This has been a very interesting Olympics, at least proving that the issue of "tanking" transcends the AFL. It's happened in badminton, there's been some suggestion that it's happening in basketball - to avoid meeting Team USA too early - and now the most startling observation of all comes from a British cyclist, Phillip Hindes who happily admitted that he crashed in the qualifying rounds of the men's team sprint on night one of track cycling at the velodrome. It was in the men's team sprint that Britain won gold, led by Sir Chris Hoy, but on their second attempt after Hindes crashed early on in the third.
"We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart. I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really..."
That was what Hindes, a German-born athlete to switched allegiances to Great Britain, said in the post-race press conference, and it's disappointing. Basically, he's admitted to some amount of cheating. British officials, of course, have claimed that Hindes' words were "lost in translation" but that's crap. Absolute crap. They're not going to admit otherwise, are they? I find it very hard to lose any of that in any sort of translation. Let's see here: the British had what they deemed to be bad start so Hindes crashed early on, and his team-mates called for a restart by raising their hands. Because it happened early enough in the race, it was granted. That's an interesting loophole. On the second go-around, they set the fastest qualifying time en route to the gold medal that is now at least a little tainted. This is as blatant as it's gotten...well, almost, because, of course, some Chinese, Indonesian and South Korean badminton players were sent home from London for match-fixing, but still, it's a joke that this can happen and that the medal stands. What happened to the Olympic ideals? Someone at the IOC or the international cycling federation needs to look into this. It absolutely casts a level of doubt on Team Great Britain's amazing ride. What controversy at the Velodrome on the first night!!
Congratulations to Australia's preeminent male hockey player, the legendary Jamie Dwyer who netted his 180th international goal in the Kookaburras game vs. Argentina this morning. That tally makes Dwyer, a gold medal winner at Athens 2004, 3-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist and five-times named the world's best hockey player. Fantastic achievement for a real superstar of the sport. Hopefully that personal milestone will be topped off by Kookaburras gold at London 2012. In something of a boilover, the highly-fancied Australians were held to a 2-2 draw by Argentina, thanks to some wonderful work in goal from their keeper Vivaldi. The Kookaburras had their chances to put the game away, but unfortunately didn't.
Apparently Emily Seebohm - and, more enthusiastically, her brother - have been involved in something of a Twitter war with a young Australian fan in the aftermath of her tears following a silver-medal winning swim in the 100m backstroke. This in the wake of Seebohm admitting that her devotion to social media has adversely affected her performance in the pool. My money's on Australian swimming introducing a total ban on social media when Rio 2014 rolls around. It seems to be a distraction our swimmers just don't need.
Disgraced rower Josh Booth, arrested earlier in the week for damaging a number of store fronts around the Eton Dorney regatta course, is being sent home from London immediately, discharged from the rowing team. The twenty-one-year-old personally apologised to the owners of the businesses in the village of Egham and also paid for their damage but, for Booth, the damage was done. It continues an alarming trend these Olympics of Australians making headlines out of the arena of competition.
While Victoria Pendelton, the undisputed queen of British cycling at the moment, blew away the competition in the women's kieren to win her first gold medal of the London 2012 Olympics, Australia's Anna Meares had a disastrous night, relying on a photo finish result to ensure that she didn't finish stone motherless last. Arguably, it was a bigger story as far as the landscape of women's track cycling goes than Pendleton's win, which wasn't exactly a shocker. This wasn't what we had expected from the hotly-anticipated Pendleton vs. Meares duel, which should - barring another night like the one that will likely haunt the Australian champion for quite some time to come - really ramp up in the women's individual sprint. In an Olympics where Australian gold hasn't exactly been flowing freely, Meares is still one of our best non-swimming/"second week" chances for gold.
Formerly a middle distance runner, Kim Crow scored an Olympic silver medal in rowing's double scull discipline last night with her team mate Brooke Pratley, finishing behind - surprise, surprise - the Great Britain pair of Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger. Silver seems to be the story of these Olympics for Australia, the old adage of being so close yet so far. Tonight is the big one for Crow, who's rowed an incredible program this Olympic regatta, seemingly thriving on the pain of competition. The Olympic single scull final may very well yield gold for Crow. She's right in the hunt. It could be an amazing rush of sheer ecstasy rather than pain tonight if she can do what so many Australians have had trouble doing these Olympics: finish on the top step of the podium.
The Opals had a solid, and hard-fought win against Russia 70-66 and a chance at both finishing atop their pool and avoiding an early match-up with the powerful Team USA outfit are both alive, but it was the slam-dunk by Liz Cambage, the first such dunk at the London 2012 Olympics, that had everyone talking. The 203cm player ignited the crowd with the power move, and with the win, the Australians may just have rejuvenated their Olympic campaign after the shock loss to France earlier and all the talk of losing some more games to possibly avoid meeting the USA team too early on.
Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 9 Silver, 4 Bronze. Total: 14. Rank: 19
Disgraced rower Josh Booth, arrested earlier in the week for damaging a number of store fronts around the Eton Dorney regatta course, is being sent home from London immediately, discharged from the rowing team. The twenty-one-year-old personally apologised to the owners of the businesses in the village of Egham and also paid for their damage but, for Booth, the damage was done. It continues an alarming trend these Olympics of Australians making headlines out of the arena of competition.
While Victoria Pendelton, the undisputed queen of British cycling at the moment, blew away the competition in the women's kieren to win her first gold medal of the London 2012 Olympics, Australia's Anna Meares had a disastrous night, relying on a photo finish result to ensure that she didn't finish stone motherless last. Arguably, it was a bigger story as far as the landscape of women's track cycling goes than Pendleton's win, which wasn't exactly a shocker. This wasn't what we had expected from the hotly-anticipated Pendleton vs. Meares duel, which should - barring another night like the one that will likely haunt the Australian champion for quite some time to come - really ramp up in the women's individual sprint. In an Olympics where Australian gold hasn't exactly been flowing freely, Meares is still one of our best non-swimming/"second week" chances for gold.
Formerly a middle distance runner, Kim Crow scored an Olympic silver medal in rowing's double scull discipline last night with her team mate Brooke Pratley, finishing behind - surprise, surprise - the Great Britain pair of Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger. Silver seems to be the story of these Olympics for Australia, the old adage of being so close yet so far. Tonight is the big one for Crow, who's rowed an incredible program this Olympic regatta, seemingly thriving on the pain of competition. The Olympic single scull final may very well yield gold for Crow. She's right in the hunt. It could be an amazing rush of sheer ecstasy rather than pain tonight if she can do what so many Australians have had trouble doing these Olympics: finish on the top step of the podium.
The Opals had a solid, and hard-fought win against Russia 70-66 and a chance at both finishing atop their pool and avoiding an early match-up with the powerful Team USA outfit are both alive, but it was the slam-dunk by Liz Cambage, the first such dunk at the London 2012 Olympics, that had everyone talking. The 203cm player ignited the crowd with the power move, and with the win, the Australians may just have rejuvenated their Olympic campaign after the shock loss to France earlier and all the talk of losing some more games to possibly avoid meeting the USA team too early on.
Australia's medal tally: 1 Gold, 9 Silver, 4 Bronze. Total: 14. Rank: 19
No comments:
Post a Comment