruple sculls
    — Rowing, women’s quadruple sculls
    — Rowing, men's coxless pair
    — Rowing, women's double sculls
    — Rowing, men's double sculls
    — Rowing men's coxless lightweight four

    10 a.m.

    — Shooting, women's 50m rifle 3 positions

    12:15-1 p.m.:

    — Canoe slalom, men's canoe double
    — Canoe slalom, women's kayak single

    2 p.m.:

    — Gymnastics, women's individual all-around

    2:26-3 p.m.:

    — Judo, women's 78 kg
    — Archery, women's individual
    — Judo, men's 100 kg
    — Fencing, women's team épée (bronze medal match)

    4:21 p.m.:

    — Cycling - Track, men's team sprint

    4:30-5 p.m.:

    — Fencing, women's team épée
    — Rugby sevens, men's tournament

    6:30-7:30 p.m.:

    — Table tennis, men's singles

    8:17 p.m.:

    — Swimming, women's 200m breaststroke

    8:26 p.m.:

    — Swimming, men's 200m backstroke

    9:01 p.m.:

    — Swimming, men's 200m individual medley

    9:18 p.m.:

    — Swimming, women's 100m freestyle

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  2. The Geico Marco Polo commercial is excellent.

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  3. The Gold Zone! It's back. We are on rowing now, which is another one of those sports where our rich people just get crushed by the rich people from other countries. Our rich people may be the worse rich athletes in the world.

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    1. I wonder if this has to do with economic mobility. Maybe the rich people in other countries have been rich for so many generations that they are quite exacting with each other; whereas, maybe the rich people in the United States are all new money and just so happy to be there that they are soft on their kids and just enjoy being rich.

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    2. Having known a fair number of rich Americans, I'm really certain that this is not the answer. They're not nearly as happy as this answer would suggest.

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  4. It looks like we might get some badminton today!

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  5. If the Americans were good at rowing, I could see myself really getting into rowing. Every time it comes around at the Olympics, I enjoy it.

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    Replies
    1. Me, too--it's a beautiful-looking thing to watch.

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  6. OK, so a standard rowing race is 2,000 meters long. The I-24 bridge at Paducah is 1,714 meters long. So imagine having two men who were going to row across the Ohio River near Paducah. How long do you think that would take?

    These guys just went 2,000 meters in 6 minutes and 50 seconds. That seems like a really short amount of time to me, and gives me a good sense of how fast they are.

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    Replies
    1. Matthew might have to confirm here, but I do believe Coach Noles once told our civics class that he and a friend once jumped off the Brookport Bridge into the Ohio River.

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  7. Here's a comment that I saw posted on the YouTube video for "Sister Christian," by Night Ranger:

    "I feel bad for kids today. We smoked at school, drank and hung out at parks with no police hassle, and there were no teenagers on heroin. It was a better time."

    It's really hard to argue with any of that.

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  8. No drama from Madison Keys today -- she crushes someone from Russia 6-3, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of women's singles.

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  9. Rowing, women's quadruple sculls: German gold, Netherlands silver and Poland bronze. Team USA finished fifth, and this was a standings hit for us because the United States won bronze at London 2012.

    Rowing, men's double sculls: Croatia gold, Lithuania silver and Norway bronze. When this race was finished and all the rowers were waving at the crowd, Guns-'n'-Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" was playing over the loudspeakers. Matthew can confirm that I got the karaoke ball rolling at the 20th Heath High School Class of '86 reunion with a breathy, Marilyn Monroe-ish sendup of "Sweet Child O' Mine."

    Rowing, women's double sculls: Poland gold, Great Britain silver and Lithuania bronze. Team USA finished sixth, and I didn't mind at all because it was nice watching Poland's Magdalena Fularczyk-Kozłowska and Natalia Madaj tearfully celebrating during their medal ceremony. Back in London four years ago, when she was still Ms. Fularczyk, Magdalena of Wąbrzeźno, Kujawsko-Pomorskie, won bronze with then-teammate Julia Michalska. Today, the 29-year-old Mrs. Fularczyk-Kozłowska wept as they played her national anthem (per the translation at this Google link, the lyrics open with the line, "Poland has not perished yet") and raised her national flag. Congratulations, Mrs. Fularczyk-Kozłowska! And, for that matter, congratulations, Mr. Kozłowska, on getting married at some point since 2012.

