Friday, August 19, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 14)

59 comments:

  1. The race walking also makes me smile.

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  2. London 2012 men's 50km race walk medalists: Australia gold, China silver and Ireland bronze. France is leading today's race.

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  3. I repeat, there's something up in badminton. Again, China won all five of the gold and eight of the 15 total badminton medals awarded at the London 2012 Olympics, but, after losing to Japan in the women's singles bronze match this morning, China will fail to medal in that event. (India and Spain play later this morning for gold.) There have been seven badminton medals awarded so far in Rio, and China has one, a bronze.

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  4. OK, it turns out the ol' race walk is not even halfway through, and the NBCOlympics.com dude just told me that the leader from France pretty much already has it wrapped up. So, ... moving on ...

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    1. "They're falling further and further behind!"

      This thing has been going on for almost two hours, and it apparently has that much left to go again.

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    2. "He's walking with an air of invincibility!"

      I don't know. I might stick with this thing.

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    3. Actually, there are two Brits doing the commentary for NBCOlympics.com ...

      The first guy: "It's going to be a virtually unassailable lead!"

      The second guy: "We've got to be wary of talking about unassailable leads."

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    4. NBCOlympics.com just went to slow motion to show the French leader moving to the side to pick up a bottle of water from someone along the track.

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    5. 25km to go ... OK, seriously ... moving on ...

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    6. As someone who once, in a tape-delay telecast of a Heath High School football game for the PCC public-access channel, talked about a runner advancing the ball to the "55-yard-line," I just want to say that I'm in total awe of and thankful for these people who have gotten to talk on NBC's various outlets during the Olympics.

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  5. On USA now: A men's singles badminton semifinal between China and Malaysia. "This is the marquee event," says the commentator. Fourth Olympic games for the Chinese dude, who has won two golds. He's a taut, young, good-looking guy with tattoos, stylish, angular hair and a stubble mustache, and the USA camera keeps showing gleeful women and intense men waving Chinese glass whenever he scores a point. I'll bet this guy's on a few posters in Chinese pre-teen bedrooms. He leads, 10-6, in the first set.

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  6. On NBC Sports Network now: The French guy still leads the race walk. They have different commentators on the TV broadcast than on the Internet. The main play-by-play guy sounds like an American. "We're 30 kilometers in, and we've got 20 kilometers to go," he sighs as we go to a commercial.

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  7. On Channel 6: Today has videotape of Usain Bolt dancing to Justin Timberlake music before his race last night. I do really like that Justin Timberlake hit, and the video is excellent.

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  8. On Golf Network: Round 3 of the women's tournament. They just mentioned Emma Talley!

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  9. 1. Inbee Park, South Korea, -10 (36 holes)
    2. Stacy Lewis, United States, -9 (36)
    T3. Brooke Henderson, Canada, -8 (36)
    T3. Charley Hull, Great Britain, -8 (36)

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  10. Lewis is a 31-year-old Toledo, Ohio, native who grew up in The Woodlands, Texas, outside Houston.

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  11. OK, they're not "sets" in badminton; they're games. And it's best of three. And the Malaysian dude just came back to roast the Chinese celebrity in Game 2. We're headed on USA Network to the third and deciding game for the right to play for gold!

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  12. "It's everything the badminton world has hoped for," says the USA commentator.

    As previously reported: Something's Up In Badminton.

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  13. 2-2 in Game 3 ... lots of chanting and orchestrated cheering in the badminton arena right now, even while these two guys play their very long points ...

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  14. Replies
    1. Pouty smirk from the 32-year-old Lin "Super Dan" Dan of Longyan, Fujian, China ...

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  15. At Beijing 2008, China's Lin Dan crushed this Malaysian, Lee Chong Wei, 21-12 and 21-8, in what Wikipedia says had been considered a "dream title" and became the first top seed in Olympic badminton to actually win men's singles gold.

