Today's Events: Badminton, Basketball, Canoe, Golf, Handball, Mountain Biking, Soccer, Volleyball, Water Polo, Wrestling
Olympic Word of the Day: Stalling - In wrestling, failing to engage the opponent, presumably to waste time. First infraction is a warning, and at the time of the second "warning" the action is stopped so that the athlete is "put on a clock", at which time he has to score a point within 30 seconds, or else the opponent is awarded a point.
On Saturday, nobody capped a more memorable Olympics that Isaquias Quieroz dos Santos, the Brazilian canoer nicknamed "Missing Kidney". On Saturday, he secured his third medal of the Olympics, a silver in the men's 1000 meters, to go along with his silver in the men's doubles 1000 meters and a bronze in the men's 200 meters. Three medals to signify each of the three times he almost lost his life. At age 3 a pot of scalding water fell on him, and the doctor's told his mother he was not going to make it. At 5, he was kidnapped, but later returned unharmed. And, at 10, he climbed a tree to get a better look at a snake out on a branch, fell onto a rock with the fall breaking a kidney in half. He has been nicknamed "Missing Kidney" ever since.
From the remarkable to the sublime, the United States Women's Basketball team secured gold by demolishing Spain 101-72. Nobody, with the possible exception of Simone Biles, was more dominating at the Olmpics than this U.S. team. Diana Taurasi, who along with Sue Bird and Tamika Catchings earned her fourth gold medal, has been complaining - rightfully so - that the team has not garnered more attention. It hasn't received more attention because they were too good, and the games have not been that interesting. A weird dichotomy, sure, but domination sometimes has its price.
In today's lesson on sportsmanship, American J'Den Cox won the bronze medal by defeating Cuban Reinaris Salas. Cox. who late in match was leading by one, was warned for stalling. He had thirty seconds to win a point, otherwise Salas would be awarded a point. This was important because in freestyle wrestling, ties are broken by whomever scored last. Cox attacks, and attacks, and attacks, has the big Cuban up, flips him, and Salas still has a hold of Cox's ankle, so a point is awarded to Salas with just six seconds left. Cox's team challenges, and upon video replay, Cox is awarded 2 points for a take down, and since he scored points, no penalty is awarded to Salas, thus taking his point away. A 3 point swing. Instead of being tied, Cox is now up 3. After a brief protest by his coaches, Salas refuses to continue the match. Cox technically wins by disqualification.
That should be contrasted with the actions of Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei. Wei, the number 1 ranked badminton player in the world lost the gold medal match to China's Chen Long to secure his third Olympic silver in his fourth Olympics. Lee, crying, then apologized to all 30 million Malaysians that he could not give give them the gold medal they expected. This juxtaposed with Ryan Lochte, who, just apologized for embellishing a story, that was not actually accurate to begin with.
On the track, the Americans again excelled, with Matt Centrowitz winning the gold medal in the men's 1500 meters. In winning a very tactical race that Centrowitz controlled from the beginning, he became the first American male to win at that distance since 1908.
For the sixth consecutive time, the American women won the 4x400 meter relay, in convincing fashion. Another repeat winner was Great Britain's Mo Farah, who followed up his gold medal in the 10,000 meters with another gold in the 5,000 meters, completing the double that he accomplished in London in 2012.
Gwen Jorgensen won the gold medal in the women's triathlon, becoming the first American to do so in that event. Jorgensen, who completed the course in 1:56:16, defeating silver medalist Nicola Spirig of Switzerland by 40 seconds, with bronze medalist Vicky Holland of Great Britain just 5 seconds behind Spirig.
Despite all of the triumph listed here, none came close to the triumph of these Olympics: Brazil's triumph over Germany for the gold medal in men's soccer. The game, tied a 1-1 through regulation and extra time, went to penalty kicks. Germany, going first, scored on each of its first four spot kicks, while Brazil countered scoring on each of its first four kicks. Then, Brazilian goalie Weverton guessing correctly by diving to his left, made a spectacular save on Germany's Nils Pieterson, who blistered his kick to the goalie's left. Then Neymar, recognized as one of the world's greatest soccer players coming off his spectacular curling free kick in the first half that gave Brazil a 1-0 lead, buried his penalty into the top of the net after a stutter step to clinch the gold medal. It was difficult to see who was crying more, the Brazilians for winning, or the Germans for losing, but the emotions ran extremely high at Maracana. That, was the story of the day!