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    Replies
    1. Slash, by the way, also is from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

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  10. Meanwhile, with 1:38 left in the second quarter, the USA women lead China 6-1 in the water polo.

    In men's water polo, we are 1-2 and in 5th place in our group. In women's water polo, we are 1-0.

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  11. The smooth-jazz samba NBCOlympics.com sprinkles amid their streams is really quite delightful.

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  12. And now here's "victory ceremony" for men's lightweight coxless four ...

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  13. There is an immense amount of fencing in the Olympics -- it's been going on continuously all week. Now there is apparently some sort of team event -- two women are fencing, and the scoreboard is showing their individual score and then a team score. I have no idea what that's all about.

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  14. "Please welcome the medalists!" says the guy over the loudspeaker, and here comes a single-file line of marching soldiers, guys in all white suits, a couple of guys in navy blazers and khaki trousers and then the three medal-winning teams of four rowers each. I didn't see the race, so I don't know yet who won. But the group on the far left is barefoot and in all red gym suits; the group in the middle is in white windbreakers, black stretchy pants and lime-green sneakers, and the group on the far right are in long-sleeved navy pullovers, white swishy pants and white sneakers ...

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  15. OK, the group on the far right is France. A young woman in a floral dress brings forth a giant platter of bronze medals, and a white-haired, stocky fellow in a suit comes forward to present the medals to the happy French rowers ...

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  16. Each of the team members is introduced by name over the loudspeakers, and this is a nice touch.

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  17. My screen describes what is happening in the fencing as "WOMEN'S TEAM EPEE - CLASSIFICATION."

    Oh, I see. We've already been eliminated. Here are the semi-finals in women's team epee:

    CHN v. EST
    RUS v. ROU

    So this is some sort of battle for 5th place. I'm not going to worry about that.

    Meanwhile, we lead 8-2 in women's water polo over China with 5 minutes left in the 3d quarter.

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  18. Now a man comes forward with a platter of some sort of figurines or tiny dioramas or something, and a different middle-aged guy--this one thinner, with a more robust head of salt-and-pepper hair--comes onstage to present these tokens to the Frenchmen ...

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    Replies
    1. These officials that you are describing are pretty much the same people you see at FIFA, and at the EU, and at the WTO, and in any major international organization anywhere, to be honest. A big motive behind Brexit was to get away from these guys.

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  19. However rancid the bay water is, the Rio sky is crystal-clear, rich blue.

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  20. The barefoot guys on the left are from Denmark. Denmark wins the silver! And the same tandems of suited men and platter bearers return with the prizes. The loudspeaker music is straight out of a Baywatch montage. It really is. This was a great decision.

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  21. Meanwhile, Kayla Harrison -- who won a gold medal in judo in 2012 -- just pummeled a woman from Hungary to reach the semi-finals in her weight category.

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  22. "AND THE GOLD MEDALISTS AND OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS ..." (pause for two translations) ... "SWITZERLAND!"

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  23. For the record, NumberOneSon and NumberTwoSon -- who have both done some fencing in their time -- love the Olympic fencing.

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    Replies
    1. My wife was both a swimmer and gymnast growing up, and her living-room commentary is actually pretty darned on point during those events.

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  24. Here's a summary of that Kristen Bell series. The two main characters are named Michael and Eleanor:

    "After she is struck and killed by a tractor-trailer carrying erectile dysfunction products, a woman named Eleanor wakes up to discover she has entered the afterlife. But when she is told by her mentor Michael that she is in 'the good place' because she did a good deed by helping get innocent people off death row, she realizes that a mistake has been made and they think she is someone else. Stuck in a world where no one curses or gets drunk and everyone is always nice, Eleanor finds herself caught between staying in the afterlife or trying to find a way to return to the mundane life she had back on Earth."

