London 2012 Olympics Thread

[Andrea]

The poor Korean girl in the Epée (fencing) semi-final drama is surely the image of Day III.
A second can last forever...

[Andrea]

Italy is still unable to get a 3rd gold medal...

I am not surprised by Pellegrini failing given her 400m performance, but we surely expected at least 1 medal from fencing today

[Andrea]

San Marino almost won a medal today!

Great night for UK in the track and field.

Happy for the Guatemala guy in race walking. I hope Borchin is well after his collapsed 2 KM away from the finish line.

[Andrea]

The British TV coverage is getting completely unbearable...

North America is hardly better:

CTV: Full coverage of the token Canadian guy in every race, excitement when a Canadian doesn't place last or next to last. But they do cover other nations, tbh.

NBC: America is the only country competing, so they only cover Americans. Though unlike Canadians, the Americans actually win something.

If someone had access only to Italian state run TV, he would think the only sport taking place at the Olympics is fencing.

[Andrea]

Valerie Adams wins 24 shotputs in a row, at the top level, and...gets beaten by a relative unknown Belarussian. Which is sad for the kiwis but excellent for Australia

I believe the Belarussian was the second favourite. She's a former World Champion and Olympic medalist but she often did her best seasonal performances in some Belarus/Russia meetings (like many East Europe athletes...you know, the Russian national championships results are always eye catching but then the majority of them aren't repeated in  any major contest)

[Andrea]

So sad for Liu (100m hurdles). Unlike in Beijing, he has reached the first barrier before falling down.

She's bitter she only got silver? She's a sad individual.

She did a very good first jump (she was in the lead by something like 0.5 points but then she totally got the second attempt wrong. First attempt score 15.866; second attempt 14.300. I guess she was pissed off because she probably performed that jump so badly just 5% of the times and it happened in the most important occasion.)

[Andrea]

Nice bit of trade unionism going on at the men's pole vault, looks like the qualification may stop at 5.50, with 16 going through to the final, instead of twelve. Being led by reigning champ, Australia's Steve Hooker, who would qualify anyway in 8th position.

All very positive, all in agreement. Victory to the workers!

Although the Spaniard looks like he may break ranks...

they could have not stopped at 5.50 because Lavillenie hadn't entered the race yet (he started jumping at 5.60).

[Andrea]

Montenegro is fifth new Olympic medalist country (making together 81 medalist countries). Israel had some good athletes in gymnastics too.  Bahama has a good chance to win medal in some relay, but in general additional medalist countries are very unlikely.

Bahamas won a relay medal as expected. "Bahrain" got their first medal of this edition too.
Given the qualification results in Rhytmic, I don't think Israel is going to win a medal there.

[Andrea]

First doped gold....the Belarus woman who won shot put has tested positive in early August. Vili gets the back to back now

[Andrea]

I don't think anyone is surprised. Valerie Adams must've known, but she showed great grace in receiving her silver. I feel sorry for her, but we all knew she was the real champion from the start.

I am not surprised she's doped but I am surprised she has been caught during the Games. Something must have not gone as planned in her programme

[Andrea]

The Trinidad Javelin winner got 20,000 square feet of land from the government (+ many other things).
Have the Bahamas rewarded their winners with a couple of islands yet (like they did with their 4x100 in Sydney)?