Nineteen sports are in action today, and medals in, by my count, 11 events will award medals today. One of those, the men's cycling road race, is being televised live by NBC right now, and a 29-year-old from Boulder, Colo., is in second place. But cycling is an event of such heartbreak here at the HP that I can hardly bear to watch. So, I'm probably most interested in women's fencing, where 18-year-old Lee Kiefer of Lexington is competing in the round of 32.
Previous reports:
-- watching opening day and the opening ceremony (July 27)
OK, Lee Kiefer of Lexington has allegedly advanced to the round of 16 in women's individual foil. I never was able to find NBC's video of her round-of-32 match because one apparently has to know which "piste" your player is fencing on.
ReplyDeleteConfirmed ... Kiefer of Lexington wins, 15-10, over a Canadian woman in the round of 16 and will next play Gil Ok Jung of South Korea.
DeleteTeam USA Olympics @TeamUSAOlympic
DeleteLee Kiefer will take on Jun Gil Ok of North Korea at 9:40 ET.
7:55 AM - 28 Jul 12
YES, BUT WHAT PISTE?!? WHAT PISTE!?!
DeleteThat round-of-32 match was over in 15 minutes, 27 seconds, so one doesn't have much time to browse pistes.
OK, I'm seeing some Tweets that MSNBC is going to show Lee Kiefer's round-of-16 match, which would be great because I wouldn't have to wonder about this whole piste question. Right now, MSNBC is showing a Croatian woman beating an American in table tennis.
Delete"Kiefer's meteoric rise in the foil ranks is even more remarkable considering she is from Lexington, Kentucky, not exactly the hotbed of American fencing."
ReplyDeletePISTE 3!
ReplyDeleteOH, MAN!
ReplyDeleterickbozich @rickbozich
WKU's Claire Donahue advances to 100-fly finals, qualifying 7th. Teammate Dana Vollmer sets U.S. record with her swim.
8:30 AM - 28 Jul 12
And now a HeathPo moment ... MSNBC just showed a President Obama ad (an actual President Obama ad, not just a "Lean Forward" promo of one of its own shows). Pretty sure that's the first commercial for either side in the presidential election in Kentucky.
ReplyDeleteYES! MSNBC is switching to fencing!
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Kentuckians tuning in to watch Lee Kiefer on MSNBC are now complaining on Twitter about having to sit through Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews promos.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why NBC thought that the fencing demographic and the MSNBC demographic would be a good match.
DeleteHOORAY! MSNBC is showing Kiefer vs. South Korea's Jung!
ReplyDeleteOK, first period's over, and Kiefer leads the South Korean, 4-2.
ReplyDeleteOuch. Kiefer gets out to a 7-2 lead, but Jung of South Korea storms back to take build a 10-8 advantage through two periods.
ReplyDelete11-11! 1:48 to go in third ...
ReplyDeleteBut after ties at 12 and 13, Kiefer wins, 15-13! She's on to the quarterfinals!
ReplyDeleteKiefer back in action now in the quarters, against an Italian ... 2-2 early ... MSNBC ...
ReplyDeleteWell, heck.
DeleteEarly on in that match, the Italian woman patted Kiefer on the back of the head, and it reminded me too much of this incident.
Highly recommended: "Let's break down how Vino ended up winning gold."
ReplyDeleteI ended up spending most of Saturday conducting a little dessert Olympics of my own at Moonlite Barbecue in Owensboro. We go to this restaurant on the same Saturday evening every summer for my father-in-law's family reunion, and it's always fun. I always get the big, expensive buffet, which includes all-you-can-eat dessert. This year's entrants (into me) were cherry cobbler, rhubarb pie, soft-serve vanilla ice cream, chocolate-pecan pie, coconut-cream pie and chocolate cake with chocolate icing.
ReplyDeleteGold medal: Coconut-cream pie
Silver medal: Chocolate-pecan pie (a local favorite)
Bronze medal: Soft-serve vanilla ice cream (perennial juggernaut, along the lines of Teofilo Stevenson, who seemed to box in about 12 different Olympics)
(I learned literally just now that Teofilo Stevenson died last month. Rest in peace, Teofilo Stevenson.)
Medal standings in London after today:
ReplyDelete1. China (4 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze)
2. Italy (2, 2, 1)
3. United States (1, 2, 2)
4. Brazil (1, 1, 1)
4. South Korea (1, 1, 1)
6. Australia (1, 0, 0)
6. Kazakhstan (1, 0, 0)
6. Russia (1, 0, 0)
9. Japan (0, 2, 1)
10. Colombia (0, 1, 0)
10. Netherlands (0, 1, 0)
10. Poland (0, 1, 0)
10. Romania (0, 1, 0)
14. Belgium (0, 0, 1)
14. Hungary (0, 0, 1)
14. North Korea (0, 0, 1)
14. Norway (0, 0, 1)
14. Serbia (0, 0, 1)
The U.S. gold medal winner was swimmer Ryan Lochte, who was born the day after my Sweet Sixteenth birthday in Rochester, N.Y. His profile page at NBC's web site lists Rochester as Lochte's birthplace, Daytona Beach, Fla., as his hometown and Gainesville as his residence. I'd like to know precisely how they determine an athlete's "hometown," which Dictionary.com defines none too precisely as "the town or city in which a person lives or was born, or from which a person comes." My guess is that Lochte identifies Daytona Beach as his "hometown," and that's good enough for NBC, as it would be for me, too. When somebody asks me where I'm from, I tend to say that I was born in Evansville, Ind., but that I "grew up" in Paducah (or "around western Kentucky," if I'm wanting to throw Bowling Green some love, too).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good for Daytona Beach's own Ryan Lochte.
The fencing medals for women's individual foil, by the way, all went to Italians, including a silver to Arianna Errigo, the woman who eliminated Lee Kiefer (birthplace Cleveland, hometown and residence Lexington).
ReplyDeleteClaire Donahue, the first WKU Hilltopper to represent the United States in an Olympics, swims tomorrow at 1:30 Central for a medal in the women's 100m butterfly. GO! BIG! RED!
ReplyDeleteBadminton and field hockey commence in less than two and a half hours ...
ReplyDeleteHow 'bout them gymnasts?!?
ReplyDeleteAmazing how much Bela Karolyi and Jimmy Johnson are starting to look alike.