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  25. NBCOlympics.com (there are no commentators, and it is delicious!) cuts to flag-waving Swiss fans in the stands, and the loudspeaker switches back to the Baywatch fill music.

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  26. WAIT! WE MIGHT HAVE OURSELVES A ROWING BROUHAHA/INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT ON OUR HANDS! The French rowers squat down on the podium and place their little figurines/dioramas on the floor. At first, I thought they were just putting them aside while the group photograph of the three medal-winning teams was being snapped. But, alas, the Izod-donning Frenchmen then SIMPLY LEAVE THE STAGE WITHOUT COLLECTING THEIR LITTLE FIGURINE/DIORAMA THINGS!

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  27. The Swiss and the Danes are still hanging out, shaking hands, greeting fans, laughing and reveling in the Rio sunshine. BUT THE FRENCH ARE GONE, AND THEIR FIGURINES/DIORAMAS REMAIN! What a slap in the face of the WTO!

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  28. Well, that was fun.

    By the way, there two other men's rowing races this morning: quadruple sculls and coxless pair. The loudspeaker guy said that Germany won the first and New Zealand the second. But neither of these events' Wikipedia pages has been updated to show the full slate of medal winners. In fact, none of the men's event pages have been (I just happened to see the other two men's races myself on the video stream). The Wikipedia pages for the women's events were updated within about 30 seconds of the end of both of those races this morning.

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  29. The USA beats China 12-4 in women's water polo, but the Chinese are close to getting two more medals in the women's 50 m rifle 3 position something. After 40 shots, the Chinese shooters lie 1st and 4th. No one from the USA is even in this event, as far as I can tell.

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  30. In the team fencing, the USA women beat their French counterparts 32-28 to advance to the fifth place match. There are a few chants of U!S!A!, but everyone looks depressed.

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  31. I was never a big-time athlete, but I did play College Bowl (the Varsity Sport of the Mind) and I can tell you that I would have been utterly useless in any match to determine fifth place.

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    1. I figure this dynamic is at play all the time in consolation contests of any type. I don't trust any consolation result.

      That said, I do wish the NFL would bring back the Playoff Bowl or whatever they called that game between the two semifinal losers.

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    2. You guys were great on high-school academic team, by the way. I wonder if they still call it "A Team." I guess the reference would be lost now.

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    3. Between 1965 and 1980 or so, American sports basically eliminated all consolation games. I think that was the right thing to do.

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  32. The men's golf teed off today, but the Gold Zone has yet to acknowledge it.

    And meanwhile, a woman from Germany has set an Olympic Record to win the women's 50 M rifle three positions. She is extraordinarily happy.

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  33. Both Chinese men have reached the final of men's singles in table tennis.

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    1. I just can't watch the table tennis and equestrian. I mean, I saw that Glock dude sitting on top of the dancing horse yesterday, and, after about two seconds, I felt like my whole life was off the rails.

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    2. Really? I like both of those events.

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  34. And here's the golf, which appears to be taking place in Rio's version of Paxton Park.

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  35. The best thing about the golf, to me, is that whoever does all of the minimalist scoreboards had to come up with a scoreboard for golf.

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  36. The best scoreboard of all time, by the way, was the scoreboard for the final game of the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. Look it up -- you will not be disappointed.

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  37. Marcus Fraser of NZL tore through Rio's version of Paxton Park with an 8-under par 63, so he's currently on his way to gold.

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  38. Bubba Watson, wearing a shirt that appears to have the logo for the USA Network on it, finishes his tour of the grounds with a 2-over par 73. So he won't have to worry about tearing up on the podium.

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  39. I've spoken to two friends of mine today about Katie Ledecky. One of them said that when she was a kid, Katie Ledecky swam for their neighborhood pool. The other said that her friend taught Katie Ledecky in high school.

    I realize that the whole country is excited about Katie Ledecky, but no one loves her like the folks who live in the Washington suburbs.

