But first a review of yesterday: if you happened to catch the women's 400 individual medley swimming event last night, you probably heard the husband and coach of Hungarian gold medal winner Katinka Hosszu, Shane Tusup. He was the one that sounded like the cross between Ric Flair and his famous "WOOO!" and an annoying alarm clock. Oh by the way, in case you didn't see him on TV or the web last night: (screencap courtesy of thecomeback.com)
We get it bro, you lift.
Seriously though, Hosszu's performance was mesmerizing; 4:26.36, which shattered the previous World Record by more than two seconds...
Hmmm...now I don't want to call shenanigans here, but a world record being obliterated like that reminds me of another such performance; Ben Johnson in the 1988 100meter sprint. And what happened after that? A positive drug test and disgrace from thereon out.
This isn't to say that this is the case here, because Hosszu is the iron lady of swimming; holding numerous titles in Europe as well as the World Record holder in the 200 IM, plus she is the two-time defending FINA Female Swimmer of the Year. She is that damn good...
...but America's Madeline Dirado won silver, so if something did happen.
Speaking of Americans taking gold, 19-year old Virginia Thrasher of Springfield, VA took home the first gold of the Rio Games, winning the Women's 10m Air Rifle event in Shooting. While the triumph was noteworthy, the fact that it came in a shooting event is a cruel irony considering the headlines that have emanated from these United States the past 12 months. And if you look around on the web, you'll probably find a lot of snarky comments on Twitter and other social media outlets regarding said feat. Can't we as a nation enjoy the fact that this was the first medal event and we got gold in it???
Thrasher's gold was the only one for America yesterday, but Team USA did get three additional silver medals (not including the Dirado silver mentioned above):
Men's team archery
Chase Kalisz in the Men's swimming 400 individual medley
Women's swimming 4x100 freestyle relay.
In total the 5 medals ties the US with China and Japan. Australia and Hungary each have two gold medals to lead that category.
Oh, and the last event of the day, a beach volleyball contest between the US team of Kerri Walsh-Jennings and April Ross against the Aussie team of Mariafe Artacho del Solar and Nicole Laird, finished at 1:09am Rio time...by comparison every sporting event in the US had concluded by that time except one: Angels and Mariners baseball from Seattle. Talk about pushing it to last call!
Sunday's events (All Times EDT)
Day 2 of the Games starts bright and early (7:30am EDT) with preliminaries/second chance races (or as the Programme calls them, repechages) in Men's and Women's rowing. There are medal events in eight sports:
Archery: Women's team knockout stage, which unfortunately does not include the US; we sent only one female archer to Rio, a team consists of three. First round starts at 8am. Gold medal match start time 4:07pm
Cycling: Women's Road Race with 68 riders from 39 countries, including four from the USA. Start time 11:15am
Diving: Women's 3m Synchronized Springboard Final. No Americans in the field. Start time 3pm
Fencing: Men's Foil Individual. 35 Fencers from 19 countries, including three Americans. Prelims start at 8am, Gold Medal bout at 4:45pm
Judo: Men's 66kg and Women's 52kg. No Americans in these events HOWEVER, the first ever Olympic participant from Kosovo is in the women's event, Majlinda Kelmindi. Tournament starts at 9am, final session starts at 2:30pm
Shooting: Women's 10m Air Pistol and the Women's Trap. Lydia Paterson competes in the Air Pistol while Corey Cogdell competes in the Trap for Team USA. Preliminaries start at 8am for both events. Air Pistol Finals are at 10am, while the Trap Gold Medal match is at 2:45pm
Weightlifting: Women's 53kg and Men's 56kg. No Americans in either event.
Swimming: Men's 100m Breaststroke Final, including Cody Miller and Kevin Cordes of the US. This event has not been won by an American since 1984. Start time approx. 9:53pm
Women's 100m Butterfly Final, including American Dana Vollmer. Start time 9:03pm
Women's 400m Freestyle. Both heats and Final are today. Medal favorites Kate Ledecki and Leah Smith represent the US. Heats begin at 1:30pm, Final is at 10pm
Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay. Heats begin at 1:54pm. Final at 10:52pm.
Also: Serena Williams begins her repeat gold medal quest in Women's Tennis, US faces Canada in Men's Volleyball, Women's Rugby vs Australia (God help us), Women's Basketball begins their gold run against Senegal, as well as prelims in Beach Volleyball, Slalom Canoeing, Equestrian Eventing Dressage, and Rowing.
Enjoy your Sunday!
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