United States Wins Medal Count, Is The Best Country Ever At Sports [London Olympics]

Aug 12, 2012 1:52 PM  

Well, it's official—the United States is the best country at a collection of regular sports and a whole bunch of random weirdo sports, as determined by an international competition staged every four years. America won both the gold (46) and overall (104) medal counts. These colors do not bleed, China. [Medal Count]

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Bill Simmons Has A Pretty Good Seat For Today's U.S.A.-Spain Gold Medal Game [Bill Simmons]

Aug 12, 2012 10:25 AM  

Bill Simmons appears to be unimpressed by what he's seeing. Maybe he'll tweet about it! (He'll definitely tweet about it.)

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South Korean Soccer Player Did Not Receive His Medal Because Of Politics [London Olympics]

Aug 12, 2012 11:20 AM  

Park Jong-soo played all 90 minutes in South Korea's 2-0 win over Japan in Friday's bronze medal game. As he walked off the field he held up the sign you see, which apparently reads "Dokdo is our territory." The reference is to a group of islands between South Korea and Japan in waters (the Sea of Japan, or the East Sea...or the Korea East Sea depending on your perspective) rich with natural resources. Both South Korea and Japan claim sovereignty over the islands.

His protest came hours after South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, paid a surprise visit to the islands. The visit infuriated Japan, which withdrew its ambassador from Seoul in protest.

Personally, I would have thrown some good ol' scare quotes around "protest," but I don't work for The Times. Anyway, the holding of a sign was determined to be a political statement and all the governing bodies of Soccer, with their strict anti-political statements/pro-political corruption stance, got pissed and will hold their own investigations. London Olympics officials asked that South Korea handle this mess and South Korea decided to keep Park off the podium while the rest of his teammates received their medals.

South Korean Denied Medal Over Politics [New York Times]

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The Women's Field Hockey Gold Medal Match Was Even Bloodier Than The Semifinals [Video]

Aug 10, 2012 4:37 PM  

We already showed you this brutal connection between hockey stick and face, and it happened again during today's gold medal match between Holland and Argentina. The Netherlands ended up taking gold with a 2-0 win, but injury was added to insult when Argentina's Mariela Scarone let her face get in the way of a Dutch player's stick and ended up coming off the field with a face full of blood. Still, a silver medal and a face injury is better than where the U.S. team ended up—dead last. As for the Netherlands, they sure do seem to leave their opponents with catastrophic injuries. As Dan noted, it's the same player who levied the pain in both instances.

h/t to Zander

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Claressa Shields Won The First Women's Gold Medal In USA Boxing History [Video]

Claressa Shields won the women's middleweight division today, bringing home the first gold in USA women's boxing history, at the first Games where women's boxing was granted a spot. Shields beat Sweden's Anna Laurell in the quarterfinals, Kazakhstan's Marina Volnova in the semifinals, and Russia's Nadezda Torlopova for the gold. In the clip above, you can see some of Shields's better moments (including a savage left-handed jab at the end) against the beleaguered Russian. At 33, Torlopova is nearly double Shields's age. It wasn't really close—Shields was up five after three rounds, and ended up putting the fight away 19-12 on points. The nearest the fighter from Flint came to a loss in London was a minor scare against Laurell, whom she beat 18-14.

One of the stranger things about sorting through the noise surrounding the female boxing team in advance of the Olympics is that every profile of the fighters in the US delegation—Marlen Esparza, Queen Underwood, and Shields—either said outright or quoted someone saying that its subject was the USA's best chance at gold (check out the "scouting reports from home country" in the field guide.) Underwood had a tough draw (she ended up losing in the quarterfinals), and Esparza came away with a bronze, but it was the 17-year-old Shields that looked dominant. Considering her opponents were 23, 32, and 33, Shields should have a chance to collect a lot of hardware throughout her career. That is, if the US boxing ecosystem proves itself able to support female boxers between quadrennials.

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Russian High Jumper Loses Uniform Mid-Competition, Is Forced To Jump In A T-Shirt, Wins Gold Medal [Video]

Aug 7, 2012 4:10 PM  

Russian high jumper Ivan Ukhov won gold with a leap of 2.38 meters today at Olympic Stadium, but not before a self-imposed wardrobe malfunction forced him to compete temporarily in a T-shirt.

Uhkov's previously known for a 2008 stunt when he showed up at a competition drunk and attempted to compete, failing miserably in what's since become a YouTube hit.

His erratic reputation came to Olympic light when Ukhov faced his 2.33m attempt and realized his competition jersey—cast off immediately after his previous attempt, as it seems the Russian doesn't much care for upper-body wear—was nowhere to be found. An official can be seen pointing out the T-shirt sitting on a bench, and so that's what Ukhov wore; he cleared the bar easily, and went back in search of his jersey. He'd eventually find it by the end of the competition, which he closed out by attempting a jump of 2.40m despite having already won gold. Ukhov!