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    1. The Baltimore/Washington region has been huge in this Olympics. We should have Wes Unseld coaching the basketball team.

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    2. In the first place, he's from Louisville. In the second place, if the Baltimore/Washington region could pick anyone to coach the basketball team, it would pick Coach K by a vote of about 97 to 3.

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  40. Eric may have thought he was done with the Williams sisters, but Venus is now playing mixed doubles. She's tied one set apiece in a match against a team from the Netherlands.

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  41. Apparently, in the mixed doubles, if you are tied after two sets, you don't play a third set. Instead, you play a "Match Tie Break." Venus and her partner, Rajeev Ram, win the Match Tie Break 10-8 and move on to the next round.

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  42. We've reached the semi-finals in rugby, and Fiji has just taken a 10-5 lead over Japan with 1 minute left in the first half.

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  43. On Channel 6 now: Men's canoe double semifinals. I want to go canoeing on one of these courses. I really enjoy canoeing.

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  44. Here are your rugby semi-final scores:

    FIJ 20 - 5 JPN
    GBR 7 - 5 RSA

    That match between GBR and South Africa was a real cracker.

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  45. For the record, we beat Brazil 24-12, and beat Spain 24-12, and we took 9th place.

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  46. On Golf Channel now: India's Shiv Shankar Prasad "S.S.P." "Chipputtsia" "Chow" Chawrasia birdies 18 to finish even for the first round of the men's golf tournament.

    1. Marcus Fraser of Melbourne, Australia, 8-under through 18 holes
    2. Graham DeLaet of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada, -5 (18)
    T3. Grégory Bourdy of Bordeaux, France, -4 (18)
    T3. Alex Čejka of Munich, Germany, -4 (18)
    T3. Thomas Pieters of Geel, Belgium, -4 (18)
    T3. Henrik Stenson of Gothenburg, Sweden, -4 (9)

    Top American is Matt Kuchar of Winter Park, Florida, who shot 2-under for his first round.

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    Replies
    1. You're right, Go Heath, about the USA Network shirts.

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  47. On USA Network now: Croatia 67, Brazil 64 ... 4:44 to go in the fourth quarter ... men's basketball. Might come back to this.

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  48. On CNBC now: HEY, IT'S DAN MARINO!

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    1. Dan Marino is invested in a restaurant chain called "Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza."

      There were some pictures out of Dolphins training camp recently of Dan Marino and Peyton Manning watching Brandon Doughty. I wonder if they were talking about their pizza interests.

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    2. The CNBC headline on the screen is "DAN MARINO'S STOCK PLAYBOOK." Clever!

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    3. Oh, excellent ... Dan Marino and one of his former backups, Damon Huard, are involved in wine in Washington state.

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    4. Now we have a new headline: "MARINO ON STATE OF THE NFL."

      "I think our quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, has a bright future."

      Boom!

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    5. "MARINO ON NFL IN LA."

      "I think everybody out there is going to be really excited."

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    6. "MARINO ON CONCUSSIONS."

      "If you do it the right way, it's a great game."

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    7. That was great. It doesn't seem possible, but somehow I managed both to root as hard as anyone for Dan Marino during his NFL career and to not appreciate him nearly enough.

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    8. It's not possible. I think you did, in fact, appreciate Dan Marino as much as you should have.

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  49. I just had a better look at the golf course, and they may be playing down at Haynes Point, here in D.C. Surely I would know if that were the case.

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  50. On MSNBC now: Team USA is 0-2 in men's volleyball pool play. That's fifth place, and four teams from the pool advance to the quarterfinals. The United States plays Brazil today.

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    1. MSNBC points out that, of the six sets Team USA has lost, five have gone to deuce. "They've been close," somebody says. "There are no guarantees in international volleyball, especially when half your team is under 23 years of age." I might've missed a connecting thought in that quote.

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    2. In almost all of the other Olympic sports, the USA is either really good or really bad. Only in volleyball and water polo do you see these wild gyrations from one Olympiad to the next.

