Olympic Word of the Day: Nacra 17 - It is the exclusive mixed multihull used for the multi-hull sailing competition in the Rio 2016 Olympics. It was designed specifically for use in these Olympics as well as international events leading up to the Olympics.
Lots of action on August 16. For starters we will examine: (1) the expected; (2) the unexpected; (3) the good; (4) the bad; and (5) the bizarre.
The expected was Simone Biles, who won her fourth gold of the Olympics in the floor exercise. Biles mesmerized the audience - and the judges - who gave her a 15.966, beating out fellow American Aly Raisman by almost a 1/2 point. Raisman finished with the silver, while Amy Tinkler of Great Britain won bronze. It is a shame that Biles winning a gold is ho-hum, but when you are as dominating as Biles is, this gold was definitely expected.
The unexpected was that the Belgian men's field hockey team beat the Netherlands 3-1 to advance to the gold medal match against equally unheralded Argentina which beat the heavily-favored, two-time defending champion Germany. What makes the Belgium victory more astonishing is that Belgium has never beaten its neighbor in over 80 years of playing field hockey.
The good was the U.S. performance in the men's triple jump, where American Christian Taylor defended his gold medal from London with a jump of 17.86 meters, followed closely by teammate Will Claye, whose 17.76 meter jump for second place helped him defend his silver medal from London. Claye, to celebrate, jumped into the stands, hugged his girlfriend and then asked her to marry him.
The bad of this games has easily been the boxing judging. The attention started when Irish bantamweight, Michael Conlan - who won bronze in London and was the favorite to win gold in Rio - lost to Russia's Vladimir Kikitin in a unanimous decision (all 3 judges had it 2 rounds to 1 in favor of the Russian). Conlan, who was clearly the better fighter, stood in the ring and gave the judges the middle finger once the Russian was announced as a winner. He then tweeted directly at Russian President Vladimir Putin, "How much did they charge you, bro?"
Conlan's defeat was bad, but nowhere near the level of the defeat of Roy Jones, Jr. at the hands of Korea's Park Si-hun in Seoul in 1988, after which Jones was named the best boxer of the entire tournament, not just in his weight class. But, after looking at Conlan's defeat,the previous day's decision in favor of Russian Evgeny Tishchenko over Kazakhstan's Vassiliy Levit looks even worse. Levit, who looked like he won easily, lost on the score cards and once Tishchenko was announced as the winner, the crowd booed heavily.
Unfortunately, this was just the tip of the iceberg, and an unspecified number of judges were sent home from Rio as punishment for their performance.
The bizarre is the Ryan Lochte story, who you may recall was robbed at gunpoint with 3 of his swimming teammates after a night of partying. Brazilian authorities have announced that they do not believe any assault or robbery ever took place. Stay tuned, as there is undoubtedly going to be more to this.
Back to the actual events, in an amazing soccer match, and a big FU to American goalie Hope Solo, Sweden's women's soccer team advanced to the gold medal match defeating host Brazil 4-3 on penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw. Apparently the Swedish women were not cowardly enough to miss their penalty kicks.
Omar McLeod won the 110m hurdles, winning another gold for Jamaica on the track, won a race that saw, for the first time ever, no United States athlete on the podium. University of Oregon wide receiver Devon Allen did finish 5th in the race.
But, as varied as the stories above are, they do not come close to the story of the day. Argentine Santiago Lange, 54 and competing in his sixth Olympics, won gold in the Nacra 17 mixed hull sailing competition with his teammate Cecilia Carranaza. This was Lange's first gold to go with 2 previous bronze medals, and comes just a year after losing a lung to cancer. For your perseverance and performance, Lange is the story of the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment