Day One:
The Opening Ceremony was as fantastic an event as I've seen since Cathy Freeman stole the show on that amazing night in Sydney in 2000. Everything was epic, from the music to the fireworks to the Queen and James Bond in Buckingham Palace, Danny Boyle crafted a superb masterpiece. It was good to see that the actual lighting of the flame was done in a manner that departed from the norm. Instead of famous former Olympic athletes or other sportsmen - I can't understand how people could imagine that David Beckham might've gotten the nod - it was ignited by the future of British sport, which was a nice touch, and will be long remembered.
Congratulations to China and their shooter Siling Yi who won the first gold medal of the Games of the 30th Olympiad, in the Women's 10m Air Rifle at the Royal Artillery Barracks. That's a wonderful accomplishment.
GOLD AUSTRALIA!! The girls in the 4x100m freestyle relay broke an Olympic record (3:33.15) and took home our country's first gold medal! Alicia Coutts, Cate Campbell, Britany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger, welcome to Australian sporting immortality! Schalnger's final leg was perfect. Go Aussie!! Pulsating call by Ray Hadley. Say what you will about his non-sporting radio broadcasts, but he brought the moment into Australian lounge rooms beautifully. So great to hear that Australian national anthem ring out!!
The men's cycling road race didn't quite go to plan for Team Great Britain, who tried and tried and tried and ultimately failed to control the 250km event that was run at a furious pace through the streets and parks of London. The final sprint towards Buckingham Palace that Team GB wanted never materialised, the race never run the way they wanted it to be run. Really, who could've imagined that the medal places would be filled by riders from, in order, Kazakhstan, Colombia and Norway, when it seemed like Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish were poised to deliver a gold-silver blow for the locals.
Michael Phelps and his quest for immortality got off to a shaky start at the pool on the first night of finals, finishing 4th in the Men's 400m Individual Medley. It was another American, the quickly-emerging Ryan Lochte who won, checking out halfway through the race and wasn't headed after that. He was on World Record pace during the first half of the event, but swimming on his own without any meaningful competition probably squashed that chance. Still, an impressive swim from the American, who the experts say might be just as good as Phelps. Watch out for him in four years time? Watch out for him in the next few days. It'll be great to see a neck-and-neck Phelps vs. Lochte race like we saw Hackett vs. Thorpe in Sydney.
Twenty-year-old Sun Yang can lay claim to breaking the the first WR of the London 2012 swimming competition, winning the men's 400m freestyle with the reigning world champion Taehwan Park coming in second. That was a story in itself, the North Korean having earlier been sensationally disqualified from his heat and then, even more sensationally, later reinstated for the final. There was no shortage of pool-deck drama on the opening day.
Stephanie Rice had a Michael Phelps moment, not exactly showing her best - or at least the best that we've become used to seeing - in the women's 400m Individual Medley. Although she was up in the lead early on, she faded badly, coming home in sixth, well adrift of the wonderful USA vs. China battle that ended with 16-year-old Chinese swimmer Shiwen Ye smashing the world record, with her Chinese compatriot LI Xuanxu in third. Very good start in the pool for the Chinese team.
Australia got one over Great Britain - never a bad thing, especially in the current sporting climate with them beating us regularly in just about everything - with the Opals, favourite for gold in women's basketball, doing their work nicely, recording a 74-58 win over the home team. Business as usual for the Opals, with Lauren Jackson scoring 18 and Suzie Batkovic grabbing 10. Of course, the more stern tests for the ladies are yet to arrive.
Day Two:
For all intents and purposes, Day One was a better one for Australia than Day Two.
New Zealand scored a nice goal inside the first two minutes of their clash with Australia's Hockeyroos and the Aussie girls, who always seemed one nice pass away from really threatening the New Zealand goal, succumbed to our cousins from across the Tasman for the first time in Olympic competition. It might've been much worse for Australia had their goalie, Toni Croft, not made a number of brilliant saves to keep the final score to a more flattering 1-0 defeat. The blue turf and pink sidelines with yellow hockey ball was certainly an interesting look.
It wasn't much better for the Australian men's basketball team, with the Boomers falling to Brazil 75-71 in their opening game. That first-up loss may well mean a quarter final contest with the formidable and daunting Team USA, and it was a loss very much brought about by turnovers and execution issues, particularly in a disastrous third quarter. The last-gasp comeback, spearheaded by NBA star Patty Mills and Joe Ingles wasn't quite enough, and next up, medal contenders Spain. Really would've loved to have seen Andrew Bogut out there. He might've been the difference between a narrow loss and a narrow win. Even so, the Boomers campaign is not, as has been suggested in some circles, "in tatters.". That's just defeatism. Considering Australia has but one NBA player on it's roster - Mills - we punch above our weight.
Finally, the Team USA Men's Basketball team got into action, taking on France - it seems quite a day for USA vs. France contests - and the not-quite Dream Team did it in style, easily besting the tricolour nation 98-71 after a stop-start first half. Kevin Durant led all scorers with 22, while Kobe Bryant started slowly, scoring only ten points. Probably a good game to shake off the cobwebs and get the tournament rolling. Make no mistake, this team will win the Gold medal. I honestly can't see anyone coming close, let alone beating them.
And the British complain about Australians being whingers and whiners? Well, Mark Cavendish, you might not have won the men's cycling road race on Day One, but you certainly excelled in the press afterward, blaming the Australians for stopping you from winning the host nation's first gold medal. Silly me, Mr Cavendish, I had no idea that it was the fault of the Australians. I figured that it was the Kazakh, Colombian and Norwegian riders who finished 1-2-3 who were actually the ones at fault for you not winning a medal. Shut up, man. Just shut up.
The Missile, James Magnussen, really had a misfire, and the Australians, red-hot favourites for gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the pool tonight, finished a very disappointing fourth. I suppose most of the country was entitled to think that we were, if not dead-set certainties, certainly reasonably good things after Magnussen's heat swim and the boys coming into the team for the finals, but it wasn't to be, with the French coming from nearly another postcode to beat America on a pulsating final leg that reminded me of the same event in Sydney. You know, when Garry Hall Jr. promised that he'd smash us like guitars. At least the Americans didn't get gold. Masterful last leg by the French, and a well-deserved medal. Magunssen was speechless after the race, and rightly so. It wasn't our finest moment.
Better news in the pool for Australia: Christian Sprenger, about to give swimming up eighteen months ago because he'd lost the drive to train, scored a surprise silver medal in the 100m breaststroke behind the flying South Africa, Cameron Van Der Burgh, who broke a world record in a time of 58:46. And Alicia Coutts came home for the bronze in the women's 100m butterfly behind gold medal winner Dan Vollmer of the United States, who also broke the World Record, swimming 55:98.
Australia's medal tally after Day Two: 1 Gold, one Silver, one Bronze. Total: 3. Rank: 8
New Zealand scored a nice goal inside the first two minutes of their clash with Australia's Hockeyroos and the Aussie girls, who always seemed one nice pass away from really threatening the New Zealand goal, succumbed to our cousins from across the Tasman for the first time in Olympic competition. It might've been much worse for Australia had their goalie, Toni Croft, not made a number of brilliant saves to keep the final score to a more flattering 1-0 defeat. The blue turf and pink sidelines with yellow hockey ball was certainly an interesting look.
It wasn't much better for the Australian men's basketball team, with the Boomers falling to Brazil 75-71 in their opening game. That first-up loss may well mean a quarter final contest with the formidable and daunting Team USA, and it was a loss very much brought about by turnovers and execution issues, particularly in a disastrous third quarter. The last-gasp comeback, spearheaded by NBA star Patty Mills and Joe Ingles wasn't quite enough, and next up, medal contenders Spain. Really would've loved to have seen Andrew Bogut out there. He might've been the difference between a narrow loss and a narrow win. Even so, the Boomers campaign is not, as has been suggested in some circles, "in tatters.". That's just defeatism. Considering Australia has but one NBA player on it's roster - Mills - we punch above our weight.
Finally, the Team USA Men's Basketball team got into action, taking on France - it seems quite a day for USA vs. France contests - and the not-quite Dream Team did it in style, easily besting the tricolour nation 98-71 after a stop-start first half. Kevin Durant led all scorers with 22, while Kobe Bryant started slowly, scoring only ten points. Probably a good game to shake off the cobwebs and get the tournament rolling. Make no mistake, this team will win the Gold medal. I honestly can't see anyone coming close, let alone beating them.
And the British complain about Australians being whingers and whiners? Well, Mark Cavendish, you might not have won the men's cycling road race on Day One, but you certainly excelled in the press afterward, blaming the Australians for stopping you from winning the host nation's first gold medal. Silly me, Mr Cavendish, I had no idea that it was the fault of the Australians. I figured that it was the Kazakh, Colombian and Norwegian riders who finished 1-2-3 who were actually the ones at fault for you not winning a medal. Shut up, man. Just shut up.
The Missile, James Magnussen, really had a misfire, and the Australians, red-hot favourites for gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay at the pool tonight, finished a very disappointing fourth. I suppose most of the country was entitled to think that we were, if not dead-set certainties, certainly reasonably good things after Magnussen's heat swim and the boys coming into the team for the finals, but it wasn't to be, with the French coming from nearly another postcode to beat America on a pulsating final leg that reminded me of the same event in Sydney. You know, when Garry Hall Jr. promised that he'd smash us like guitars. At least the Americans didn't get gold. Masterful last leg by the French, and a well-deserved medal. Magunssen was speechless after the race, and rightly so. It wasn't our finest moment.
