XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Good!)

Good! Not that it changes much at the HP. But, still, good!

Medals table:

1. Norway 12 gold, 6 silver, 12 bronze
2. Canada 11, 10, 7
3. United States 10, 11, 10
4. Germany 10, 5, 7
5. Netherlands 9, 8, 8
6. Switzerland 8, 1, 2
7. Belarus 5, 1, 1
8. Austria 4, 10, 5
9. China 4, 6, 4
10. France 4, 5, 9
11. Poland 4, 1, 1
12. South Korea 4, 2, 2
13. Slovenia 3, 2, 3
14. Sweden 2, 8, 5
15. Czech Republic 2, 4, 3
16. Latvia 2, 1, 3
17. Japan 1, 4, 4
18. Finland 1, 3, 1
19. Great Britain 1, 1, 3
20. Ukraine 1, 1, 0
21. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
22. Italy 0, 4, 7
23. Australia 0, 2, 1
24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
T26. Bulgaria and 62 others 0, 0, 0

Previous reports:

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924
-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928
-- VIII Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley 1960
-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976 
-- XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day a)
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 0)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 1)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 2)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 3)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 4)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 5)
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 6)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 7)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 8)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 9)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 10)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 11)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 12)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 13)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 14)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 15)

-- XXII Olympics Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Good!)

-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018

Oh, Kentucky

Had a detailed conversation with incoming POTUS @realDonaldTrump...True champion of states rights & US workers...New Day in America!

— Matt Bevin (@MattBevin) November 16, 2016

Hey, cool.

If you’re looking for an online college, OnlineCollege.com says take a look at Kentucky Community and Technical College System schools—or maybe WKU.

Remember Lynn's Paradise Cafe?

White Christmas at the Frazier History Museum.

Smokey and the Bandit at the Sipp.

Christmas parades: Owensboro (with the Kentucky Mavericks), Nov. 19; Ashland, Nov. 22; Sebree, Nov. 26; Bardstown, Dec. 1; Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 2; Berea, Bowling Green, Glasgow, Madisonville (with ice skating), Paris, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 3; Boyce and Owenton, Dec. 4, and Cave City, Elkton, Hopkinsville and Pikeville, Dec. 10.

Good Morning.

I'll be on the Tom Joyner Morning Show (@TJMShow) shortly talking about bigotry kids experienced this week IN OUR SCHOOLS.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) November 17, 2016

Oh, Kentucky

Rest in peace, Miss Trinity Gay, Lexington Lafayette High sophomore and daughter of a three-time Olympic sprinter.

Good jobs news from Hazard.

Tribe of the Whitetop Band of Native Indians members from Manchester recently traveled to North Dakota to protest oil-pipeline construction through sacred Sioux land.

It looks like pretty standard fare for tonight's Beaver Dam city-commission meeting, but I thought you might enjoy looking at this SurfKY News picture of the local municipal building as I did.

The 2016 Trigg County Country Ham Festival is in the books. Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make it a success. pic.twitter.com/6E5tYlBR89

— Cadiz Police Dept. (@CadizPolice) October 17, 2016

Thanks for the "gazette" 411, Russellville News-Democrat & Leader.

Zombie walks are huge around Kentucky now.

Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 19, and Pikeville, Dec. 10.

Olympic Efficiency Scores for 2016

Now that the Olympics are over, we can calculate the Olympic Efficiency Scores ("OES") for each of the top 10 countries in the medal count.  You will recall that what we do is we take data for each country's percentage of global GDP, which you can find here.  Then we figure out how many medals they would have won if their share of the medals had matched their share of GDP.  For example, there were 974 medals awarded at the Olympics.  In 2014, the last year for which data are available, the United States accounted for 22.43 percent of world GDP.  If their share of medals had matched their share of world GDP, the Americans would have won 218 medals.  In fact, they won 121, which gives them an OES of 0.555 -- much higher than the 0.424 we had in 2012.  Looking only at gold medals, we had an OES of 0.667 -- the highest we've had in a fully contested Olympics since the beginning of my data set, which goes back to 1969 (not counting 1984, of course).

