Olympic Update: 8
There were a million things that could have gone wrong. Jason Lezak might not have been able to swim two brilliant anchor legs. Milorad Cavic's arms might have been an inch longer. There could have been a bad start or a bad turn. A pair of goggles could have filled up with water.
Michael Phelps (USA)
- 400-meter individual medley: GOLD
- 4x100-meter freestyle replay: GOLD
- 200-meter freestyle: GOLD
- 200-meter butterfly: GOLD
- 4x200-meter freestyle replay: GOLD
- 200-meter individual medley: GOLD
- 100-meter butterfly: GOLD
- 4x100-meter medley relay: GOLD
Events: 8
Gold Medals: 8
Olympics Day 8: Dominance and Desperation
Which is more exciting? Watching a world-class athlete destroy his opponents or watching one give everything to win by a razor-thin margin? Was it more compelling to see Tiger Woods win the U.S. Open by 15 shots in 2000 or grinding out a win in a playoff with a broken leg this year?
Your answer to that question will probably determine what you found the most impressive event of Day 8 in Beijing - Usain Bolt's rout of the 100-meter dash field or Michael Phelps' fingertip victory in the 200-meter butterfly.
I suspect most people would say that watching Phelps was more exciting, and given the context, it probably was. He was going for his record-tying 7th gold, and it looked like he was going to lose. He was 7th with 50 meters to go, and he was second with one meter to go. He was second with one centimeter to go, but his final stroke let him bring his arms toward the wall with much more speed than the coasting Milorad Cavic. Everyone in the arena thought he had lost - his mother even dejectedly held up two fingers - but then the scoreboard showed a "1" next to his name. He won by .01 seconds - less than two centimeters or about three-quarters of an inch.
Tonight, Phelps goes for gold number eight in the medley relay. If he does it, and only a disqualification is likely to stop him, he officially becomes the most decorated athlete in any single Olympiad, and arguably the most dominant of all time. Mark Spitz and Eric Heiden are the only others that come to mind.
But for 10 seconds this morning, Phelps wasn't the most dominant athlete in China. That distinction belonged to Jamaica's Usain Bolt. He crushed the field in the 100-meter dash, breaking the world record despite spreading his arms in delight then beating himself on the chest as he came to the line. He finished in 9.69 seconds, breaking his own world record of 9.72 and winning by several meters. There's no telling what he could have run if he had gone full out for 100 meters - 9.50?
By the way, 100 meters in 9.69 seconds translates to just over 23 miles an hour. So he wouldn't even be pulled over for speeding in a school zone.
Rebecca Adlington became the first Briton in 100 years to win two swimming golds in the same Olympiad when she broke Janet Evans' 19-year-old world record in the 800-meter freestyle. And, showing what a class act she is, no one was cheering louder than Evans herself.
Then there was Cesar Cielo Filho, who won Brazil's first swimming gold in the 50-meter freestyle. If you want to see what a gold medal can mean to a country that doesn't win them every day, watch this - the Brazilian TV coverage of the race.
And if you want to see what a gold medal can mean to an athlete, watch Filho's composure crumble as sings his national anthem and watches his flag rise to the rafters.
The United States briefly regained the lead in the medal standings, but the Chinese sweep in women's badminton put them back in front. Australia made a huge move with a great performance in rowing, while New Zealand and Canada both picked up their first medals.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 19-14-7=144
2) United States 15-13-20=134
3) South Korea 7-9-3=65
4) Australia 7-6-10=63
5) France 3-9-9=51
6) Italy 6-5-5=50
7) Japan 7-3-5=49
7) Great Britain 7-3-5=49
9) Russia 5-6-6=49
10) Germany 5-4-4=41
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 7-0-0=35
11) Ukraine 5-2-4=35
Olympic Doping: Beta Blocking
As I guessed in my earlier post, North Korea's Kim Jong-Su did indeed test positive for a beta blocker. There have been past instances where shooters have used those to calm hand tremors and lower heart rate.
As for the hapless Vietnamese gymnast, Thi Ngan Thuong Do, the IOC is trying to be kind, saying that it is pretty clear that she didn't take anything for performance-enhancing reasons. They believe she took a PMS medication after being wrongly told by a team physician that would be OK.
Olympics Day 7: Oh No Canada!
Final results: Men's Shot Put
Gold: Tomasz Majewski (POL) 21.51 meters
Silver: Christian Cantwell (USA) 21.09
Bronze: Andrei Mikhnevich (BLR) 21.05
4: Dylan Armstrong (CAN) 21.04
Armstrong was third going into the final round, but Cantwell hit a big throw to move from fourth to second. Armstrong fouled on his last throw, meaning he missed out on the bronze by a centimeter. Canada still doesn't have a medal.
