Day 8

Day 8:
I barely got to watch any of the Olympics today between work and other activites.

The Athletics (Track and Field) competition got under way today in the Olympic stadium.

US women win their preliminary Volleyball match vs. Serbia
The US men's Beach Volleyball team of Rogers and Dalhausser, the defending champs, were eliminated by an Italian team today.  The women's Beach Volleyball pair of Kessy and Ross made it through their match against the Swiss. Knockout phase for the women starts tomorrow night with Kerri and Misty playing the Dutch. Also, Kerri Walsh has PINKEYE! Oh no! I hope that doesn't affect her too badly.

In today's news, Murray and Federer will have a Wimbledon showdown part 2 after Murray beat Djokovic to move into the final.  Yay! I think this is the first time a tennis player has had so little time between a loss and the next chance for redemption.  I really hope that Murray is able to pull it out this time.  Federer played a marathon match against Juan Martin del Potro that went 3-6, 7-6, 19-17 which is the longest match in Olympics history.  At least he should be good and tired for his final match against Murray.  Sharapova and Serena Williams will face off in the Women's Singles final tomorrow at 8:00AM!!!  The men's match

Sadly, the first female athlete from Qatar, 17 year-old Noor Hussain Al-malki, pulled up short with a hamstring injury in the Women's 100m heats.  She was not expected to contend, but she could unfortunately not even finish the race.  She won a much bigger race today though by beginning to break down barriers for women in her country. Qatar's First Female Athlete's Olympics Over.



Today's Medal Winning Sports:

Men's Individual 70 meters: Jin Hyek Oh of Korea won the Gold, Takaharu Furukawa of Japan won the Silver, and Xiaoxiang Dai of China won the Bronze.

Mixed Doubles Final: Nan Zhang and Yunlei Zhao of China beat their country mates Chen Xu and Jin Ma to take the Gold medal.  Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark won the Bronze in their match.

Women's Keirin: Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain won the Gold, Shuang Guo of China won the Silver, and Wai Sze Lee of Hong Kong won the Bronze.  Apparently, this is an event where the cyclists line up behind a motorized bike that serves as the pacer.  The cyclists jockey for position behind the motorbike, but aren't allowed to pass it, until there are 2 1/2 laps left and it leaves the track and there is a mad sprint to the finish.  There you go.  Now you know.

Men's Team Pursuit: Team GB picked up another Gold medal in this event over Team Australia, who won the Silver, and Team New Zealand, who won the Bronze.

Men's Team Sabre: The Korean men continued the fencing trend and picked up the Gold.  Team Romania won the Silver, and Italy won the Bronze.

Men's Trampoline Final: Dong Dong of China won the Gold (Yup, that's really his name), Dmitry Ushakov of Russia won the Silver, and Chunlong Lu of China won the Bronze.

Women's Heavyweight: Idalys Ortiz of Cuba won the Gold, Mika Sugimoto of Japan won the Silver, and Karina Bryant of Great Britain won the Bronze.

Men's Heavyweight: Teddy Riner of France won the Gold, Alexander Mikhaylin of Russia won the Silver, and Andreas Toelzer of Germany won the Bronze.

Men's Single Sculls: Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand won the Gold, Ondrej Synek of Czech Republic won the Silver, and Alan Campbell of Team GB won the Bronze.

Men's Quadruple Sculls Without Coxswain: Germany took the Gold, Croatia took the Silver, and Australia took the Bronze.

Men's Pair Without Coxswain: Hamish Bond and Eric Murray of New Zealand won the Gold, Dorian Mortelette and Germain Chardin of France won the Silver, and George Nash and William Satch of Great Britain won the Bronze.

Women's Double Sculls: Great Britain picked up another rowing Gold with Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins winning the race.  Kim Crow and Brooke Pratley of Australia won the Silver and Julia Michalska and Magdelena Fularczyk of Poland won the Bronze.

Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol: Leuris Pupo of Cuba wins the Gold, Vijay Kumar of India wins the Silver, and Feng Ding of China wins the Bronze.

