- China had a good day to top the medal table with 4 golds, outshining the Americans in the swimming, on top of it. Their six medals also top the medal count.
- Abby Wambach got a shot to the face in the USA womens' match, and the referee did nothing about it! In fact, the pro-nationalistic US reporter basically even goes so far as that the Colombian player looked for the referee, saw she wasn't being watched, and popped Wambach with a deliberate shot at about :13 of the clip accompanying this blog post on the subject. The Colombian player, Lady Andrade (I'm not making this up -- her first name is Lady!!), is probably done for the tournament as a result, because two camera angles caught what four officials could not! (The punch is not in dispute, the looking for the official can be in some issue.)
- Speaking of an official blowing the call, one for the pool today. South Korea's Park Tae-Hwan was disqualified for a false start in the 400 freestyle, but was only notified after the race had been run. (Usually, false starts are called immediately, and the field recalled.) A protest was lodged, the start re-examined, and Park was reinstated. Park won a silver medal for South Korea, finishing about two seconds off a new Olympic record for China's Yang Sun. (Nice job, refs.)
- In the disturbing "Fix Is In" department, we have a report that an athlete has bet on his own event! Betting on the Games is legal in the home nation, and, apparently, an Irish athlete (to this report from The Guardian, unnamed) placed two bets on an already-completed event for someone else to win! He bet correctly, according to the article, winning almost 4,000 Euros. The Irish Olympic authorities are investigating.
Michael Phelps is probably headed down Fail-ville. Not only did Ryan Lochte defeat him for the gold medal, but Phelps failed to medal in the event (the 400m Individual Medley) at all! Of course, this was an unexpected fall for the US in the medal count (cancelled out by the upset silver in Archery -- and the mens' gymnastics went much better than expected), but there's a much more disturbing trend of news around Mr. Phelps in his final Games...
It all started with two Tweets I got before the Games started from JT The Brick of FOX Sports Radio:
Tweet One: "Michael Phelps seems pretty pissed off at the
Tweet Two, during the tape-delay broadcast of the Opening Ceremony: "I have never seen and athlete who acts more bored and wants to move on from his sport more than
To me, I think it's clear. He does not have a normal swimmer's build. Most swimmers almost appear "slick" -- it's one of the reasons we over-play the sexuality of women's swimmers to the point that an eight-time Olympic medalist from Australia had to be defended from media who called her fat in her fourth Olympic Games!
She's only won three golds for your country, Australian media!!
But, to my point, ever since that classic celebration photo of the relay in which I swear I could've counted at least 8 "cans" in his "pack" for his abdomen, I have believed he's on steroids. After I read these two tweets, I immediately responded that I believe that, after the US Trials, he got notified that, if he stays on his regiment, he will test positive in London.
Not surprisingly, going back to JT the Brick:
This morning, after watching Phelps in his heat race: "#MichaelPhelps 10 sec slower than his world record time in qualifying for 400 IM. Wow either he is finished or playing possum. #olympics"
(Now, 10 seconds is probably a
bit much -- the "super-suits" removed from the sport three years ago
had a large factor in that.)
I think he got told, at some point recently, that he will test positive if he's tested. So I sense, at best, a Bode Miller situation here -- that he's going to go through the motions, not care, and everybody is going to jump on him like they did Miller.
Of course, Yahoo! came up with another angle earlier this week. In an interview, Michael Phelps has admitted that he now plays the "Call of Duty" series 30 hours a week. One psychiatrist says that it may well be a destructive addiction.
So, let me get this straight: The most highly decorated Olympic athlete in history for the USA is now so addicted to "Call of Duty" that he basically does little more than eat, sleep, train, and play the game? At best, this is a Bode Miller situation -- at worst, he knows what he's in for if he gets the National Anthem played again and is tanking it to avoid testing and losing his Beijing and Athens medals!
Definitely a story we'll be watching as the week goes on at the Five-Ringed Circus.
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