I'm watching Field Hockey and man there are a lot of people on the court at a time. Seems a little cluttered.
Well, there's an example of why sport fencing isn't real fighting- a guy just got his thumb caught between sabre guards, which hurts, yes, and is rolling around on the fucking floor?! WTF?! Can you imagine this shit on a battlefield? Jesus... Typical bloody Italian. I mean, how many times have I had pinkies or thumbs broken and kept going? Fuck's sake, and in one case broke my left wrist in taekwondo and kept fighting with it till I won... All right, I regretted it later, but, still... Now... What the fuck is going on? I can hear muted sounds of another bout, but the camera is showing an empty bit of the stadium! I was complaining enough about the BBC overkill before, but now they're on, taking up airspace that could be used for real programmes, and not even fucking showing what's happening?! Come on you fucking cunts... Over to the women's beach volleyball (which finishes in a minute anyway)
Very good road race by the women too. Marianne Vos is a phenomenal competitor, attacking a dozen times, then being in the break for 40km, then sprinting for the win, doesn't get any more impressive than that. Also nice to see massive crowds on the side of the road for the women as well, despite torrential rain.
The womens gymnastics qualifying round today yielded a shocking result. Jordyn Wieber didn't qualify for the womens individual all around competition. That is a big BIG time shocker. She didn't even have a fall; Jordyn performed well, just a little bit less precise than her normal impeccable standards--nobody has a perfect day all the time. After competition on all 4 apparatus, there were only 4 gymnasts out of all the women who competed who had a composite score of above 60. Jordyn Wieber was one of the elite four. She's has the fourth highest score overall of all the female gymasts who competed from every team. However..... The Olympic committe changed the rules for the AA after 2000 when Romania swept the podium. It used to be that the top twenty-four scorers competed in the AA so you'd get the best athletes. The committee, in their wisdom and trying to be "fair" to the teams with less depth, changed the rules so that only two athletes per country could compete. There's still 24 competitors who qualify, but if there are 3 from one country, the 25th highest scorer would qualify. 20 of the 24 have a lower overall qualifying score than Wieber, but they get to compete and she doesn't. 2 of the top 3 athletes out of the top 4 today were Wieber's teammates, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, Jordyn had a step out of bounds on floor exercise that she normally doesn't have. She was about a tenth behind. 4th individual athlete overall and she's out. How much would that suck after preparing your whole life? She's the 2011 World Champion and she's out. If one of the three ahead of her were from a different country, she'd be in.
That 4X100 Relay Freestyle race is really one of the most exciting events in Swimming and maybe even the entire Olympics. It's all a team thing, and 2 Olympics in a row, it was a very exciting finish.
The Australians were very disappointing, considering who they have in their team. Oh well. Congrats to the French. The 100m freestyle is gonna be a great race.
The French men's swim team took the gold for the 4x100 Freestyle Relay. As for my buddy, Michael Phelps, well, at least there's another silver medal added to his collection.
For whatever it's worth, the men's swim team gave it their best shot. I think back in Beijing, there was more pressure on the team, with Phelps, who already overshadowed all the other swimmers, expecting record wins and more gold medals. So there was always this sense of ”Don't fuck this up for me!” feeling the other swimmers had, though Phelps might not have said that out loud. That pressure really did push the team extra harder.
Looks like the Australians choked given their swimmers and recent form, not that the teams that got the medals didn't deserve it for their great performances. Maybe they've been hanging around with Adam Scott in the last week. Oh, well. The men might have missed out but the women coming out on top balances it out. That's the great thing about sport, "certain" wins turn into defeats and what looks like no chance turns into Bradburies.
I was chuffed to see Beccy Addlington get bronze when she'd been the 8th slowest in the heats! Hopefully she'll get Gold in the 800m.
I was out and about most of yesterday, so didn't see anything much live but was glad to see she got something. I didn't think she would, to be honest. Settling in to watch the synchro diving now; it's a pretty damn cool sport from a spectator perspective. Good chance of a GB medal too, fingers crossed!
Well given its her weaker distance and several faster swimmers have come to the fore since Beijing, and given she was 8th in the heats it was an excellent result really. Just had a glance at the diving. Looking good so far!