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  16. 20-20! OH, MY! This really is outstanding. Super Dan hit blind, backhand return to keep the point alive and then finally won the point on his second or third leaping slam attempt ...

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  17. 21-20, "Hero Lei" of Malaysia, as Super Dan misses long on a lob ...

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  18. AND LEE CHONG WEI OF MALAYSIA WINS WITH A FIERCE CROSSCOURT BACKHAND AS BOTH PLAYERS ARE AT THE NET!

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  19. 22-20 ... the old rivals embrace and trade jerseys (customary, apparently) ... Lee Chong Wei will play for gold, and China's Lin Dan will go home without a medal ... USA tells us that Lee Chong Wei's autobiography is called, "Dare To Be a Champion."

    Wow. That was excellent.

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  20. And now our leaders have tied off in the third round of the women's golf tournament. Stacy Lewis's third shot on the par-5 opener ricochets in and out of the cup! She'll have about 10 feet to putt for birdie and a tie at 10-under with Inbee Park for gold-medal position.

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  21. OK, that's it. I'm figuring out how to follow the whole Olympics all throughout the four-year interims. Oh, how I love it so!

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  22. Team USA's Lewis misses a bit right and ends up two-putting. Instead, it's the other two golfers in the lead threesome--South Korea's Inbee Park and Great Britain's Charley Hull--who roll in their birdie tries. Park is now two strokes ahead of the field, at 11-under, with Hull and Lewis T2.

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  23. One of the great things about the golf tournaments has been that the results suggest I already have been following what would be the important events in the Olympic interims for this sport.

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  24. Replies
    1. I haven't seen anything but the Olympics for two weeks. How's Ted Cruz doing in the presidential race?

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  25. Team USA has a winner in the round of 16 in men's 80kg taekwondo: 27-year-old Steven López, who was born in Nicaragua and grew up in Sugar Land (great movie), Texas, and will face a London 2012 bronze medalist, Lutalo Muhammad from Great Britain, in the quarters. Taekwondo just rips through its events all in one day, so we will hope Steven López gets to keep taekwondo-ing all afternoon long.

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    1. The Russian whom Steven López beat was seeded fourth in the tournament. Steven López is the 13 seed; Lutalo Muhammad, 5.

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  26. Oh, my gosh, the French guy who was so far ahead did not win the race walk. I guess the scorecards still have to be signed or whatever, but it appears Slovakia, Australia and Japan are going to be the medal winners.

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  27. It's like I'm living in Prague or Mars 2035 or somewhere. The TV broadcasts now are showing badminton, water polo, wrestling and synchronized swimming.

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  28. Oh, good! Rhythmic gymnastics! I forgot about this. This was my daughter's favorite event at London 2012, when she was 3. Now she's 7. We'll see how it goes over this time.

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    1. Team USA has a 16-year-old, Laura Zeng of Hartford, Connecticut, and Libertyville, Illinois, who appears to be doing pretty well. She started doing rhythmic gymnastics when she was 7. This might be of interest to my daughter.

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  29. And so another first to three 25s volleyball saga ensues on Channel 6. This one is a semifinal between Team USA and Italy in the men's tournament.

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    1. It's 11-5, Team USA, in the opening set.

      But, remember, "there are no guarantees in international volleyball."

      Also, "we've got to be wary of talking about unassailable leads."

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  30. OK, I, too, am done watching Olympic volleyball. Go, Team USA.

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  31. Chen Long of China, the London 2012 bronze medalist, does advance to the gold-medal final in men's singles badminton. So, Lee Chong Wei of Bagan Serai, Perak, whom the Malaysian prime minister reportedly had to convince not to retire, will have to get through another Chinese badminton stud in tomorrow's final. Twice-gold-medalist Super Dan will face upstart-Dane Viktor Axelsen, a 22-year-old from Odense, for the bronze.

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  32. I'm going to get my daughter to check the men's volleyball result when she gets home from school.

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