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  51. The velodrome is about to get going, which is a huge deal in Britain, although not so much for Americans.

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  52. On Bravo now: One of Team USA's two mixed-double entries--36-year-o.d Venus Williams of Lynnwood, California, and 32-year-old Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Indiana--are discussing the challenges of playing with a doubles partner with whom you have never previously played. These two next play in tomorrow's quarterfinals. The London 2012 medalists in mixed doubles were Belarus, Great Britain and the United States.

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  53. On MSNBC now: Wow! I couldn't even get this typed before the match was over. KAYLA HARRISON WINS HER SEMIFINAL IN WOMEN'S 77KG JUDO!

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    1. About two minutes after things got going, 26-year-old Kayla Harrison of Middletown, Ohio, did something with her opponent's arm. "She's an armbar specialist," the NBC Sports Network commentator said (not MSNBC--sorry). And, sure enough, about 15 seconds later, the official hoisted Kayla Harrison's arm as the victor.

      Dan Patrick says Kayla Harrison will be back on NBC Sports Network competing for gold in about an hour.

      On my birthday at London 2012, Kayla Harrison became the first American to ever win Olympic judo gold. You might remember her amazing story.

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  54. And now here's Kayla Harrison, back for some more judo. I know nothing about judo, but I will say that she's the only American judo person I've seen who comes into the (ring? court? mat?) with any sort of flair.

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  55. And that's it! Kayla Harrison wins and is on to the final. No wonder she looked so confident.

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  56. On Channel 6 now: Team USA vs. Russia in women's beach volleyball ... Russia won the first set, 21-18, and the second set (in the best-of-three match) is tied at 22 ...

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    1. Team USA's Lauren Kendrick and Brooke Sweat win the second set, 26-24! This is a preliminary-round match.

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  57. Beach volleyball has been on pretty much continuously for the last week and I don't think I've seen any matches where the Americans were in the lead.

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  58. Meanwhile, the cyclists are whizzing around the track. The Guardian is very excited.

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  59. Kayla Harrison's finals opponent will be France's Audrey Tcheuméo, who won bronze in London.

    Croatia held on to beat Brazil by four points in men's basketball.

    Henrik Stenson got to 5-under. Rafael Cabrera Bello and Justin Rose joined the tie for fourth at 4-under.

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  60. OK, so in the beach volleyball we had two men's teams and two women's teams. One of the women's teams -- the one that was just on TV -- has been eliminated, while the other went 3-0 and has advanced to the knockout rounds. One of the men's teams has been eliminated and the other one is 2-0.

    That actually makes a lot of sense. Our better teams were probably playing mostly at night.

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  61. And here's Kayla Harrison, ready to judo for the gold. She has one of the best game faces I've ever seen outside of the NFL.

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  62. With two minutes left, they've called two penalties on the French woman, which is an advantage for Kayla Harrison.

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  63. She did it! Kayla Harrison looked like she was going to win -- she still was up by the two penalties with 20 seconds left -- and then she suddenly attacked and pinned the French woman! (Or something). Anyway, SHE WINS THE GOLD!

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    Replies
    1. YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

      Kayla Harrison is an amazing story.

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  64. Medal Count:

    1. USA: 12 + 11 + 10 = 33
    2. CHN: 10 + 6 + 9 = 25
    3. JPN: 6 + 1 + 11 = 18
    4. RUS: 4 + 7 + 4 = 15

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  65. So now they're showing the USA men's beach volleyball team that is 2-0. They're playing a team from Italy. They looked really good in the first set, lost the second set, and are now tied 4-all in the third.

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  66. 16-all in the third. The USA has blown two match points; Italy has blown one.

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  67. 17-all in the third, as Italy fights off another match point.

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  68. 18-all in the third, as the USA has a match point, but serves the ball into the net.

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  69. 21-all in the third. It's supposed to be the first to 15 in the third set, but you have to win by two.

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    1. And I heard the beach-volleyball commentator say in the previous women's match that, "There is no cap in volleyball! You just keep on going up the ladder!"

