fourth place isn't good enough to qualify if 2nd and 3rd are your teammates. That sucks so hard. Kid's been training her entire life to be shot down like that. At least she has a chance at a team medal.
I felt so bad for her. She handled it better than the average 17 year old girl would, though.
Will this probably be her only Olympics, or does she have a realistic chance at making it back in 2016 (when she'll be 21)?
She has about 0 chance of winning it then.
Man, that's nuts. It's unbelievable how short their careers are.
Every 4 years. I mean she IS the reigning world champion. And could be again next year. It's just no one will care then.
Edit: It also doesn't help that it may be the only sport where full on puberty HURTS your chances to compete.
Agree that two per team seems a little harsh, but there has to be limits otherwise it'd be the entire US, China, and Russian teams and no one else.
I have a new favorite team.
Holy crap - an Australian women's basketball player just hit a 60-foot shot to send the game into OT.
This is a good idea. I still think Richard Stamos is the better singer, but I appreciate your effort.
Protip: don't bring an Olympic medal into the shower:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/brazilian-med…
Because it is either just incredibly boring or just incredible, but I'm not buying that story.
Anybody watching USA v. Brazil women's volleyball? Entertaining match so far. US took the first set, just starting the second set now.
I find it interesting that the volleyball players in Brazil are the second-biggest sports stars in the country behind soccer players. And they use one-name nicknames (ex: "Fabiana") like soccer players too.
I'm surprised volleyball isn't as big in American. Volleyball is the only sport I can think of where the athletic advantages of males lead to a less exciting sport. The women's game is full of ralleys and exciting plays. It's far more exciting than women's soccer or basetkball. It is played at every high school in the nation and it is popular on most major athletic campuses.
Maybe it's a matter of time before we get professional volleyball in America? One could only hope!
You could make a case for tennis in that regard. The women's game often has longer rallies.
True but I don't think the difference is nearly as big in tennis as it is in volleyball. There's still plenty of rallies in male tennis. In male volleyball it is rare for the ball to cross the net more than twice.
I guess it depends on what you consider "exciting," but the women's volleyball games often have more rallies because, well, they're not as good as the men.
There's been quite a few plays so far in just the fourth set that were bad passes that made it over, whiffed blocks, or poor defensive placement.
This is the only thing that's come close to men's swimming so far in these games for me.
Though when I see a (quite attractive) player on the US Team named Destinee Hooker, I die a little bit inside.
You don't think women's swimming comes close to men's swimming? It seems to be pretty much the same sport to me.
Man Ukraine just got jacked. Can't believe gymnastics scoring is so dang close.
Getting bumped from Silver to Bronze on an appeal by the Japanese. They at least got a medal, but where's the home court advantage?
Edit: any sport where someone can come in after the play is done and say "oops, different result" isn't really a sport at all.
So every sport with challenges and instant replay is actually not a sport? Disagree. Get it right.
Any questionable plays in that last Super Bowl? Let's change it today. What's the difference between a certain amount of time after an athletic contest ends and more time? I can think of a lot of Michigan games I'd like to appeal the results to....
And how do we know they "got it right"? In a sport where the scoring is judgment calls and not what's on the field of play, it's always suspect. Changing things after the event makes it look moreso. Especially when you're finding two position judgments.
It was a technical point, which wasn't subjective. The Japanese gymnast did a move that the judges didn't give him credit for and they corrected it. It sucks to tell guys that thought they won Silver that they actually didn't, but at the same time, they got the call right in the end which is what matters (not unlike what happened in the Sugar Bowl in our favor).
EDIT: The appeal system where the coach runs up with a stack of cash is laughably stupid. Who the hell thought of and approved that?
Lochte doesn't medal in the 200 freestyle.
And he thought he was going to be like Phelps in Beijing.
Michael Phelps = the Michigan Difference.
His ego's writing checks his body can't cash
Drops out of the medal contention in that one after being in the top 3 most of the race. Not thinking this is going how he planned. He may never eat French Fries again.
Missy Franklin gets gold in the 100 back
U.S. goes one and two in 100 back. Grevers gold, Thoman silver.
Rebecca Soni brings home the silver in the 100 breast
I would not want to be a goalie in water polo. You're treading water and all of a sudden that ball comes screaming at you. That might be the hardest goalie position in any sport.
Water polo: play soccer/hockey in a pool while your opponent tries to drown you or kick you in the junk.
Still no gold medals for the Brits, and only three total. They're not quite capitalizing on the home-country advantage yet. Four years ago they won 19 golds and 47 total, and one British newspaper actually predicted they'd win 84 medals (25 gold) this time around. That's looking a little iffy.
I was wondering what they were going to do with the Olympic flame, since it was right in the middle of the field in the stadium and would have gotten in the way of the track and field events. Apparently it's been moved - but they had to put the flame out while they were moving it. Kind of sucks for all the people who carried that torch.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9437590/London-2012-Olym…
But the Czech Beach Volleyball players against May and Walsh are impressive. Not their game....
And I'm not even that into the Amazon blonde beach volleyball bodies. But there's athlete attractive, and just plain attractive.
(And it's really hard to find SFW pics when their work uniform is basically...that)