2008 Summer Olympics- Victories!
 

Morning all,

How about a thread for all those events where our team wins.

I just watched Argentina's win over Australia in men's soccer. Argentina owned that game all the way, finally scoring in the 76th minute for a 1-0 victory.

I was too busy watching USA and China battle through the first half of the basketball game. It looked bad after Yao hit the first three-pointer and the US kept losing the ball in the earliest minutes. It was a nail biter before the US ran away with it in the second half.

All I could think was, "NO, not again"!

I caught some of that too. I flipped channels and saw that the US was only ahead of China by, I think, 3 points (32-35 or something.) But soon after the US pulled out and I went back to the soccer game. If the game had stayed close, I probably would have watched that instead.

Awww yeahhhh! The US just won the 400 meter freestyle relay and we beat the French in a photo finish on the final lap.

I love French food and I love French wine. But the French (one of them) talked trash about dominating the US in this event, and I just love the fact we whooped their asses.

Oh my goodness, that relay was awesome! I didn't think they were gonna pull it out!

Id HARDLY say we whooped their ass, but it was really awesome to watch, and I am glad we won.

That's the best race I've seen in years. Made me want to get back in the pool to compete again. (maybe not)

Last Night's Hero
 

Jason Lezak brought home the gold with the fastest split of all time with a 46.06. He is 32 years old!

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...JasonLezak.jpg

LOL, I've had the opposite reaction, I've told my husband that just watching those kids get on those blocks brings back that old fluttery knot in my stomach from competing. I loved practice and still love to swim, but don't miss the pressure of meets.

Last night's race (well technically this morning because of the time difference) was amazing. I am happy that USA won. While it was only by 0.08 seconds, when you look at the top 5 teams, all were below the previous world record mark. Incredible!! That is one for the history books!

I was thinking the same thing. It has been years since I was in good shape and after 6 months hard work I am in the best shape ever and my swim times are below where they were in college when I practiced with a local masters team. My coach has suggested in recent weeks I should consider competing in masters competitions, and seeing the races yesterday sure has me thinking about it more and more today. I would have my work cut out for me, but it would be nice to have there be a point to all this besides just being in shape.

Phelps just did it! Gold Medal for the 200 meter free and with a new World Record.

I did not catch all the complicated medals talk- but I think this means he ties all-time Gold Medal winners (with 9 medals) and also maybe all-time winners of any medal (11.)

And he still has 5 races to go.

Watching him swim tonight was amazing. He was flowing through the water almost as though he was butterflying. It was like he was going to just leave the water at every breath and start flying into the air at warp speed. Unreal.

I thought this was going to be his toughest race. He was a whole body length ahead the entire race.

Natalie Coughlan just took the 100 Backstroke

They said this was his "easiest" race. The toughest were the relay last night and his first race. (According to Rowdy Gains)

Peirsol - WR, Gold 100m backstroke

Grevers, USA, silver also

The US Men's Olympic Team did great on the high bar yesterday. That was some of the best action all night. China really aced it overall though- a well earned Gold.

And congrats today to Togo for their first Olympic medal ever! A bronze in men's kayaking.

Grevers is huge. I think 6'8"?

Yup- that's him. Size 14 shoe as well if I remember right from last night's commentary. With feet that big and flexible ankles, he could probably beat a serious amateur just kicking.

Wow what a great night in the pool.

The US takes the Gold in the 800 meter relay- with a HUGE margin and a significant new record with a time under 7 minutes- and then Phelps takes the Gold in the 200m Butterfly and with a world record as well.

That said, the 200m women's free- won by an Italian swimmer- was the race that most captured my attention today. It was great. And the 200m women's IM was a great race too.

On gymnastics- China earned the Gold, and I am sorry so much blame is getting put on the first US gymnast for us getting Silver. She had her 2 errors, but there was more to it. Her attempted mount on the beam was insanely hard and I really hope she will have the chance to compete in future Olympics.