      The volleyball people say "volleyball" almost as frequently as football people say "football."

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  70. 22-all. The USA had a great chance to win, but knocked it just out of bounds.

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  71. And the USA win! 21-13, 17-21, 24-22

    The USA team finish pool play with a record of 3-0.

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  72. Now that the match is over, the beach volleyball sound system is playing "Don't Stop Believing."

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  73. Volleyball is a great game, and it's a really fun game to play. But from the perspective of a fan, it's too much of the same thing over and over. It's like if soccer were all corner kicks, or if basketball were all in-bounds plays. And I think that's why basketball ended up being a much bigger deal as a spectator sport.

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  74. Britain set a new Olympic record in the men's team sprint for cycling. They edge New Zealand, who take the silver.

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  75. Japan will not be medaling in men's rugby. South Africa leads 35-14 in the bronze medal match with 3 minutes left to play.

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  76. South Africa takes the bronze, beating Japan 54-14.

    Next up will be FIJ v. GBR for the gold. Fiji has never won an Olympic gold medal.

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  77. I'm happy to say that Rugby Stadium -- or whatever they call it -- appears to be full for the gold medal game.

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  78. Fiji jumps out to the early lead. With 8 minutes left in the first half:

    FIJ 5 - 0 GBR

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  79. The announcers tell us that the British team only has two men from Wales. That seems like a mistake to me.

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  80. And another quick try from Fiji! With 6 minutes left in the first half:

    FIJ 12 - 0 GBR

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  81. Final score:

    FIJ 43 - 7 GBR

    Fiji wins the gold!

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  82. Fiji went 6-0 in the rugby tournament. The USA and NZL were the only teams to come within five points of them.

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  83. YES, SIR! YES, SIR! YES, SIR!

    SIMONE MANUEL!

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  84. Medal Count:

    1. USA: 16 + 12 + 10 = 38
    2. CHN: 11 + 8 + 11 = 30
    3. JPN: 7 + 2 + 13 = 22
    4. RUS: 4 + 8 + 7 = 19
    5. GBR: 4 + 6 + 6 = 16
    6. AUS: 5 + 4 + 6 = 15
    7. ITA: 3 + 6 + 3 = 12
    8. KOR: 5 + 2 + 4 = 11
    9. FRA: 2 + 4 + 5 = 11
    10. GER: 4 + 3 + 1 = 8

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  85. Only the elite few can stream it. Way to rub it in.

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  86. I'm sure Eric will do a Day 7 post at some point, and I don't want to start a double post like we had on day 5, so I will keep commenting here in the meantime.

    Track and field has started. I'm very excited about this, although I'm disappointed to see that Brazil went with a track that is blue instead of the usual brown.

    Meanwhile, the Americans continue not to medal at rowing and rifle shooting.

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  87. Medal Count:

    1. USA: 16 + 12 + 10 = 38
    2. CHN: 11 + 8 + 12 = 31
    3. JPN: 7 + 2 + 13 = 22
    4. RUS: 4 + 8 + 7 = 19
    5. GBR: 5 + 6 + 6 = 17

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  88. Alma Ayana of Ethiopia just won the women's 10,000 meter race, not only winning but breaking the world record by almost 15 seconds. The announcers seemed truly stunned by her performance.

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    Replies
    1. According to the Guardian, she beat her best prior time by 50 seconds. No wonder they were stunned.

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  89. The USA's Nico Hernandez is beaten in the semi-final of the Light Flyweight in boxing, and he will have to settle for a bronze medal.

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    1. The Uzbekistan fighter was a smaller, squarer guy, and he gave Nico very little space to land a punch.

      I've started the new post for today--sorry for the delay.

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  90. The USA is in a men's team foil match with Russia. This is the semi-final of the team foil competition. It's really close, and there's still a long way to go. I am not well suited to watch fencing -- it's like watching a free throw competition.

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  91. Right now, the USA is losing in boxing, in fencing, and in men's water polo. This isn't much fun.

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