Day 5

Day 4
A new day of sporting and more crazy news.

Two badminton teams from China and South Korea purposely tried to lose their match against each other so that they would get an easier draw as the competition progresses.  This is just ridiculously poor sportsmanship and they should be expelled from competition because of it.  If you aren't going to try your hardest every time, then you shouldn't be in the Olympics.  They apparently are now being charged by the sport's governing body and will likely face disciplinary action.  Good!

Jo-Wilfred Tsonga of France was matched against Mike Raonic of Canada in their second round match and they played the longest match ever at the Olympics with Tsonga finally winning 6-3, 3-6, 25-23.  Still not as long as the Isner/Mahut match from a few years ago at Wimbledon.

In a bit of nice news, the FIE (fencing's world governing body) has decided to offer South Korean Shin A-lam a special medal after the controversy of the epee semi-final from yesterday.

Also, in the US women's soccer match against Columbia the other day, Abby Wamback took a sucker punch from Columbian player Lady Andrade.  The referee missed the punch, but FIFA has decided to take disciplinary action against Andrade.  She has a two match ban which will take her out of Columbia match on Tuesday and the quarterfinal match if they make it through.  Just goes to show, being a jerk doesn't pay, especially when there are tons of video cameras on you.



Today's Medal Winning Events:

Women's 200m Freestyle: American's Missy Franklin and Allison Schmitt against Italian Pellegrini (we hate her)  and Schimtt wins the GOLD with an Olympic record of 1:53.61!  Yay, Michael Phelps training partner wins her very first Gold medal.  France's Camille Muffat wins the Silver and Australia's Bronte Barratt wins the Bronze.



Men's 200m Butterfly: Michael Phelps swims his best event to try to clinch his first Gold of these Games and become the most decorated Olympian in the history of the Modern Games.  Shockingly, he comes second under the South African Chad le Clos who wins the Gold. Takeshi Matsuda of Japan won the Bronze.



Women's 200m Individual Medley: The controversial Ye Shiwen again takes the Gold by legging it out on the freestyle leg of this IM.  Alicia Coutts of Australia took the Silver. USA's own Caitlin Leverenz won her very first Olympic medal with the Bronze in this event.





Men's 4x200 Freestyle:  Phelps is still chasing his elusive Gold along with Conor Dwyer (from Winnetka, went to Loyola), Ricky Berens, and Ryan Lochte.  AND THEY WIN! Phelps is the most decorated Olympian ever with this win, 19 Medals! 15 Golds!  The French got the Silver, and the Chinese got the Silver.

Women's Team Final: The Americans blew away the competition in their first rotation on the vault.  Mckayla Muroney hit the most-perfect looking and highest flying vault I have ever seen.  The judges managed to find some fault with it though and took .300 deductions.  The Russians did not do as well on the vault after the US, but killed it on the uneven bars.  They are crazy good on the uneven bars!  As the events progress, Russia falls apart at the seams.  Their team leader and reputed diva Aliya Mustafina falters badly on the balance beam, which is followed by teammate Victoria Komova also faltering and badly missing her dismount.  The death knell is sounded when young Anastasia Grishina misses a tumbling pass in her floor exercise and receives a score in the 12s.  The US women move through each of their events, maybe not doing as brilliantly on their hits as the Russian on bars and beam, but with solid, good-scoring routines from each of their athletes.  AND THEY WIN THE GOLD!!!!  They got to take their victory lap on the floor exercise and it was AWESOME!  The last time they won team Gold was the 1996 Atlanta Games with the dramatic Kerri Strug finish. No home team advantage here.  Not gonna lie, I got kind of emotional at the end there.

 Men's Canoe Single: Tony Estanguet of France won the Gold, Sideris Tasiadis of Germany won the Silver, and Michal Martikan of Slovakia won the Bronze.

Women's Synchronized 10m Platform: Another day, another Gold for the Chinese with their diving pair Hao Wang and Ruolin Chen clinching the win in this event.  The Mexican women Paola Espinosa Sanchez and Alejandra Orozco Loza equal their male counterparts and grab the Silver. The Canadians Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito won the Bronze.

Team Eventing: In a surprise result, the Germans win the Gold, home team Great Britain took the Silver, and New Zealand took the Bronze.

Individual Eventing: Germany's Michael Jung won the Gold medal, Sara Algotsson Ostholt of Sweden won the Silver, and Sandra Auffarth of Germany won the Bronze.  Britain's royal competitor, Zara Phillips, came in 8th place.

Women's Half Middleweight: Slovenia's Urska Zolnir won the Gold, China's Lili Xu won the Silver, and Japan's Yoshie Ueno won her bout to take the Bronze.

Men's Half Middleweight: Korea's Jae-Bum Kim won the Gold, Germany's Ole Bischof took the Silver, and Ivan Nifontov of Russia won the Bronze.

Men's Skeet Shooting: The US's Vincent Hancock won the Gold medal with 148 targets hit out of 150, Denmark's Anders Golding won the Silver, and Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiya took the Bronze.

Women's 58-63 kg: Kazahkstan has won yet another Gold in this event with Maiya Maneza earning the medal.  Svetlana Tsarukaeva of Russia won the Silver, and Christine Girard of Canada won the Bronze.

Men's 62-69 kg: China's Qingfeng Lin won the Gold, Triyatno of Indonesia won the Silver (Yes, a man with only one official name), and Razvan Constantin Martin of Romania won the Bronze.




Tomorrow's Medal Events:

Men's Kayak Single: No Americans in this one, but Brit Richard Hounslow competes (Awesome name!)

Women's Individual Time Trials: Americans Kristin Armstrong and Amber Neben compete.

Men's Individual Time Trials: American Taylor Phinney and Bradley Wiggins of Team GB compete.

Men's Individual Epee: Weston Kelsey and Soren Thompson compete.

Men's Individual All-Around: The American men will attempt to redeem themselves after the team final. Daniel Leyva and John Orozco compete.

Men and Women's Middleweight Rounds.

Women's Pair Without Coxswain

Women's Quadruple Sculls Without Coxswain

Men's Eight With Coxswain

Women's 25m Sport Pistols: Sandra Uptagrafft competes.

Men's 200m Breaststroke: Clark Burckle and Scott Weltz compete

Women's 200m Butterfly: Kathleen Hersey and Cammile Adams compete

Men's 100m Freestyle: Nathan Adrian competes

Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay

Women's Singles Final

Women's 63-69 kg

Men's 69-77 kg

 Ok, at the end of Day 4, here is how the medal count stands:

China                             13                                 6                                  4            :          23

USA                                9                                   8                                  6            :          23

Japan                             1                                   4                                  8            :          13

France                            4                                   3                                  4            :          11

South Korea                   3                                   2                                  3            :          8

Italy                                 2                                   4                                  2            :          8   Russia                             2                                   2                                  4            :          8
Germany                         2                                   3                                  1            :          6