With that background in mind, here are the OES scores for the top 10 countries in the medal count.  While our score has improved, only Japan had a lower OES than we did:

1.  United States:  121 total medals (46G/37S/38B) -- OES of 0.555
2.  China:  70 (26/18/26) -- OES of 0.631
3.  Great Britain:  67 (27/23/17) -- OES of 1.971
4.  Russia:  56 (19/18/19) -- OES of 2.545
5.  Germany:  42 (17/10/15) -- OES of 0.875
6.  France:  42 (10/18/14) -- OES of 1.135
7.  Japan:  41 (12/8/21) -- OES of 0.539
8.  Australia:  29 (8/11/10) -- OES of 1.706
9.  Italy:  28 (8/12/8) -- OES of 1.037
10.  Canada:  22 (4/3/15) -- OES of 0.917

So Germany, France, Italy, and Canada were pretty much on track.  The USA, China, and Japan under-performed.  And Great Britain, Russia, and Australia were the over-achievers.

I Owe Sports Illustrated an Apology

Before the Olympics, Sports Illustrated predicted that the United States would win 45 golds and 118 total medals.  I mocked this prediction as too optimistic.  In fact, the United States won 46 golds and 121 total medals -- almost exactly what SI expected.

Sports Illustrated also said that China would win 45 golds and 85 total medals.  I mocked this prediction on the grounds that China would not lose that much ground from its 2012 performance.  In fact, China finished with 26 golds and 70 total medals -- even worse than SI had predicted.

So SI was basically right, and I was entirely wrong.  In fact, the United States beat China by 51 total medals -- the biggest gap between first and second place at a non-boycotted Olympics since 1932.

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 16)

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 15)

End of day 14 medal table (assuming #USA don't appeal that bronze back into their pockets) https://t.co/bpuxciBbDA pic.twitter.com/k7bOHJhNZi

— Claire Phipps (@Claire_Phipps) August 20, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 14)

Huge milestone as the #USA reaches 100 total medals to top the table by a large margin. #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/u3kXt5MEpE

— SuperSport (@SuperSportTV) August 19, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 13)

The top-five in the medal count after today's #Olympics action #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/FzjnwzwFwb

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 18, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 12)

At the end of Day 11, Team #USA leads in all medals.#Rio2016 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/LHgN2eHFoe

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 17, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 11)

Catch up on all of the #Olympic events at #Rio2016 - medal count and more: https://t.co/i4kONSx5Le pic.twitter.com/pDASIhtCD9

— Reuters Sports (@ReutersSports) August 16, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 10)

The latest #medal standings of #Rio2016 pic.twitter.com/hnR23pord4

— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) August 15, 2016

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 9)

Team USA leads China, 17-15, in the third set of the last women's volleyball match of pool play in Brazil. Comments flow ...

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 7)

Standings:

1. United States 16 gold medals, 12 silver 10 bronze (38 total)
2. China 11, 8, 12 (31)
3. Japan 7, 2, 13 (22)
4. Great Britain 6, 6, 6 (18)
5. Australia 5, 5, 6 (16)
6. South Korea 5, 3, 4 (12)
7. Germany 5, 3, 1 (9)
8. Hungary 5, 1, 1 (7)
10. Italy 3, 6, 4 (13)
11. France 3, 4, 5 (12)
12. Kazakhstan 2, 2, 3 (7)
13. Netherlands 2, 2, 2 (6)
14. Thailand 2, 1, 1 (4)
T15. Spain 2, 0, 1 (3)
T15. Switzerland 2, 0, 1 (3)
17. Croatia 2, 0, 0 (2)
18. New Zealand 1, 5, 0 (6)
19. Canada 1, 2, 5 (8)
20. Sweden 1, 2, 1 (4)
T21. Belgium 1, 1, 1 (3)
T21. Brazil 1, 1, 1 (3)
T21. Slovenia 1, 1, 1 (3)
T24. Colombia 1, 1, 0 (2)
T24. Slovakia 1, 1, 0 (2)
T24. Vietnam 1, 1, 0 (2)
T27. Poland 1, 0, 2 (3)
T27. Chinese Taipei 1, 0, 2 (3)
T29. Czech Republic 1, 0, 1 (2)
T29. Ethiopia 1, 0, 1 (2)_
T32. Argentina 1, 0, 0 (1)
T32. Fiji 1, 0, 0 (1)
T32. Kosovo 1, 0, 0 (1)
T32. Kuwait 1, 0, 0 (1)
T32. Romania 1, 0, 0 (1)
37. South Africa 0, 3, 1 (4)
38. North Korea 0, 2, 2 (4)
T39. Denmark 0, 2, 1 (3)
T39. Ukraine 0, 2, 1 (3)
T41. Azerbaijan 0, 2, 0 (2)
T41. Indonesia 0, 2, 0 (2)
T43. Georgia 0, 1, 1 (2)
T43. Lithuania 0, 1, 1 (2)
T45. Ireland 0, 1, 0 (1)
T45. Kenya 0, 1, 0 (1)
T45. Malaysia 0, 1, 0 (1)
T45. Mongolia 0, 1, 0 (1)
T45. Philippines 0, 1, 0 (1)
T45. Turkey 0, 1, 0 (1)
T51. Egypt 0, 0, 2 (2)
T51. Norway 0, 0, 2 (2)
T51. Uzbekistan 0, 0, 2 (2)
T54. Cuba 0, 0, 1 (1)
T54. Estonia 0, 0, 1 (1)
T54. Israel 0, 0, 1 (1)
T54. Kyrgyzstan  0, 0 1 (1)
T54. Portugal 0, 0, 1 (1)
T54. Tunisia 0, 0, 1 (1)
T54. United Arab Emirates 0, 0, 1 (1)