Better news in the pool for Australia: Christian Sprenger, about to give swimming up eighteen months ago because he'd lost the drive to train, scored a surprise silver medal in the 100m breaststroke behind the flying South Africa, Cameron Van Der Burgh, who broke a world record in a time of 58:46. And Alicia Coutts came home for the bronze in the women's 100m butterfly behind gold medal winner Dan Vollmer of the United States, who also broke the World Record, swimming 55:98.
Australia's medal tally after Day Two: 1 Gold, one Silver, one Bronze. Total: 3. Rank: 8
Day Three:
Not the greatest day ever, but not an entirely bad one, either.
Australia's men's hockey team, the Kookaburras, opened their Olympic campaign and after a somewhat slow start the Olympic favourites got their campaign off to the best possible start, recording a 6-0 win over South Africa in a battle of the No. 1 seed vs. No. 12 seed. The Kookaburras showed why they are favourites to win Gold in London, with the dynamic duo of Eddie Ockenden and Jamie Dwyer cutting the South Africans to shreds in the second stanza. Dwyer, one of the veterans of the team, is a class act, a superstar of the sport and showed why, netting a hat trick to propel the Australians to a shut-out victory. Can't have started much better than that.
On the flip side, the Australian women's basketball team, the Opals, suffered what can only be described as a shock overtime loss to France, which will make their quest for Gold a little more difficult. That the game progressed to the OT frame was amazing in of itself, the Opals down by 3 points right at the very end when Belinda Snell of the Bulleen Boomers in Australia's WNBL launched a Hail Mary shot from the wrong side of half-court as time expired, only to see it hit nothing but net. DAGGER! Three points, tie game, overtime. Sadly, with the unexpected loss to the French, this highlight probably won't get the same exposure that it might have had the Opals won, and that's a shame. Snell was as clutch as you like. Incredible stuff.
Well, the controversial and divisive Nick D'Arcy is on his way home from the Olympics, having failed to qualify for the final of the 200m butterfly, after a poor heat and a semi-final that didn't bring with it a better result. Sixth wasn't enough to get him into the final. Thus, the Olympic journey of a man who, in my opinion - one held by a large number of Australians and swimming observers the world over, I'm sure - is done and dusted within twelve hours and now, thanks to that incident with Kenrick Monk and the photos taken in a gun broker's store, apparently cool but, really, just stupid, he's on his way home and won't get a chance to represent his country at the closing ceremony. Rather an apt end, if you ask me. I don't believe that breaking the jaw of a fellow athlete in an alcohol-fuelled rage fits in with the Olympic ideals that the IOC try so hard to uphold. Good on FOXTEL's Ray Hadley and Rebecca Wilson for saying what so many of us are thinking during their broadcast of his heat races.
Better news from the pool, with Emily Seebohm coming home second behind the American Missy Franklin in 100m backstroke final, narrowly missing the Gold medal and blaming her obsession with social media afterward. Regardless, this was an impressive result, and a medal, not quite the colour we all wanted, but a bright moment in a swimming program where there have been more dark spots than bright thus far. The Americans swept the 100m backstroke finals, with the mammoth Matthew Grevers winning the men's race.
Though not a medal, Lethal Leisel Jones showed a few people the cue for Humble Pie, coming home a very respectable fifth in the 100m breaststroke final. For a girl some sections of the media cruelly decided was "fat" and couldn't be expected to do much of anything in the pool after a somewhat unflattering photo of her emerged in the lead-up to the London 2012 opening ceremony, she went pretty well. Good on Leisel for always showing a brave face and for proving a few critics wrong with a solid swim. Fifth in the world is far from anything to sneeze at. As happy as she was at the end of the race, you'd swear she'd won a medal.
So a Chinese doctor is pointing the figure at Michael Phelps as a possible drug cheat? Okay, my friend, you might want to look just a little closer to home. The sixteen-year-old Ye Shiwen seems to be able to swim faster than some of the best men in the world. Her final freestyle lap time of 28.93 seconds in the 400m individual medley was faster than what the flying American Ryan Lochte swum over the same distance in the men's 400 IM. Hang on...yeah. The Chinese have jumped to her defence, of course. They're not going to throw their new national sensation under the bus, but with the previous form that the Chinese have, it's no wonder people are speculating as they are.The executive director of the USA Swimming Coaches Association, John Leonard, described Ye’s performance as “unbelievable”, “suspicious” and “disturbing”. He also called the 100m of freestyle in the IM as "impossible." There might be more to play out on this story.