She (Alicia Sacramone) made the event finals in vault so she'll get another shot at a medal before the Olympics is over.

I hate that too. I think silver is awesome! It's not all that long ago that the US women didn't win team medals at all (or if they did, it was a surprise). In fact, we finished off the podium just eight years ago in Sydney, four years after the Magnificent Seven.

I was a little bothered by the beam scores though. It seemed like China could bobble and not get deductions, but we bobbled and got nailed. But China really did earn their gold, and I can't begrudge them their moment in front of the "home" crowd.

They won the match vs. Italy, but I believe they still have several games left before medals are handed out.

Soldier Sets Two Olympic Records En Route to Double Trap Gold
 

i posted this in one of the other olympic threads-perphaps should be here as well:
Soldier Sets Two Olympic Records En Route to Double Trap Gold.
Spc. Walton Glenn Eller III, of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, set two Olympic records en route to winning a gold medal in double trap at the Beijing Shooting Range here yesterday.
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/news....aspx?id=50787

Rebecca Soni just took the gold in the 200 m. Breaststroke

Lochte and Pierson -- One Two in the 200 m. Backstroke.
Great Race!

You beat me to it lol. What a race! And she got a World Record too.

Phelps won the 200 IM just a few minutes ago and got a 6th World Record to go with his 6th Gold Medal in these games.

Another great night in the pool for the US!

Women's All Around Gymnastics:

Gold: Nastia Lukin, USA
Silver: Shawn Johnson, USA
Bronze: Yang Yilin, China


Seeing Nastia struggling not to cry during our National Anthem was a beautiful Olympic Moment!

Read about it here.

women's AA gymnastics final
 

seeing nastia cry was a beautiful moment and i agree with the above poster. the event finals was amazing.

i'm so excited for the girls futures and see how they are welcomed by the USA, when they get home.

Wow! Phelps takes the 100 fly for his 7th Gold Medal by one hundredth of a second! It all came down the the final stroke- Phelps taking a fast half stroke into the wall versus Cavick who tried to get a couple of extra feet of juice out a full stroke. Unreal.

Ha! That's the word that I just used. I'm still not reconciled to the idea that it actually happened like that.

I hope there will be tape of the whole race in future to review- including from underwater- but stroke length and timing has a huge impact in short races. At the various paces where I swim, I have a solid sense of the stroke count per pool length and how to finish a length- so these guys are masters of that.

The trick with fly is that you cannot easily change the length going into the end of the pool to adjust for any differences. It is tough with any stroke- but the mechanics of the butterfly make big last minute changes impossible.

In other words- Cavick could not have added an extra stroke to win, and Phelps is VERY fortunate he had time to sneak in a half stroke and slam the wall. As great as Phelps is, I really do think luck played a role in this race because he was clearly not the fastest guy in the pool for this event.

Not from underwater, but a replay
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/pla...elcode=sportsw

Well, another close one and for the same reason-

Steffen of Germany takes the Gold in the Women's 50M free by 1/100th of a second with Torres of the US (at age 41!) taking the Silver.

Replay showed the same scenario as last night, but much less dramatic. Torres had really just finished her stroke and had to reach a bit for the wall while Steffen's stroke completed into the wall almost perfectly.

Benzgirl, thanks for the video. I went swimming this morning and this afternoon- and both times, the men's 100 fly race is all anyone was talking about at the pool.

Even though the American ladies did not win, Dara Torres had the fastest split in the Medley and hand her best personal time when she won the Silver in the 50.

She is still my idol!

You mean the medley they just finished? I agree she was incredible in that. She was not given an easy anchor run and she closed the gap quite a bit. It was clear she was going 110% and that was a beautiful thing.

And in a few minutes here comes Phelp's chance to make more history...

That race ROCKED! For a brief second in the final length of the free I was a bit worried about halfway down, but the US owned that race!