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)

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 5)

It was another fantastic night of U.S. swimming and women's gymnastics success on Channel 6, and I decided I needed to settle down and just watch and enjoy last night. 

I am so glad that it's the swimmers live and the gymnasts on tape delay. As dependable as the Team USA swimmers are, it's nerve-racking to root in real time for the swimmers through medal races that are determined by tenths of seconds--but not nearly as nerve-racking as it would be to root for the Team USA women's gymnasts in real time, as dependable as they are, because that whole sport feels like accidents waiting to happen. 

Anyway, as it is, we've got a pretty good thing going--my wife, Channel 6 and me. Last night, I watched and cheered through the live swimming in prime time. When they showed the Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps medal ceremonies in prime time, I felt pretty good that the Team USA women's gymnasts must've won and they were holding out their medal ceremony for the big Bob Costas show closer at 11. Anyway, when Al Trautwig came on at 10 to talk us through the final two exercises as Team USA worked to protect its lead, I felt confident enough to roll over and doze on the couch, waking up occasionally whenever my wife or he reacted any too loudly. It all worked out fine. U! S! A!

Olympics Day 5

Medal Count:

1.  USA:  9 + 8 + 9 = 26
2.  CHN:  8 + 3 + 6 = 17
3.  JPN:  3 + 1 + 10 = 14
4.  RUS:  3 + 6 + 3 = 12

Here have been the top 3 medal winning countries in recent Summer Olympics (by total medals):

2000:  USA, RUS, CHN.  (JPN was 14th)
2004:  USA, RUS, CHN.  (JPN was 5th)
2008:  USA, CHN, RUS.  (JPN was 11th)
2012:  USA, CHN, RUS.  (JPN was 6th)

So it will be interesting to see if Japan can make a real run at finishing in the top 3.  I've long thought that Japan under-performed in international sports.  Maybe they've decided to take a different approach.

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 4)

Olympics Day 3

The Gold Zone is back in action, with Australia and the USA going at each other in women's field hockey.  The USA leads 2-1 with 1 minute left in the 4th.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are upset that the Olympics are not using the official Chinese flag in medal ceremonies.

XXXI Olympic Summer Games, Rio 2016 (Day 2)

Standings at the start of today:

Australia 2 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze
Hungary 2, 0, 0
United States 1, 4, 0
South Korea 1, 1, 0
Japan 1, 0, 4
Argentina 1, 0, 0
Belgium 1, 0, 0
Thailand 1, 0, 0
Vietnam 1, 0, 0
China 0, 2, 3
Italy 0, 1, 1
Kazakhstan 0, 1, 1
Brazil 0, 1, 0
Denmark 0, 1, 0
Indonesia 0, 1, 0
Canada 0, 0, 1
Poland 0, 0, 1
Spain 0, 0, 1
Uzbekistan 0, 0, 1

(Russia 1, 0, 0)

Medals are scheduled to awarded in 14 events today.