The US also knocked Canada out of the women's soccer tournament and beat the Canadians 8-1 in softball. That's another point of evidence in why softball is being taken out of the Olympics - in four games, the United States has gone 4-0, outscored their opponents 29-1 and allowed two hits. Two no-hitters and two one-hitters.
One of the odder stories of the Athens Olympics had a happy ending on Day 7. In 2004, American rifleman Matt Emmons had a massive lead going into the final shot - three points in an event where the normal scores on a shot range from 10.8 to 9.8. All he had to do was hit the target and he had the gold.
He shot and didn't think anything was different than any of his other shots. As he prepared to see the score that would officially give him gold, he saw "0.0". After several minutes of confusion, it turned out that, in an unbelievable mistake, he had shot at the next target over. Instead of gold, he finished eighth.
After congratulating the medalists in remarkably good spirits, he retreated to a Olympic Village nightspot. Also there was Czech shooter Katerina Kurkova, who had just won a bronze medal in the women's 10-meter air rifle event. While doing interviews on Czech TV, they had asked her to stay on the air and do color commentary for the men's 50-meter rifle event. She said that Emmons had been so impressive that she had been cheering for him as the event went on, and was crushed when he made the terrible error at the end.
So, at the beer garden, Kurkova approached Emmons to offer some words of consolation. He thanked her, and they started talking.
Yesterday, Matt Emmons won the silver medal in the 50-meter rifle event, giving him some redemption for his mistake in Athens. That doesn't give him family bragging rights, though. Czech shooter Katerina Kurkova-Emmons has already won gold and silver in her two events.
I didn't see Katerina Emmon's medal ceremony, but she'd be hard-pressed to top the performance put on by American pixie Nastia Liukin, who won the all-around gymnastics gold last night. Liukin was a bit of a surprise - Shawn Johnson was the defending world champion and as tended to finish ahead of Liukin in big competitions - and she seemed pretty stunned by the whole thing.
When the medalists came out from the ceremony, Liukin's face was a portrait of unexploded joy, and she stayed that way as Yang Yi Lin got her bronze medal and Johnson got the silver.
Then they started to introduce Liukin, and she was OK as they proceeded through the multiple languages ... at least until they said "gold medalist and Olympic champion." That's when the tears started welling up in her eyes.
She tried to sing the national anthem, but she wasn't having much success keeping her emotions together. Like so many American athletes, she came apart when the song got to "land of the free and home of the brave".
Bronze medalist Yang Yi Lin is one of the three Chinese gymnasts that are at the center of the age controversy. Gymnasts must turn 16 by 12/31/2008 to be eligible to compete in these Olympics, and there are questions as to whether any of the three top Chinese performers are actually old enough. Well, actually, there doesn't seem to be any doubt at all about He Ke Xin. The Chinese national press agency, Xinhua, referred to her as a up-and-coming 13-year-old star in 2007 and mentioned her as a 14-year-old in May of this year. Now, her birthday is listed as Jan. 1, 1982.
Of course, the stories in question have now both been pulled from Xinhua's web archive. At the moment, the IOC is saying that they don't see a problem, because the gymnasts' passports are in order. They aren't going to rock any boats in China, so nothing will happen unless absolute proof shows up.
None of that matters to the medal standings, since gymnastics doesn't count. The United States hacked away most of China's lead, thanks to swimming gold medals from Michael Phelps, Rebecca Soni and Ryan Lochte. Track & field is also underway, with the US taking the silver in the shot put and a bronze in the women's 10,000.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 17-9-5=117
2) United States 13-10-18=113
3) South Korea 6-9-3=60
4) Australia 5-5-8=48
5) Italy 6-4-4=46
6) France 3-8-6=45
7) Japan 6-2-3=39
Russia 3-6-6=39
9) Germany 5-1-3=31
X) MichaelPhelpsLand 6-0-0=30
10) Great Britain 3-2-1=22
11) Slovakia 3-1-0=18
12) Ukraine 3-0-3=18
13) Cuba 1-3-4=18
14) Czech Republic 2-2-0=16
15) Hungary 0-4-1=13
16) Azerbaijan 1-2-1=12
17) Holland 1-1-4=12
18) Georgia 2-0-1=11
19) North Korea 1-1-3=11
X) NatalieCoughlinville 1-1-2=10
20) Romania 1-1-1=9
Olympics: Doping Update
The IOC just announced that North Korea's Kim Jong Su has tested positive for a banned substance, and has been stripped of his silver medal in the 50-meter pistol event and his bronze from the 10-meter air pistol event. Kim had won two of North Korea's seven medals thus far in Beijing.