Men's 50m Free Rifle Prone: Sergei Martynov of Belarus won the Gold, Lionel Cox of Belgium won the Silver, and Rajmond Debevec of Slovakia won the Bronze

Women's 200m Backstroke: Missy Franklin set a new World Record in this event with a time of 2:04.06 and takes the Gold. Russia's Anastasia Zueva won the Silver, and Elizabeth Beisel of the US won the Bronze.

 Men's 100m Butterfly: Michael Phelps swam his last individual competitive Olympic race today and managed to bring home yet another Gold medal.  Tomorrow is his very last race as an Olympian. Chad le Clos of South Africa picked up his second medal of these games with a Silver, and Evgeny Korotyshkin of Russia managed to tie with le Clos, so two silver medals were awarded.







Women's 800m Freestyle: The youngest US Olympian of these games, Katie Ledecky, won the Gold medal in this event. Mireia Belmonte Garcia of Spain won the Silver, and Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain won the Bronze.

Men's 50m Freestyle: Florent Manaudou of France won the Gold, Cullen Jones of the US won the Silver, and Cesar Cielo of Brazil won the Bronze.

Men's Shot Put: Poland's Tomasz Majewski won the Gold, Germany's David Storl won the Silver, and Reese Hoffa of Team USA won the Bronze and his first medal in three Olympics.




Women's 10,000M: Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba wins the Gold followed by the Keyans Sally Jepkosgei Kipyego and Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot who won the Silver and Bronze respectively.  Surprising, I know, African athletes dominate in this event.

Men's 77-85 kg: Adrian Edward Zielinski of Poland wins the Gold, Apti Aukhadov of Russia wins the Silver, and Kianoush Rostami of Iran wins the Bronze.

Women's 69-75 kg: Svetlana Podobedova of Kazakhstan wins the Gold, Natalya Zabolotnaya of Russia takes the Silver, and Iryna Kulesha of Belarus takes the Bronze.

Tomorrow's Medal Winning Events:

Women's Singles

Women's Doubles

Women's Pursuit: Jennie Reed, Dotsie Bausch, and Sarah Hammer compete

Men's Sprint: Jimmy Watkins competes

Women's Team Epee

Women's Trampoline Final

Women's Single Sculls: Genevra Stone competes

Men's Lightweight Double Sculls

Women's Lightweight Double Sculls: Julie Nichols and Kristin Hedstrom compete

Men's Four Without Coxswain: Glenn Ochal, Scott Gault, Charles Cole, and Henrik Rummel are Team USA for this event

Women's 50m Standard Rifle: Jamie Lynn Gray and Amanda Furrer compete

Women's Trap (75 targets) Corey Cogdell and Gold medalist Kimberley Rhode compete.

Women's 50m Freestyle: Jessica Hardy swims for Gold

Men's 1500m Freestyle: Connor Jaeger competes

Women's 4x100m Medley Relay

Men's 4x100m Medley Relay: This will be Michael Phelps final race as an Olympian.

Women's Singles Final: Sharapova vs. S. Williams

Men's Doubles: Bob and Mike Bryan compete

Men's 20km Race Walk: Trevor Barron competes

Women's Discus Throw: Stephanie Brown Trafton competes

Men's Long Jump: Marquise Goodwin, Will Claye, and George Kitchens compete

Men's 10,000 Meters: Galen Rupp, Matthew Tegenkamp, Dathan Ritzenhein compete

***Women's 100m: Carmelita Jeter, Allison Felix, and Tianna Madison go for Gold

also, Men's 100m Heats begin

Women's Triathlon

Ok, here are the medal standings:

USA                               21                                 10                                12           :          43

China                             20                                 13                                 9            :          42

Russia                            3                                  12                                 8            :          23

Great Britain                  8                                   6                                  8            :          22

Japan                             2                                   9                                  6            :          20
Germany                        5                                   2                                  4            :          12

France                            8                                   5                                  6            :          19

South Korea                  9                                   2                                  5             :          16