Today's Events: Archery, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Fencing, Golf, Shooting, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track and Field, Trampolining, Volleyball
Olympic Word of the Day: Piste - In fencing, it is the 14 meter long, by 2 meter wide "court" upon which fencers compete.
Sportsmanship was not the highlight of Day 10. Islam El-Shehaby, a judoka from Egypt, refused to shake the hand of Or Sasson, his Israeli counterpart that had just defeated him. Although the International Judo Federation is looking into the situation to possibly sanction El-Shehaby (shaking hands is not required, but bowing afterward is; El-Shehaby eventually bowed). An International Olympic Committee spokesperson said that it was a step forward that the match even took place, as many participants from hyper-religious Islamic countries refuse to even compete against Israeili athletes.
Now to be fair to El-Shehaby we do not know his situation. It is entirely possible that those in the Egyptian Judo Federation, those associated with the government, or even rogue elements outside the government may have threatened his life for competing against Sasson, much less shaking hands, but hopefully he is just being a jerk.
Bad sportsmanship is not limited to athletes from countries that insult our allies, but the good ole U S of A has its bad sports as well, namely, Hope Solo. After the heavily favored American soccer team, for which Solo plays goalie, lost in a shootout to Sweden, Hope Solo called the Swedes cowards, for executing a tough, defensive-minded gameplan, and then insulted the Sweden coach, Pia Sundhage, who formerly coached the U.S. Women's National Team. Given the quantity of issues in Solo's background, some analysts are starting to call for her dismissal from the national team.
In the pool, Katie Ledecky set a world record in the 800 meter freestyle, exited the pool, showered, put on makeup, changed into her club clothes, then returned to the pool to watch second and third place finish the race. She simply dominated, but she cannot be the story of the day, as she wasn't even the story of the day in swimming.
That honor belongs to Joseph Schooling of Singapore. Schooling won gold in the 100m butterfly in Olympic record time. In doing so, he defeated a trio of Olympic swimming royalty who all tied for the silver medal: Michael Phelps of the United States, Laslzo Cseh of Hungary and Chad le Clos of South Africa. You know who didn't beat Phelps? Alydar himself, Ryan Lochte, who is finished.
A trio of Americans had great days in Rio. Shooter Kim Rhode won bronze medal in the women's skeet event. The bronze is Rhode's sixth medal overall, having medaled in each of the last 6 Olympics, the first person to medal in 6 different Olympics.
In the boxing ring, American Nico Hernandez earned a bronze medal in the light flyweight, after falling to Hasanboy Dusmatov of Uzbekistan. Hernandez, won a medal for the once-proud US boxing team, despite being one of only 5 fighters to qualify for the Olympics from the U.S.
At the track, Shot Diva Michelle Carter won the gold medal, the second such medal for her family, as her father Michael Carter, won the gold in 1984 in Los Angeles. Afterward, Carter went on to win the Super Bowl with the San Francisco 49ers in January 1985, and then two more times thereafter. Carter, after qualifying third, unleashed a monster throw of 20.63m on her final attempt.
Inside the velodrome, Bradley Wiggins, along with his Great Britain teammates, twice set the world record in the Men's team pursuit, the last time in the finals as Great Britain defeated Australia. It was Wiggins's British record 8th medal 5 of which are gold, to go with 1 silver and 2 bronze.
However, the story of the day belongs to the the winner of the first gold medal on the track. Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana wins gold by breaking a 23 year old world record. Her time of 29:17.45 shattered the World Record formerly held by China's Wang Junxia. Ayana defeated silver medalist, Vivian Cheruiyot from Kenyan, and countrywomen (and three time medalist) Tirunesh Dibaba, as athletes from Ethiopia and Kenya took the top 5 spots and 6 of the top 8, American Molly Huddle finished 6th, setting an American record 30:13.17.
But, this post has to come full circle, and to do that was Sweden's Sarah Lahti, who finished 2 minutes and 11 seconds behind Ayana in 12th place. Abut Ayana Lahti said, "I cannot say that she is not clean, but there is little doubt". Good sportsmanship Lahti.
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