Shooting doesn't have a lot of positive drug tests, but there have been cases in the past of shooters using beta blockers.
American Jason Turner now gets the bronze in the 10-meter air pistol event. In the 50-meter event, China's Tan Zongliang moves from bronze to silver and Russia's Vladimir Isakov gets the bronze.
There have now been three positive drug tests. A Spanish cyclist tested positive for EPO before even competing, and a Vietnamese gymnast was also busted. Since she finished last in her event, I suspect that one was probably accidental.
Olympics Day 6: What’s Wrong With The United States?
RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 15-8-5=104
2) United States 10-7-14=85
X) USA Swimming 7-5-8=58
3) South Korea 6-7-3=54
4) Italy 6-4-3=45
5) Australia 5-2-7=38
6) France 2-7-5=36
7) Russia 3-6-2=35
Japan 5-1-3=31
X)USA non-swimming 3-2-6=27
9) Germany 4-1-2=25
10) Great Britain 2-2-1=17
52) Canada 0-0-0=0
No one has seriously challenged the United States in this metric since the breakup of the USSR, and China might still fall short this time, but the swim team is the only thing keeping the Americans alive thus far. After almost a week of competition, the only gold medals we've won outside the pool have come in women's sabre, women's cycling and skeet shooting.
(By the way how did we only win bronze in women's team sabre when we finished 1-2-3 in in the individual event? Were our three fencers just massively overconfident in the semifinal with the Ukraine?)
Even the swimmers haven't been as dominant as usual. They've only managed two gold medals without Michael Phelps - Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Piersol in the 100 backstrokes.
The United States will probably win this in the end - we'll pick up a ton of medals in track & field, team sports and hopefully rowing - but they are going to have to work for it. The margins were 110 points in 2000 and 95 points in 2004. I suspect it will be a lot smaller this time.
Of course, it could be worse. Canada still doesn't have a single medal. Judging from the CBC coverage, they are getting a bit desperate.
One of the coolest moments on Day 6 was in the women's archery. For reasons I've never understood, South Korea dominates Olympic archery, but a Chinese woman overcame a bad first shot to pull out an upset in the gold-medal match in the rain in front of a deliriously happy crowd.
Olympics Day 5: En Garde
Michael Phelps has been so ridiculously good that he's dominated coverage of the Olympics, including here, but sometimes the Olympics are about the smaller victories. I just watched the bronze-medal match of women's epee, which pitted Hungary's Ildiko Mincza-Nebald against China's Na Li. This is Dr. Mincza-Nebald's third Olympics, and the third time she's made it to a semifinal. The first two times, she lost, and she fell behind 8-3 this time.
But just as the commentators were debating if she had developed a mental block about winning a medal, she got into a perfect rhythm and came flying back for a 15-11 victory. This was "only" for a bronze medal, but you would never have known that from the screams of joy coming from inside her mask, and from the tears streaming down her face as she tore off the head protection to embrace her coach and wave to her family in the stands.
The fencing also got the German team into gear, as they won gold in men's foil and women's epee. That jumps the Germans into the five-country crush for fifth place. The US and China have created some separation at the top, with South Korea locked into third. Italy has given themselves a little breathing room in fourth, but then you have France, Russia, Australia, Japan and Germany within eight points of each other.
Back at the Water Cube, the night's best race didn't involve an American, at least not in the stretch drive. It was Stephanie Rice winning her second gold by coming from behind in the last few meters to touch out the hard-luck princess of the games, Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry. Coventry won her third silver medal in as many races. American sweetheart Natalie Coughlin took bronze.
And, of course, there was Phelps. He crushed the field in the 200 butterfly, and an hour later, he led off the American 4x200 freestyle relay team that destroyed the world record and won by 20 meters.
The questions are inevitably starting to be asked - is Michael Phelps doping? Catherine Schaffer, a very talented writer who has written speculative fiction about gene doping and who is a highly trained swimmer herself, wrote the following in her blog:
And I hate that it even occurs to me to suspect Phelps of doping, but the truth is that we are now at a place in history when the technology exists to beat the tests, and we can't know for sure who is doping and who is not.
In the age of BALCO, designer drugs and the destruction of cycling as a serious sport, it is hard not to wonder about Phelps. Would I be stunned if it came out that he were? I wouldn't be stunned if any big-time athlete turned out to be doing something illegal at this point.