In rowing, the Australian men's coxless fours pretty well anhilated the competition and will be the quickest qualifier for the final with a time of 5:76.06. Our closest rival for the gold - surprise, surprise - the Team Great Britain crew seemingly held something back for the medal roumd, rowing a conservative time at around 5:50. The interesting thing is that the Aussie crew reckons they can yet get more speed from their boat. If so, watch out! The final promises to be one of epic proportions, with the Brits figuring to go quicker, too.
Australia's medal tally after Day Three: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze. Total: 4. Rank: 10. The good news? We still have more gold medals than Great Britain.
Australia's men's hockey team, the Kookaburras, opened their Olympic campaign and after a somewhat slow start the Olympic favourites got their campaign off to the best possible start, recording a 6-0 win over South Africa in a battle of the No. 1 seed vs. No. 12 seed. The Kookaburras showed why they are favourites to win Gold in London, with the dynamic duo of Eddie Ockenden and Jamie Dwyer cutting the South Africans to shreds in the second stanza. Dwyer, one of the veterans of the team, is a class act, a superstar of the sport and showed why, netting a hat trick to propel the Australians to a shut-out victory. Can't have started much better than that.
On the flip side, the Australian women's basketball team, the Opals, suffered what can only be described as a shock overtime loss to France, which will make their quest for Gold a little more difficult. That the game progressed to the OT frame was amazing in of itself, the Opals down by 3 points right at the very end when Belinda Snell of the Bulleen Boomers in Australia's WNBL launched a Hail Mary shot from the wrong side of half-court as time expired, only to see it hit nothing but net. DAGGER! Three points, tie game, overtime. Sadly, with the unexpected loss to the French, this highlight probably won't get the same exposure that it might have had the Opals won, and that's a shame. Snell was as clutch as you like. Incredible stuff.
Well, the controversial and divisive Nick D'Arcy is on his way home from the Olympics, having failed to qualify for the final of the 200m butterfly, after a poor heat and a semi-final that didn't bring with it a better result. Sixth wasn't enough to get him into the final. Thus, the Olympic journey of a man who, in my opinion - one held by a large number of Australians and swimming observers the world over, I'm sure - is done and dusted within twelve hours and now, thanks to that incident with Kenrick Monk and the photos taken in a gun broker's store, apparently cool but, really, just stupid, he's on his way home and won't get a chance to represent his country at the closing ceremony. Rather an apt end, if you ask me. I don't believe that breaking the jaw of a fellow athlete in an alcohol-fuelled rage fits in with the Olympic ideals that the IOC try so hard to uphold. Good on FOXTEL's Ray Hadley and Rebecca Wilson for saying what so many of us are thinking during their broadcast of his heat races.
Better news from the pool, with Emily Seebohm coming home second behind the American Missy Franklin in 100m backstroke final, narrowly missing the Gold medal and blaming her obsession with social media afterward. Regardless, this was an impressive result, and a medal, not quite the colour we all wanted, but a bright moment in a swimming program where there have been more dark spots than bright thus far. The Americans swept the 100m backstroke finals, with the mammoth Matthew Grevers winning the men's race.
Though not a medal, Lethal Leisel Jones showed a few people the cue for Humble Pie, coming home a very respectable fifth in the 100m breaststroke final. For a girl some sections of the media cruelly decided was "fat" and couldn't be expected to do much of anything in the pool after a somewhat unflattering photo of her emerged in the lead-up to the London 2012 opening ceremony, she went pretty well. Good on Leisel for always showing a brave face and for proving a few critics wrong with a solid swim. Fifth in the world is far from anything to sneeze at. As happy as she was at the end of the race, you'd swear she'd won a medal.
So a Chinese doctor is pointing the figure at Michael Phelps as a possible drug cheat? Okay, my friend, you might want to look just a little closer to home. The sixteen-year-old Ye Shiwen seems to be able to swim faster than some of the best men in the world. Her final freestyle lap time of 28.93 seconds in the 400m individual medley was faster than what the flying American Ryan Lochte swum over the same distance in the men's 400 IM. Hang on...yeah. The Chinese have jumped to her defence, of course. They're not going to throw their new national sensation under the bus, but with the previous form that the Chinese have, it's no wonder people are speculating as they are.The executive director of the USA Swimming Coaches Association, John Leonard, described Ye’s performance as “unbelievable”, “suspicious” and “disturbing”. He also called the 100m of freestyle in the IM as "impossible." There might be more to play out on this story.
In rowing, the Australian men's coxless fours pretty well anhilated the competition and will be the quickest qualifier for the final with a time of 5:76.06. Our closest rival for the gold - surprise, surprise - the Team Great Britain crew seemingly held something back for the medal roumd, rowing a conservative time at around 5:50. The interesting thing is that the Aussie crew reckons they can yet get more speed from their boat. If so, watch out! The final promises to be one of epic proportions, with the Brits figuring to go quicker, too.
