Usain Bolt Runs 19.32 In 200m Final, Repeats As Gold Medalist, Still Eased Up At The End [Video]

Aug 9, 2012 4:05 PM  

Usain Bolt made history today as the first man to ever repeat as Olympic champion at 200 meters, running a 19.32 despite clearly easing up on the final strides.

He eased up so much, in fact, that countryman Yohan Blake nearly caught him at 19.44. Fellow Jamaican Warren Weir rounded out the medals with a 19.84, making for the fastest top three times in Olympic history. American Wallace Spearmon came in fourth at 19.90. [BBC]

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Polish Shot Put Gold Medalist's Celebration Nearly Interrupts Women's 10K Final, Ends In Evil Laugh [Video]

Aug 3, 2012 5:10 PM  

Tomasz Majewski was excited, and he had reason to be. The Polish shot putter's throw of 21.89 meters secured a defense of his 2008 Beijing gold in the event, but it's his celebration we're more interested in. In search of the flag of Poland, Majewski rushed across the track while the women's 10K final cruised on by—paying the runners just enough mind to avoid becoming an obstacle—then wrapping himself in the flag and bellowing the kind of laugh I thought you only saw in movies.

h/t to Isaac & Ryan

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Men's Gymnastics Team Final: Team USA Stumbles, China Soars, And The Officials Vault Japan Over Britain [Video]

After exceeding expectations in the men's gymnastics preliminaries, the United States fell below expectations when it counted, in the team final. A squad that had hoped for gold, if everything went right, finished out of the medals entirely.

Veteran Jonathan Horton, the weak link in Saturday's top-ranked team preliminary performance, was solid in the final. It was the youthful side of the roster that faltered. Sam Mikulak got things going in the wrong direction by putting his hands down on the final pass of his floor exercise. Danell Leyva then fell off of the pommels, and the usually steady John Orozco chimed in with a fall of his own.

With two events gone, the chances of gold were dashed, and the ones of any medal were fading. And then Orozco sat down his vault, and the goal changed from reaching the podium to staying out of last place.

But Horton, the team leader, rallied the demoralized group, and they hit well on the parallel bars and high bar, their best events. In the end, they came out fifth, 1.759 points shy of the bronze.

They were 6.045 points behind the Chinese team, however. China's performance in London was the opposite of the Americans': After a distant sixth-place finish in preliminaries made them look vulnerable, they methodically put away the competition in the final. Without being flashy, they executed cleanly, at a high level of difficulty. After a few rotations, their position was never really in doubt.

The Japanese seemed equally secure in their silver medal—until, in the final rotation, they suffered two major breaks, including an out-of-control dismount from their superstar, Kohei Uchimura. Uchimura's score dropped Japan out of the medals altogether. The surging British team, led by pommel-horse gold-medal favorite Louis Smith, was set to take silver. The Ukranians celebrated a team bronze.

And then the Japanese team challenged Uchimura's score. Judges and officials debated his routine for several minutes as the three teams paced nervously. In the end, they revised the score upward by 0.7 points, vaulting Japan back to silver after all. Great Britain was bumped to bronze, and the Ukraine fell out of the medals.

Though the Ukranians were understandably devastated, the British were still jubilant. It was the country's first team medal in men's gymnastics in a hundred years, won in front of the home crowd and Princes William and Harry. Last time the British men won a team medal in gymnastics, the athletes competed on events like rope climbing and the royalty in attendance actually mattered.

The tight outcome of the men's team competition demonstrated how much talent and depth there is in this field. Russia, the Ukraine, and Great Britain were in the hunt for the bronze up until the end. And while the Americans fell short, this is a young team. Horton, at 26, already has a team Olympic medal and can retire on that. Of the others, two are 19, one is 20, and another is 21. None of them has indicated any plans to retire after London.

It's not as simple as just training another four years, in an injury-plagued sport like gymnastics. And there is always a crop of younger athletes looking to topple the veterans. But for this crew, another run at an Olympic medal seems very possible.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

Dvora Meyers is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Tablet and elsewhere. She writes about gymnastics and Judaism at Unorthodox Gymnastics, and she is the author of Heresy on the High Beam: Confessions of an Unbalanced Jewess. She blogs about woman-y stuff over at The Anti-Girlfriend.

