Mother Nature Playing Havoc
Day 2 was supposed to kick off with preliminaries in Men's Rowing Single Sculls. However, treacherous conditions caused the entire program for the day to be cancelled. Can you blame them? For starters I would not be kayaking if there was a chance my boat would capsize; and did I mention that the water there isn't very good? As in, too polluted to hold a proper competition in? Nonetheless, they will try again today at 7:30am EDT.
That Ain't No Road Course...That's A Roller Coaster
If any of you saw either of the two cycling road races over the weekend, you are probably well aware of how dangerous that course is. But for those who didn't, let's look at a profile of said course, shall we?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Profile for the Olympic road race <a href="http://t.co/s5Yi6Hpjck">pic.twitter.com/s5Yi6Hpjck</a></p>— Fleur (@vamosalberto) <a href="https://twitter.com/vamosalberto/status/625224666370678784">July 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That's a 1500-ft climb and descent...FOUR TIMES on the last part of the course.
Saturday's men's race, won by Belgian Greg Van Aldermaet, was dangerous enough. Sunday's women's race, on practically the same course as the men's, was just as terrifying and almost tragic; Netherlands' Annemiek van Vleuten was leading the race when she lost control of her bike and crashed into a ditch. Thankfully, van Vleuten is recovering and appears she will make a full recovery.
That descent though had riders going at speeds upwards of 50mph, and with tight hairpin turns going down the hill, it's more like a roller coaster than a steep descent. Hell, even the Tour de France doesn't usally have courses that fast! And you may have noticed if you were watching a red circle with the number 30 on it on said hill? That's the speed limit for automobiles...in KILOMETERS per hour. So going 50mph in a not quite 20 zone on a bicycle. That's not reckless riding, that's reckless endangerment. Hopefully an issue the UCI (sport's governing body) will address soon, even though this particular course will thankfully no longer be used.
A Breakthrough And Feelgood Story:
Yesterday, I mentioned that the former Yugoslav region of Kosovo, who broke away from Serbia in 2008 and declared independence, was making its first appearance in an Olympic event with Majlinda Kelmindi in the 52kg Women's Judo event. Well not only did Kelmendi, a two-time champion while competing under the Serbian flag, represented Kosovo in its first ever event, she won the gold medal! Talk about a debut! One event, one gold medal. I don't know if outside of the first Modern Olympic Games of 1896 if an athlete won its first ever gold for his/her country in that country's first ever Olympic Event (and I don't have time to do the research). What an accomplishment for a nation that has it's share of conflict and strife over the past two decades plus. Congratulations, Majlinda!
Upset City:
While Kelmendi's win wasn't really considered an upset, there were two notable upsets on the tennis courts. First the Williams sisters, Venus & Serena, suffered an upset loss in their opening round women's doubles match. Ouch. Serena had won her singles match earlier in the day, but Venus was bounced Saturday in her singles match. Although that upset was noteworthy, it was not THE upset in tennis on Sunday. That belonged to Argentine Juan Martin del Potro who took out world #1 Novak Djokovic for a second straight Olympiad in straight sets. With Joker out, it appears that a likely showdown between Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal will take place for the gold medal on the men's side.
And speaking of upsets...
Rio, We Have A Problem...
No, I'm not referring to the multitude of gaffes and problems plaguing Rio in the buildup to these games, but Brazil's men's football team. Quick recap to put things in perspective. Brazil has more World Cup championships than anyone with five. In 2014, they hosted the World Cup and appeared to be a shoo-in for title number six.
Then in the semifinal round, Germany happened.
Then in the third place game, Netherlands happened, and Brazil didn't even get a medal, in their own World Cup.
Fast forward now to earlier this summer and La Copa America here in the United States. Brazil certainly didn't look like the classic Brazil of before, opening with a scoreless draw against Ecuador. An easy win over Haiti set the stage for a showdown with Peru, where a draw would put Brazil into the knockout round.
Then the handball happened:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/09geZmN9VaQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Ouch. Out of the tournament, and as JP Dellacamera correctly predicted, Dunga was sacked.
So now here we are at the Olympics, and their soccer tournament, which is by the way much different than the World Cup. Brazil as the host nation, were hopeful to win...or at least get into the knockout stage with Denmark, South Africa and Iraq in their group. However so far, all they've mustered are scoreless draws vs. South Africa and Iraq.
South Africa and Iraq. Drawing against mighty Brazil.
This is like seeing North Carolina basketball plummet to the bottom of the ACC, or the LA Lakers having a woeful season...oh wait.
So now Brazil enters their last match vs Denmark on Wednesday needing a win, OR a draw AND a draw between Iraq vs South Africa AND Brazil scores one more goal vs DEN than Iraq does vs RSA. If both Brazil and Iraq draw and both score the same amount of goals, then a drawing will take place to determine who advances. Sheesh!
Gymnastics Drama
The outstanding performance of the US Women's team during their qualifying rotations wasn't the only storyline from the gymnastics venue on Sunday. First, there was an interesting dichotomy in the first session of the day, one of the mixed groups featured Eun Ju Lee, a gymnast from South Korea, and Un Jong Hong from North Korea. In one of the more poignant moments of these Games, the two actually got together to pose for a picture:
(Reuters)
It should be noted I watched this particular grouping via the internet, and I didn't really see Jong interact with the other competitors. I can only hope that this picture doesn't raise the ire of officials in Pyongyang. However, Un did qualify for the final in the Vault apparatus, where she was second only behind Simone Biles (who is also the highest All-Around qualifier, more on THAT later). Eun on the other hand, was unable to qualify for either the all-around or any apparatus event.