Australia's medal tally after Day Three: 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze. Total: 4. Rank: 10. The good news? We still have more gold medals than Great Britain.
Day Four:
These Olympics are flying past, and even though Australia hasn't done as well as we'd hoped - but about as well as media reports suggested we might do - there's this undeniable pulling power associated with the Olympics. We are sad, of course, that our own athletes aren't going so well and involved in a veritable gold rush, but there is so much sport, even obscure stuff, and people, at least according to Twitter, Facebook, message boards and word of mouth, are lapping it up. I know I am! It's great, and having it only once every four years helps preserve the excitement of the event.
My biggest take-away out of the early days of competition comes from the pool. Australia seems to do wonderfully in heats and semi-finals - Seebohm, the men's 4x100m final, Bronte Barratt to name just a few - and then bomb out something shocking in the finals, when it really counts. If only there was some way that this trend could be reversed. Sub-par effort in the heats, just make the final, blitz then when you're going for it all. Remember Atlanta 1996? Kieran Perkins barely made the 1500m final, but absolutely brained them when it counted. There's a blueprint if ever there's been one.
Congratulations to Bronte Barratt, who finished third in the final of the women's 200m freestyle final behind the American Allison Schmitt and the Frenchwoman Camille Muffat. America and France beating us in the pool? It's been like a broken record for much of this swimming meet. Regardless, a good swim by Barratt, and another medal to keep Australia hovering inside the Top 15 on the overall table.
Oh hey, that guy, James Magnussen! You might've heard of him. They called him The Missile until a few days ago, and then you might've heard jokes about how The Missile misfired and all of that. Well, despite, or maybe because of, the country's reaction, that man has seemingly run the gauntlet of emotions since failing to do anything particularly spectacular in the first final of his first Olympics, the 4x100m freestyle relay, and came out on the good side. He wasn't exactly feted by the masses after a somewhat sluggish heat swim in the men's individual 100m freestyle event, but now that The Missile's through to the final as the fastest qualifier, you can bet that the nation's love affair - and particularly that of the media contingent - is back on. Good for the kid. His acceleration was incredible, and I have a feeling he'll be installed as favourite, for all that that means. I'm apparently in the minority here, because I hold the opinion that we need to support our athletes, regardless. I mean, the guy had a bad swim. He didn't disgrace our country by urinating on the Horse Guards or anything along those lines. Give him a break. Looking forward to the final. A win really shuts some people up.
Congratulations to Alicia Coutts, who picked up another Silver medal for Australia at the pool, coming home behind the emerging Chinese sensation Ye Shiwen - remember her, the sixteen-year-old swimmer whose 100m individual medley freestyle split was faster than that of American champ Ryan Lochte - in the women's 200m Individual Medley. Australia's Stephanie Rice finished fourth. Coutts was right in the hunt in the final lap, but the incredible finishing speed of the Chinese swimmer in the last half-lap of the evebt unfortunately meant she had to settle for second place. If this girl, Ye Shiwen, is completely clean, she's an amazing phenomenon.
It must be said - and it is something that I didn't think would be said - but the great American Michael Phelps isn't the same swimmer that we saw in Beijing four years ago. Sure, he's broken a record, snatching up his 18th Olympic medal, and is still a brilliant swimmer, but even in his pet events, the American superstar doesn't look quite as polished and smooth so far this Olympics. Case in point, the final of the 200m butterfly, which used to just about belong to Phelps. He can lay claim to the four fastest times in history and his world record in that event is more than one second faster than the second-best performer in history. That's just crazy, but it didn't help him in the final this morning, where he was beaten by the South African, Chad le Clos, who came like there was no tomorrow, a scintillating final lap - unless you were Phelps, then you probably didn't like it all that much - to win Gold, with the Japanese swimmer Takeshi Matsuda in third. Who knows? Maybe the incredible weight of expectation has finally gotten to the guy. He and The Missile should get together for a chat!
Once again, the Australian men's basketball team have fallen, this time 82-70, and this time at the hands of Spain, a team filled with a bevvy of NBA players and favourite to reach the Gold medal game but, of course, to finish with the Silver behind the mighty Team USA. The Boomers had the same problems in this game as they did against Brazil, their Olympic opener. They had problems shooting from beyond the arc and clearly lacked another NBA-caliber big man. Still, a brave effort from the Boomers, who seem to go missing for long stretches - Spain opened up the second quarter on an 8-2 run - which you just cannot do against quality opposition. Joe Ingles and Brad Newley were highest scorers for the Boomers with 12. Patty Mills, still sporting the bright yellow sneakers, was a force, too. Just not quite enough talent to match it with the big boys of world basketball, unfortunately.