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Serena Williams Wins Gold Medal, Crip Walks Into Our Hearts [London Olympics]

Aug 4, 2012 10:55 AM  

Holy shit. Serena Williams just won her gold-medal match against Maria Sharapova, and she won it in dominant fashion. Williams's bushwhacking of Sharapova was over in just under an hour, as she took the match 6-0, 6-1. Sharapova was lucky to take even one game, because Williams was at the absolute top of her game today. Sharapova had to throw everything she had at Williams just to scratch out a few points, and she spent most of the match looking like she was about to throw up.

The highlight of the match came after it was over, though, when Williams unleashed what has got to be the first crip walk that has ever occurred at the All England Club:

I'm sure some crusty white sportswriter will give Serena shit for her celebration after Googling what a crip walk is ("It's gang related!"), but we love it. In fact, we hope she just spends the rest of her day crip walking around London.

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Michael Phelps Earned His 18th Gold Medal By Bringing The 4x100 Medley Relay Team From Behind [London Olympics]

Aug 4, 2012 3:49 PM  

When Michael Phelps entered the pool for his final career Olympic swim, the Japanese 4x100 medley relay team held a slight lead. When the race ended, the U.S. led by nearly two seconds.

Undoubtedly much of that is due to Nathan Adrian's blistering anchor leg, but the truth remains that the U.S. were behind when Phelps started his butterfly portion, and ahead when he finished at 3:29.35, and that's your awesome Michael Phelps legacy (along with the 18 gold medals).

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Kim Jong Un Personally Responsible For Inspiring Every North Korean Gold Medal, Reports North Korea [North Korea]

If you've been following the Olympics from any outlet other than government mouthpiece KCNA, you have no idea what you're missing. Like North Korea's bronze medal in weightlifting. For all their continuing coverage of their four golds, there has not been one mention of the bronze. Third place is second loser.

But what's in the papers today? (Besides a high wood pulp content, making newspapers a good food alternative during the regular famines.) Well, Om Yun Chol won a weightlifting gold five days ago, and he's still front page material.

"Black Horse" Om from group B overpowered group A rivals by applying "group-change tactics".

After the match, he told foreign reporters that the secret is nothing but the loving care of leader Kim Jong Il and the dear respected Kim Jong Un.

The athletes and coaches of the team and other people in the DPRK are now rejoicing over his good job. They were unanimous in saying that his success showed the faith, grit and the mettle of the Korean army and people who are building a thriving country under the leadership of the dear respected Kim Jong Un.

Rim Jong Sim also took gold in weightlifting, and you'll never guess who she credits for her success:

"The only thing I want to do right now is to run to our dear General with my gold medal in my hand," Rim said.

Speaking on the secret leading to her victory, she said,

"Our training is designed to maximize our talents and combine them with precise movement. Even when the training was really tough, as an athlete I have the duty to give joy to the supreme leader Kim Jong Un."

You can bet Best Korea's Olympic glory is being celebrated at home.

The news has sent another pleasure to the local people.

...

Kim Il Jin, a teacher at the Songyo District Juvenile Sports School, said:

"All of the teachers and students of the school are greatly inspired by the Olympic results of the DPRK athletes.

"I will work harder to train reserve athletes who will glorify the honor of the country as they did."

But what do Olympic medals actually mean, in the bigger picture?

The good results of the DPRK athletes at the London Olympics display the inexhaustible strength of Songun (military-first) Korea.

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

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In What He Called His "Last Individual Swim Ever," Michael Phelps Just Earned Another Gold Medal [London Olympics]

Aug 3, 2012 3:25 PM  

Michael Phelps just added to his Olympic-record medal total by winning the 100-meter butterfly in 51.21 seconds, touching the wall ahead of South Africa's Chad Le Clos and Russia's Evgeny Korotyshkin, who tied for second (51.44). As he approached the turn, Phelps looked like he was in trouble. That's him in Lane 4, in next-to-last place:

But Phelps pretty much erased the deficit by the time has was halfway down the homestretch:

That makes 17 career golds, and 21 total medals for Phelps. Afterward, Phelps told the BBC that this was his "last individual swim ever." All that's left is the 4 x 100 medley relay, the finals of which will be tomorrow.

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Yi Siling Wins The First Gold Medal Of London 2012 (For Air Rifle) [London Olympics]

Jul 28, 2012 10:15 AM  

Yi Siling of China is the number one ranked air rifle shooter person in the world and made those who rank such things look like they know what the hell it is they are doing as she won the first gold medal of the 2012 Olympic Games in women's 10m air rifle. One can almost imagine the gods atop Olympus, watching the athletes carrying their air rifles, Ares clapping like a madman; Aphrodite golf clapping and rolling her eyes.

Siling was excited about the win and relieved the morning ended so well.

'I'm very happy. I want to say thanks to China, to my mother and father.

'I'm very excited and happy. I have been shooting since I was 13-years-old.

'I've been up since 5am this morning. There was a lot of pressure on me.'

And hey, she's an Olympic gold medalist. So shove it, guy making light of air rifling.

Image via Getty
Yi Siling wins first gold medal of Games [London 2012]

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

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