I can tell you in two words why I tend not to think Michael Phelps is cheating - Tiger Woods. Because of what I do for a living, I spend a great deal of time around world-class athletes, and they are all incredibly gifted, but there have been a few that just have something else - the passionate desire to be the absolute best, no matter what it takes. Phelps is like that - he's driven to win these eight golds, and he'll give up everything else to do it. Tiger is the same way. He's a brilliant golfer, but he also works harder than anyone else on the PGA Tour. There are others - Michael Jordan, obviously. Wayne Gretzky was like that. Muhammad Ali.
Because of their drive, they get to a different level than anyone else, and then they also get the benefit of the intimidation factor. When Tiger gets in contention at a major, a lot of golfers can't deal with the pressure of trying to match him shot for shot - that's why it was so rare when Rocco Mediate pushed him so hard at the U.S. Open. But still, on a broken leg and torn-up knee, Tiger still won the tournament. No one could match him, when he was at 75%, because they didn't believe they could do it.
That's what happens with Phelps. Watch the other swimmers on the starting blocks before a race - do any of them look like they really believe they can beat him? They end up losing focus and doing silly things like trying to jump out to a big lead early in a race - the Australian in the 200 butterfly last night - only to get swallowed up when they start to run out of energy.
And this level of dominance isn't unprecedented, even at the Olympics. Remember Michael Johnson destroying the fields in the 200 and 400 in Atlanta? I've never heard any hint that he was doping - he was the poster child for what you could do without cheating.
So it is sad that we're reduced to always wondering about Phelps and Dara Torres and the French sprint-swimmers that have suddenly come out of nowhere. But it isn't just swimming. If you going to question Phelps, how do you not question the entire Chinese weightlifting team? Of the seven weight classes they have entered thus far, they have won seven golds and lost the eighth in a tie-breaker.
I'm working on a novel about the 2012 Human Potential Games - an event where an oil-rich nation calls the bluff of the IOC and runs an Olympiad with no testing of any kind. Want to do steroids? Great. Want to pump extra oxygen into your blood? Have at it. Want to replace your legs with Cheetah Blades? Feel free.
It's going to come to that - maybe not in 2012, but soon. There will be a Clean Olympics and a Free Olympics. And I'll bet I know which one turns out to be more popular.
Oh, and before I get to the standings, a note about which sports will count in the RealSports standings. After some research, I've decided to drop taekwando, because of the same judging problems that plague boxing. Also, I want to clarify that, although I wouldn't include table tennis and badminton in my dream Olympics, I will be counting the results, since silliness isn't really a fair reason to exclude them. The only ones I won't count are judged events and sports where the Olympics isn't the highest achievement.
Speaking of which, there was a lot of talk at the PGA Championship about making golf an Olympic event. Some players wanted to limit it to amateurs, which just isn't going to happen, while some want to make it just like a PGA Tour event, but with a limit to three golfers per country. I don't want to see that, because it won't be seen as a big deal.
Golf in the Olympics should be a team sport. Each country sends three male golfers and three female golfers. They each play 72 holes, and the teams with the lowest combined score win. You could do this in 2012 - there's a pretty big golf tradition in Great Britain, after all. You move the Ryder Cup back to odd-numbered years, and drop the President's Cup, since there would be no need for it.
This really should happen.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 10-6-10=78
2) China 11-5-5=75
3) South Korea 6-6-1=49
4) Italy 4-4-3=35
5) France 1-7-3=29
6) Russia 2-5-2=27
7) Japan 4-1-3=26
Australia 4-0-6=26
X) Michael Phelps 5-0-0=25
9) Germany 4-0-1=21
10) Great Britain 2-2-1=17
Olympics Day 4: PhelpsLand
On Day 3, Michael Phelps won his second gold medal in one of the most exciting races in Olympic swimming history. On Day 4, Phelps won his third gold medal in one of the most dominant performances in Olympic swimming history.
These were the world's best eight swimmers in the 200 freestyle, and he toyed with the field. He had a sizable lead by the time he came up from his opening dive, and it never looked like anyone could challenge him, much less catch him.
The US dominated the Water Cube on Day 4, with International Woman of Mystery Natalie Coughlin and Aaron Piersol each winning the 100 backstroke. In all, the Americans picked up seven medals in the four events, with the only other gold going to Australia's Leisel Jones in the 100 breaststroke.
By the way, Coughlin has also taken the early lead for best performance on the medal platform as she sang the national anthem in between giant sobs. I believe that all gold-medal winners should cry, and, unless they come from Spain, they should sing their national anthem.