If you think Channel Nine's TV coverage has been bad, NBC, who insist on tape-delaying all the big events to show hours later in prime time, had an embarrassing gaffe last night. The final ad in the last block before the final of the women's 100m backstroke was a promo for the following morning's "Today" show, which, the ad said, would feature an interview with Gold medal-winning backstroker Missy Franklin. The Gold medal winner of the race that was about to be broadcast on the network after that block of advertising. I don't get how NBC can continue to hold back events when social media spoils results on a regular basis. It's weird that one of the biggest nations in the world still doesn't get the big Olympic events live as they happen.
Really enjoying the London 2012 Results iPhone app. Keeps me up to date with everything going on around the Olympics, and the times can be tailored either for London time or your local time, making catching events on TV much easier. Nice work.
Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze. Total: 6. Rank: 12. Still 9 places ahead of Great Britain.
My biggest take-away out of the early days of competition comes from the pool. Australia seems to do wonderfully in heats and semi-finals - Seebohm, the men's 4x100m final, Bronte Barratt to name just a few - and then bomb out something shocking in the finals, when it really counts. If only there was some way that this trend could be reversed. Sub-par effort in the heats, just make the final, blitz then when you're going for it all. Remember Atlanta 1996? Kieran Perkins barely made the 1500m final, but absolutely brained them when it counted. There's a blueprint if ever there's been one.
Congratulations to Bronte Barratt, who finished third in the final of the women's 200m freestyle final behind the American Allison Schmitt and the Frenchwoman Camille Muffat. America and France beating us in the pool? It's been like a broken record for much of this swimming meet. Regardless, a good swim by Barratt, and another medal to keep Australia hovering inside the Top 15 on the overall table.
Oh hey, that guy, James Magnussen! You might've heard of him. They called him The Missile until a few days ago, and then you might've heard jokes about how The Missile misfired and all of that. Well, despite, or maybe because of, the country's reaction, that man has seemingly run the gauntlet of emotions since failing to do anything particularly spectacular in the first final of his first Olympics, the 4x100m freestyle relay, and came out on the good side. He wasn't exactly feted by the masses after a somewhat sluggish heat swim in the men's individual 100m freestyle event, but now that The Missile's through to the final as the fastest qualifier, you can bet that the nation's love affair - and particularly that of the media contingent - is back on. Good for the kid. His acceleration was incredible, and I have a feeling he'll be installed as favourite, for all that that means. I'm apparently in the minority here, because I hold the opinion that we need to support our athletes, regardless. I mean, the guy had a bad swim. He didn't disgrace our country by urinating on the Horse Guards or anything along those lines. Give him a break. Looking forward to the final. A win really shuts some people up.
Congratulations to Alicia Coutts, who picked up another Silver medal for Australia at the pool, coming home behind the emerging Chinese sensation Ye Shiwen - remember her, the sixteen-year-old swimmer whose 100m individual medley freestyle split was faster than that of American champ Ryan Lochte - in the women's 200m Individual Medley. Australia's Stephanie Rice finished fourth. Coutts was right in the hunt in the final lap, but the incredible finishing speed of the Chinese swimmer in the last half-lap of the evebt unfortunately meant she had to settle for second place. If this girl, Ye Shiwen, is completely clean, she's an amazing phenomenon.
It must be said - and it is something that I didn't think would be said - but the great American Michael Phelps isn't the same swimmer that we saw in Beijing four years ago. Sure, he's broken a record, snatching up his 18th Olympic medal, and is still a brilliant swimmer, but even in his pet events, the American superstar doesn't look quite as polished and smooth so far this Olympics. Case in point, the final of the 200m butterfly, which used to just about belong to Phelps. He can lay claim to the four fastest times in history and his world record in that event is more than one second faster than the second-best performer in history. That's just crazy, but it didn't help him in the final this morning, where he was beaten by the South African, Chad le Clos, who came like there was no tomorrow, a scintillating final lap - unless you were Phelps, then you probably didn't like it all that much - to win Gold, with the Japanese swimmer Takeshi Matsuda in third. Who knows? Maybe the incredible weight of expectation has finally gotten to the guy. He and The Missile should get together for a chat!
Once again, the Australian men's basketball team have fallen, this time 82-70, and this time at the hands of Spain, a team filled with a bevvy of NBA players and favourite to reach the Gold medal game but, of course, to finish with the Silver behind the mighty Team USA. The Boomers had the same problems in this game as they did against Brazil, their Olympic opener. They had problems shooting from beyond the arc and clearly lacked another NBA-caliber big man. Still, a brave effort from the Boomers, who seem to go missing for long stretches - Spain opened up the second quarter on an 8-2 run - which you just cannot do against quality opposition. Joe Ingles and Brad Newley were highest scorers for the Boomers with 12. Patty Mills, still sporting the bright yellow sneakers, was a force, too. Just not quite enough talent to match it with the big boys of world basketball, unfortunately.
