Ronda Rousey is the only one from our side who will be getting a medal in judo. And for her, it's a bronze.
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The women's water polo team marches on, beating Russia 12-7. Meanwhile, the Bryan Brothers will be facing Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka in the semis and the WIlliams sisters are at work against Ai Sugiyama and Ayumi Morita.
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Interesting note about Matthew Emmons, who got silve in the Men's 50-meter Rifle Prone. His wife is Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic. She got the gold. And get this: both of them are from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, the defending NCAA Rifle Champions.
That explains it. Matt owes Kate dinner though, I would imagine. And some. I choose not to comment further on that.
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The next big small country hero is a man by the name of Tuvshinbayar Naidan. His gold in judo, the first-ever gold for Mongolia, caused a party never before seen in Ulan Bator, the nation's capital. They will dedicate a lot of stuff in him name, I guarantee you. It's a national holiday.
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The Cat Returns (in spite of giving up a no-no). Thank you Mother Nature for your divine intervention. The USA reeled off 8 unanswered runs in the 6th inning to take it, 8-1.
Bring on Taiwan-er, Chinese Taipei.
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In spite of our success in gymnastics and swimming, there are some events where we have flat-out failed to show up. Disappointments that demand major administrative overhaul. And I mean MAJOR. So while the day wasn't as lousy as yesterday...we've had our share of lousy performances too.
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AG Kruger III failed to qualify for the final round of the hammer throw. Daniel McCormick lost to Lasha Gujejiani of Georgia. One of the few times where a Georgian outdoes an American. This wasn't the biggest downer today.
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Wouldn't you know it, the next person to dope is a North Korean, followed by a Vietnamese. Kim Jong Su and Thi Ngan Thuong Do doped. For Kim Jong Su, this especially depressing because he won medals in shooting: silver and bronze.
While this is bad for North Korea, its a schadenfruede shooting theatre for the USA. We are now at 44 medals, since Jason Turner gets the bronze.
That's three sheep gone astray. Poor Kim is going to need to defect ASAP in a hurry if he wants to save his life. I would imagine they would execute him for this.
For Thi Ngan, this was unfortunate. She was last in the floor exercise during qualification, but she was misinformed on what to take, and what not take. Given that she's from Vietnam, she may also need to seek asylum fast.
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Perhaps the only major downer today teamwise is the baseball team. They lost to Cuba, 5-4. I don't know about you, but I think the only sports where we are doing reasonably well against Cuba is beach volleyball. That's it.
And to think my Galaxy tying Chivas USA 2-2 earlier tonight was crap enough...we REALLY need to send in our best players a la World Baseball Classic down there. This is unacceptable. We really need to send out our World Baseball Classic squad the next time we compete...which is...2016 at the earliest. Fresno State could beat this USA side. Utterly crap.
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There is some reason to believe that China's women's gymnastics team lied about their age. He Kexin, one of the members was said to be 13 or 14, and not 16. There was an article on this in the Xinhua News, which was taken down, but it did say that she was below the minimum age requirement.
Now, I don't know about the rule if a team lies about their age while winning gold, if it means that they will be stripped or if the gymnast in question is off the record, but let me be honest with you: I don't have any issues of China winning gold, or any medal for that matter. The question is: "Did they play by the rules?" If they didn't (and this is CHINA we're talking about here; they do things a WHOLE LOT DIFFERENTLY when it comes to gray zones like this), then the team needs to be penalized in a manner that is fair to the other athletes and teams competing.
Plain and simple.
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Double sculls has not been friendly to us this Olympics. Our women finish behind the Greeks-of all teams!-to end up racing in the "B" final. Same thing for light weight men's fours. Our team finishes dead last in our semifinal.
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Speaking of absolute crap, archery has to be a big disappointment here in the states. Obviously badminton deserves to be at the top of the list, but to find out that no one from the USA will medal in archery deserves a moment of silence. Victor Wunderle, our best hope for a medal here, loses to Juan Rene Serrano from Mexico, securing our futility.
Crank up the Border Patrol and send in the Minutemen and Taps bugle boy for good measure; archery is now rendered by yours truly as a forgotten sport. And this is from someone who comes from a city with an archery centre that was part of the Olympics in 84.
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