In that same subdivision was the team from China. Now if you remember eight years ago in Beijing, there was a huge controversy that surfaced surrounding the ages of the gymnasts from there. Well, take a look here in this picture taken by the Xinhua news agency and look at the front row. That's the women's gymnastics team. Tell me those girls are at least 16 years of age (the minimum requirement for Olympic participation). I sure don't think they are. They finished second in the team qualification, but I'm sure this may be a developing story going forward.
And to point out how emotional the Olympics are, check out this photo I took yesterday at a despondent Larissa Miller of Australia as she finds out her score on the Uneven Bars aren't good enough to advancer her to the Final:
One other noteworthy news item was incredibly frightening but inspring at the same time. Elissa Downie of Great Britain was on floor exercise when she miscalculated a tumble and landed on her head and neck. Miraculously she stood back up and appeared to shrug it off before leaving the mat and being assisted to the locker room. Even more incredibly was she came back and competed in the vault routine despite the sore neck. And not only did she help Great Britain qualify for the team event. She qualified for the All-Around Final! Now that's some serious grit!
So after all was said and done, the defending All-Around champion, Gabby Douglas, wound up being the odd girl out. Despite finishing third overall in qualifying, a quirk in the rules will prevent her from defending her gold medal. Only two gymnasts per national team can participate in the All-Around Final, and the two that qualified ahead of her just happen to be her US teammates; Biles, and Ali Raisman.
.
Ruling The Pool
After failing to grab gold on Saturday, The US Swim Team got back its gold swagger with two wins, Kate Ledecky's DOMINATING performance in the women's 400 free, and the US Men's 4x100 Medley Relay team climbing back to the top of the podium with their win, led of course by the greatest swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps. He didn't swim the fastest leg of the group (that was anchor Nathan Adrian), but his reaction time off the starting block at the first exchange won the US the gold. That and an incredible push off the blocks at the turnaround. He took an advantage of 0.02 seconds and turned it into nearly a full second. Adrian's anchor leg was just as impressive as the Americans won by six tenths of a second.
(AP/Yahoo)
Monday's Highlights: (All times EDT)
And now a rundown of key events to look forward to by sport:
Archery: American McKenzie Brown participates in the early elimation rounds of the women's individual event. Her first match is at 8:26am against Claudia Mandia of Italy. Should she advance she shoots at 9:05 against either San Yu Htwe of Myanmar, or Taru Kuoppa of Finland.
Gymnastics: Men's Team Final starts at 3pm (likely to be tape-delayed for US Prime Time viewing). Team US is involved along with the teams from China, Russia, Japan, GB, Brazil, Ukraine and Germany.
Basketball: Both US Men's and Women's teams are in action today. The women against Spain at 11am, while the men take on Venezuela at 6pm
Beach Volleyball: Jacob Gibb and Casey Patterson square off against Austria's Robin Seidl and Alexander Huber at 3:30pm
Canoe Slalom: David McEwan and Casey Eichfeld are in the men's canoe doubles qualifying heats at 11:32am and 1:22pm, while Ashley Nee is in the women's kayak singles heats at 12:20pm and 2:10pm
Diving: David Boudia and Steele Johnson compete in the 10m men's synchronized platform final at 3pm.
Equestrian: The cross-country phase of the Eventing three-day (both individual and team, including four riders from the US) starts at 9am.
Fencing: Women's Sabre Individual tournament starts at 8am. Three Americans are competing; Mariel Zagunis, Dagmara Wozniak (I wonder if she's related to Steve Wozniak of Apple?) and Ibtahaj Muhammad. Gold Medal bout is at 4:45pm
Field Hockey: US Women take on Australia at 9am.
Judo: Early rounds of the Men's 73kg tournament starts at 9am featuring Nicholas Delpopolo. The Women's 57-kg tournament with Marti Malloy (who's already in the round of 16) also takes place. Repechage bouts and medal matches start at 2:30pm
Rowing: already underway (7:30am). Featured events include heats in Men's and Women's eights, Men's and women's Double Sculls, Women's Pairs, and Men's Fours.
Rugby 7: US Women take on Fiji in a classification match at 1pm. Gold Medal match at 6pm.
Sailing: begins at 12:05pm
Shooting: 10m Men's Air Rifle begins at 8am. Americans Daniel Lowe and Lucas Kozeniesky compete with the finals at 11am. The Men's Trap competition also takes place, with semis and finals starting at 2pm. No Americans are competing.
Swimming: Finals in the 200m Men's Freestyle, Men's and Women's 100m Backstroke, and the Women's 100m Breaststroke beginning at 9:21pm
Table Tennis: Lily Zhang competes in Round 3 of Women's Singles at 9am.
Tennis: Serena faces Alice Cornet of France at 5:45pm
Volleyball: US Women vs Netherlands at 2pm
Water Polo: US Men vs Spain at 10:40am
Weightlifting: Men's 62kg starts at 9am; Medal Round at 6pm. Women's 58 kg starts at 11:30am; Medal Round at 2:30pm.
WHEW!! That's a lot for a Monday. Enjoy!