If you think Channel Nine's TV coverage has been bad, NBC, who insist on tape-delaying all the big events to show hours later in prime time, had an embarrassing gaffe last night. The final ad in the last block before the final of the women's 100m backstroke was a promo for the following morning's "Today" show, which, the ad said, would feature an interview with Gold medal-winning backstroker Missy Franklin. The Gold medal winner of the race that was about to be broadcast on the network after that block of advertising. I don't get how NBC can continue to hold back events when social media spoils results on a regular basis. It's weird that one of the biggest nations in the world still doesn't get the big Olympic events live as they happen.
Really enjoying the London 2012 Results iPhone app. Keeps me up to date with everything going on around the Olympics, and the times can be tailored either for London time or your local time, making catching events on TV much easier. Nice work.
Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze. Total: 6. Rank: 12. Still 9 places ahead of Great Britain.
Day Five:
We have to talk about it right at the very top. It was the most anticipated individual race of the swimming program at the London 2012 Olympic Games - and turned out to be the most exciting of all, even more so than the women's 4x100m freestyle relay on Day One - but James Magnussen's bid for some sort of revenge for the much-discussed men's 4x100m freestyle relay in the men's 400m freestyle final fell short by the shortest and most agonising of 0.01 seconds, about as close as it can get in swimming. What will make The Missile even more frustrated is that he looked for all the world like becoming an Olympic champion with about two strokes to go. I even thought he had it in the bag with one stroke to go, but was touched out by the American, Nathan Adrian, who also swum a wonderful race, both men managing to mow down the pace-setting Cielo of Brazil late in what can only be described as an epic race.
The interesting thing now that Magnussen has won a "lowly" (insert some sarcasm here) Silver will be the reaction by Australia, and particularly by certain sections of the media who've jumped on him, on Leisel Jones and some other athletes - including Chinese swimmers - over the last few days of competition and, in the case of the supposedly-overweight Jones, before the Olympics had even begun. There will be frustration and disappointment, I'm sure, but I honestly think any criticism will be unfair. Magnussen, as anyone who watched the race could tell, left everything out there in the pool, gave it every little ounce of strength he had and came up short by the shortest and most morale-sapping margin imaginable. A Silver medal at the Olympic Games is nothing to sneeze at, despite what was expected of the man. It's much better than most of us will ever be able to do, including those who'll right the predictable stories about the death of Australian swimming. Ho hum.
There has been some chaos in the badminton ranks, if you can believe that, with a eight competitors ejected from the Games in disgrace following what seems to be a match-fixing racket, which has left the sport rather red-faced. Interestingly, the Badminton World Federation chief, Thomas Lund, said he was "sorry" rather than "embarrassed" by the episode. Really? I'd probably be embarrassed that my federation had to expel from the Olympic Games the top seeds (the Chinese pair), four South Koreans and an Indonesian pair for deliberately throwing games. Honestly, this is probably the most press that the sport of badminton has ever gotten in the mainstream media.
Opals coach Carrie Graf is in the news, suggesting that some teams strategically lose games. In this instance, it may be that a team manipulates it's own results to avoid having to play, say, the powerful Team USA in the quarter final round. If Australia loses one more game in the group matches, they may avoid that very fate. At the same time as she broke this news, Graf was quick to add that Australia endorsed such tactics. She also said that she didn't think it undermined the sport. I think it does, the sport and the Olympic movement both. Athletes should be out there to win.
Thankfully, after their last start loss to France in overtime, the Opals edged out Brazil 67-61 thanks to an 18-point haul from the captain and Australian team flag-bearer, Lauren Jackson, who was ably supported today by the usual suspects, including Liz Cambage (17 points) and Suzy Batkovic (11 points). The buzzer-beater hero from the last game, Belinda Snell, was reasonably quiet with just the 5 points. Let's hope that the French game was but a minor blip on the radar.
Finally, the host nation has a Gold medal. It must've been the longest and most frustrating wait imaginable for the British public, who have supported their athletes incredibly well in the opening few days of the London Games, but the wait is over. The Team Great Britain women's pairs rowing crew of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning are now assured their place in British sporting immortality. Must've been a massive relief, considering many observers were sure that Cavendish or Wiggins would deliver a first-up Gold medal in the Men's road race on Day One of competition. Congratulations to Australia's Kate Hornsey and Sarah Tait who came home to finish Silver, as much an opening act for the big-time rock stars as there's been in these Olympics.
Then there was another, with Bradley Wiggins, fresh off his Tour de France triumph, won his fourth ever Olympic Gold medal, taking out the men's road cycling time trial, to make this a wonderful day for the host nation. Wiggins won by a mammoth 42 seconds and the British rider Chris Froome came home in third. All in all, a pretty solid day. From an Australian point of view, it's a great shame that Cadel Evans wasn't able to race in this one.