Between the swimmers and Glenn Eller's gold in skeet shooting, the Americans slipped past China into first place in the RealSports medal standings. China added a gold in weightlifting, while both Koreas continued their strong performances.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) United States 7-6-7=60
2) China 9-3-4=58
3) South Korea 5-6-1=44
4) Italy 3-4-2=29
5) France 0-7-2=23
6) Russia 2-3-2=21
7) Australia 3-0-5=20
Japan 3-0-2=17
9) MichaelPhelpsLand 3-0-0=15
10) North Korea 1-2-4=15
Germany only has two medals - a very slow start for them for the country that finished fifth in 2004. In the meantime, South Korea is already within 11 points of their Athens total, and North Korea has more than doubled their 2004 total of 7.
Olympics Day 3: Blinks of an Eye
The worst day of the Summer Olympics is the day that the swimming ends. There's nothing in the Games that matches the swimming competition for sheer drama and excitement.
Yesterday, that drama came in two brilliant races, each decided by less than a tenth of a second. The first was the women's 400-meter freestyle. Forget the tabloid drama of Italian star Federica Pellegrini having stolen the boyfriend of France's Laure Manadou, this was thrilling for the action itself.
With 50 meters to go, Katie Hoff looked like she was going to pick up another American gold medal, but Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington came flying down the stretch. Adlington had been fourth at the final turn, but caught Hoff in the final stroke and won by .07 seconds. That means, in a quarter-mile race, Adlington won by less than five inches.
Ten minutes later, they held the final of the men's 4x100 freestyle relay, and it made the previous race look boring. This time, it was France with the lead in the final few meters, and they had one of the fastest swimmers alive in the pool. Somehow, though, Jason Lezak of the United States kept slowly gaining. As Angie and I started screaming "Go! Go!" at the television, Lezak timed his last stroke perfectly and beat Alain Bernard to the wall by .08 seconds. I'm not which sight was more memorable - the finish or the primal scream of joy unleashed by Michael Phelps when he realized that his team had won and that his dream of eight golds was still alive.
How fast was this race? Sweden broke the world record ... and finished fifth.
As usual early in the Olympics, the American swimmers are the only thing keeping them close in the medal standings. The United States doesn't generally get rolling until the last week, when they clean up in track and field and in team sports.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 7-3-2=46
2) South Korea 4-4-0=32
3) United States 3-4-5=32
4) Italy 3-3-2=26
5) Australia 2-0-3=13
6) Japan 2-0-2=12
7) Great Britain 2-0-1=11
France 0-3-2=11
9) Czech Republic 2-0-0=10
10) Russia 0-3-1=10
After three days in Athens, the US was also in third. They had 31 points and trailed both China (42) and Australia (38). South Korea wasn't even in the top 10 - they've definitely been the surprise thus far.
My beloved Finns had a big day yesterday, picking up a gold and a bronze in shooting, but should have moved into the top 10. Going into the final shot of the men's air rifle competition, Henri Hakkinen was tied with India's Abhinav Bindra, but Hakkinen got just a 9.7 on his last attempt, his worst score of the tournament. Bindra took the gold with a 10.8, while China's Zhu Qinan's 10.5 gave him the silver medal. It was better for Finland in women's trap shooting, where Satu Makela-Nummela broke 91 of 100 targets to win gold.
Olympics Day 2: Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps started his quest for eight gold medals yesterday with one of his weaker events - the 400-meter individual medley.
Not only did he win the gold medal, he shattered the world record. This kid is every bit as dominant in his sport as Tiger Woods has ever been. Well, except the part about winning with a broken leg.
So Phelps is 1-for-1, but the rest of the American swim team didn't have a huge day. The women's 4x100 freestyle relay only managed a silver despite a brilliant anchor leg by 41-year-old Dara Torres, and Katie Hoff got bronze behind Australian glamour girl Stephanie Rice in the women's 400-meter IM. The United States also picked up a bronze in the men's 400 freestyle.
In Athens, the United States swimming team was what pushed them to a comfortable victory in the RealSports medal standings. With China having homecourt advantage and pushing in so many events, the US swimmers might be the difference between first and second.
The hosts had a huge day, winning gold medals in weightlifting, shooting and judo, while South Korea moved into second overall, thanks to a rare swimming gold.
Best moment of the day was the medal-podium embrace between Russia's Natalia Paderina and Georgia's Nino Salukvadze. They won silver and bronze in the women's air-pistol event, and Paderina made a point of hugging and kissing Salukvadze on the cheek before they posed for pictures together.
RealSports Medal Standings
1) China 5-2-0=31
2) South Korea 3-2-0=21
3) United States 2-2-4=20
4) Italy 1-2-1=12
5) Czech Republic 2-0-0=10
6) Japan 1-0-2=7
7) Russia 0-2-1=7
7) France 0-2-1=7
9) Australia 1-0-1=6
9) Spain 1-0-1=6