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U.S. Gymnastics Favorite Jordyn Wieber Outscored Nearly Everyone Else In Preliminaries. That Wasn't Enough To Qualify Her For The All-Around Final. [Gymnastics]

As expected, in the women's gymnastics preliminaries, the United States topped the field. Less expectedly, the margin was only 1.4 points.

And completely unexpectedly, world champion Jordyn Wieber failed to qualify for the individual all-around final, to compete for the most coveted title in gymnastics.

Wieber didn't have a meltdown or fall off the equipment. She had a very good meet with a few minor errors, breaking 60 points. Her 60.032 was the fourth-highest score in the whole preliminary field, 0.6 points behind the leader, Russia's Victoria Komova.

But the rules stipulate that only two gymnasts per country advance to the all-around final. And two of Wieber's teammates, Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas, edged her out for second and third.

This means that a whole pack of gymnasts who did worse than Wieber will be competing for the all-around medal, while she sits out. Wieber even outscored the second-ranked Russian, 2010 world champion Aliya Mustafina, who is in fine form after tearing her ACL last year.

Yet while the 28th-ranked gymnast (Australia's Ashleigh Brennan, with a 54.232) gets a shot at all-around title, the fourth-ranked one is out.

The former Soviet Union used to get around this rule by faking an injury to one of the qualified athletes. Back in 1992—when the top three per country advanced to the all-around final—pre-meet favorite Tatiana Gutsu fell off the beam and failed to make the top three on the powerful Unified Team. So the team simply claimed that Roza Galieva had a knee injury and subbed in Gutsu, who ended up winning the whole competition. It was only a few years later that Galieva herself revealed that she in fact had not been injured.

But the American team isn't working up any orthopedic fictions to save Wieber's spot. Though most of the media hype had surrounded Wieber and Gabrielle Douglas, it's Alexandra Raisman who enters the all around final as the top-ranked American gymnast. She, like the rest of the Americans, did great on vault and she more than survived bars, her worst event. After that, it was smooth sailing on beam and floor exercise ahead of Douglas, who had a significant stumble on the floor.

While Wieber's elimination was shocking and weakened the all-around field, Raisman's ascension is not all that surprising to viewers who've been paying attention all season. Though she will never be a strong bar worker, she has steadily improved at it, and she has the highest difficulty scores on beam and floor of the Americans. And she rarely ever misses in competition.

(Kyla Ross, the youngest member of the U.S. team, was fantastic too, despite having very little international experience. If not for the two-per-country rule, she would have made the beam final, and she was close on the bars.)

Raisman placed second overall, right behind a reinvigorated Komova, who competed with new elements on all of the events except floor exercise. With Wieber out, Komova looks like the favorite to win the all-around gold.

The rest of the Russians competed with the same energy and ease that Komova displayed. They also beefed up their vault rotation, which is key if they're to top the U.S. in the team finals. Komova landed a nice Amanar, and Maria Paseka, who was named to the team purely for her ability to do that vault, also stood hers up, albeit very sloppily. While the U.S. remain the favorites, they will have to fight harder than they previously thought for the team title.

There was quite a big dropoff after the top two. The Chinese gymnasts landed in third on the strength of their bars, but the had very weak vault and floor rotations. And Romania, which had competed so assuredly against an injured Russian squad at the European Championships, didn't have a good outing either. Their all-around favorite, Larisa Iordache, fell on floor and had lackluster efforts on the other events, failing to qualify to a single apparatus final. Still, she placed ninth overall, 2.5 points behind Wieber. And none of her teammates beat her out—so, unlike Wieber, Iordache will be going to the all-around final.

For a handy master schedule of every Olympic event, click here.

Dvora Meyers is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Tablet and elsewhere. She writes about gymnastics and Judaism at Unorthodox Gymnastics, and she is the author of Heresy on the High Beam: Confessions of an Unbalanced Jewess. She blogs about woman-y stuff over at The Anti-Girlfriend.

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What Are The Jingoists Saying Today: Italy Wins Gold Over USA Archery On Final Shot Bullseye [Video]

Jul 28, 2012 1:46 PM  

The Italians just won gold in Archery on a last-shot dagger of a bullseye. It made for an intense and entertaining watch, however bittersweet it may be to come in second. It was the first medal for the United States, but the real pressing matter is, what are the jingoists saying about Italy snatching gold from the good ol' US of A?

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