Australia's men's hockey team is rolling nicely. Boy, did the Kookaburras do the job well, dismantling a good Spanish team - albeit one with a few key players out - to the tune of 5-0. There were three goals in the first half and two in the second, Orchard, Turner, Butturini, Ockenden and Ford scoring for Australia. Were it not for some excellent work in the net by the Spanish goalie Francisco Cortes, the score could've ballooned right out. In every facet of the game, the Kookaburras were impressive. Jamie Dwyer remains one goal shy of becoming Australia's all-time leading goal scorer. Hopefully it can happen in the team's next game vs. Argentina.
Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 5 Silver, 2 Bronze. Total: 9. Rank: 15
The interesting thing now that Magnussen has won a "lowly" (insert some sarcasm here) Silver will be the reaction by Australia, and particularly by certain sections of the media who've jumped on him, on Leisel Jones and some other athletes - including Chinese swimmers - over the last few days of competition and, in the case of the supposedly-overweight Jones, before the Olympics had even begun. There will be frustration and disappointment, I'm sure, but I honestly think any criticism will be unfair. Magnussen, as anyone who watched the race could tell, left everything out there in the pool, gave it every little ounce of strength he had and came up short by the shortest and most morale-sapping margin imaginable. A Silver medal at the Olympic Games is nothing to sneeze at, despite what was expected of the man. It's much better than most of us will ever be able to do, including those who'll right the predictable stories about the death of Australian swimming. Ho hum.
There has been some chaos in the badminton ranks, if you can believe that, with a eight competitors ejected from the Games in disgrace following what seems to be a match-fixing racket, which has left the sport rather red-faced. Interestingly, the Badminton World Federation chief, Thomas Lund, said he was "sorry" rather than "embarrassed" by the episode. Really? I'd probably be embarrassed that my federation had to expel from the Olympic Games the top seeds (the Chinese pair), four South Koreans and an Indonesian pair for deliberately throwing games. Honestly, this is probably the most press that the sport of badminton has ever gotten in the mainstream media.
Opals coach Carrie Graf is in the news, suggesting that some teams strategically lose games. In this instance, it may be that a team manipulates it's own results to avoid having to play, say, the powerful Team USA in the quarter final round. If Australia loses one more game in the group matches, they may avoid that very fate. At the same time as she broke this news, Graf was quick to add that Australia endorsed such tactics. She also said that she didn't think it undermined the sport. I think it does, the sport and the Olympic movement both. Athletes should be out there to win.
Thankfully, after their last start loss to France in overtime, the Opals edged out Brazil 67-61 thanks to an 18-point haul from the captain and Australian team flag-bearer, Lauren Jackson, who was ably supported today by the usual suspects, including Liz Cambage (17 points) and Suzy Batkovic (11 points). The buzzer-beater hero from the last game, Belinda Snell, was reasonably quiet with just the 5 points. Let's hope that the French game was but a minor blip on the radar.
Finally, the host nation has a Gold medal. It must've been the longest and most frustrating wait imaginable for the British public, who have supported their athletes incredibly well in the opening few days of the London Games, but the wait is over. The Team Great Britain women's pairs rowing crew of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning are now assured their place in British sporting immortality. Must've been a massive relief, considering many observers were sure that Cavendish or Wiggins would deliver a first-up Gold medal in the Men's road race on Day One of competition. Congratulations to Australia's Kate Hornsey and Sarah Tait who came home to finish Silver, as much an opening act for the big-time rock stars as there's been in these Olympics.
Then there was another, with Bradley Wiggins, fresh off his Tour de France triumph, won his fourth ever Olympic Gold medal, taking out the men's road cycling time trial, to make this a wonderful day for the host nation. Wiggins won by a mammoth 42 seconds and the British rider Chris Froome came home in third. All in all, a pretty solid day. From an Australian point of view, it's a great shame that Cadel Evans wasn't able to race in this one.
Australia's men's hockey team is rolling nicely. Boy, did the Kookaburras do the job well, dismantling a good Spanish team - albeit one with a few key players out - to the tune of 5-0. There were three goals in the first half and two in the second, Orchard, Turner, Butturini, Ockenden and Ford scoring for Australia. Were it not for some excellent work in the net by the Spanish goalie Francisco Cortes, the score could've ballooned right out. In every facet of the game, the Kookaburras were impressive. Jamie Dwyer remains one goal shy of becoming Australia's all-time leading goal scorer. Hopefully it can happen in the team's next game vs. Argentina.
Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 5 Silver, 2 Bronze. Total: 9. Rank: 15
No comments:
Post a Comment