It's 8 a.m. Monday in Tokyo, and Channel 6 is ready to lay some Sunday-night Olympics love on us. Here are our medal standings of the moment:
1. China 6 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze
2. Japan 5, 1, 0
3. United States 4, 2, 4
4. South Korea 2, 0, 3
5. Italy 1, 1, 3
T6. Australia 1, 1, 1
T6. France 1, 1, 1
T8. Hungary 1, 1, 0
T8. Tunisia 1, 1, 0
T10. Austria 1, 0, 0
T10. Ecuador 1, 0, 0
T10. Iran 1, 0, 0
T10. Kosovo 1, 0, 0
T10. Thailand 1, 0, 0
T10. Uzbekistan 1, 0, 0
T16. Canada 0, 2, 0
T16. Netherlands 0, 2, 0
T18. Brazil 0, 1, 1
T18. Chinese Taipei 0, 1, 1
T18. Great Britain 0, 1, 1
T18. Indonesia 0, 1, 1
T18. Serbia 0, 1, 1
T23. Belgium 0, 1, 0
T23. Bulgaria 0, 1, 0
T23. Colombia 0, 1, 0
T23. Georgia 0, 1, 0
T23. India 0, 1, 0
T23. Romania 0, 1, 0
T23. Spain 0, 1, 0
T30. Germany 0, 0, 2
T30. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 2
T30. Turkey 0, 0, 2
T30. Ukraine 0, 0, 2
T34. Estonia 0, 0, 1
T34. Israel 0, 0, 1
T34. Mexico 0, 0, 1
T34. Mongolia 0, 0, 1
T34. Slovenia 0, 0, 1
T34. Switzerland 0, 0, 1
They've also given seven medals to athletes from Russia, which invited everybody over to Sochi for the Winter Olympics in 2014 and then cheated.
Previous reports:
The men’s triathlon is down to its last of four laps in the run (the swim and bike portions are finished), and the lead group are guys from Great Britain, Norway and New Zealand. Another guy from Great Britain is fourth, and a guy from the United States—Kevin McDowell of Geneva, Illinois--is fifth (he led the race briefly about 15 minutes ago). The Rio 2016 gold and silver medalists in this event were Brit brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, respectively, and then Henri Schoeman from South Africa won bronze. Jonny Brownlee is the Brit in fourth.
ReplyDeleteKristian Blummenfelt from Norway has burst to the fore.
ReplyDelete"Kristian Blummenfelt is soaring to gold! He puts his hands on his head; he can't believe it!"
ReplyDeleteAlex Yee of Great Britain takes silver; Hayden Wilde of New Zealand, bronze. McDowell, a 29-year-old cancer survivor, closes sixth, and that's the best-ever finish for Team USA in this event!
ReplyDeleteThat was very cool.
ReplyDeleteThose are the first medals of these Summer Games for Norway and New Zealand.
ReplyDeleteWikipedia: "Since the nation's debut in 1900, Norwegian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except for two occasions: the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis and the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, due to the country's support for the United States-led boycott."
ReplyDeleteAnd: "The International Olympic Committee considers Norwegian-American wrestlers Charles Ericksen and Bernhoff Hansen to have competed for the United States (both were Norwegian immigrants to the US); each won a gold medal. In 2012, Norwegian historians however found documentation showing that Ericksen did not receive American citizenship until March 22, 1905, and that Hansen, who was registered as an "alien" (foreigner) as late as 1925, probably never received American citizenship. The historians have therefore petitioned to have the athletes registered as Norwegians.[1][2] In May 2013 it was reported that the Norwegian Olympic Committee had filed a formal application for changing the nationality of the wrestlers in IOC's medal database.[3]
Norway won four bronzes and no other medals at Rio 2016, so that was a huge score for Blummenfelt.
ReplyDeleteSailing and shooting are where Norway has won most of its Summer Games medals. This was its first-ever triathlon medal.
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand has competed in every Summer Games since Antwerp 1920. Wikipedia: "Due to its location in the South Pacific and distance from the early Olympic host cities in Europe and North America, New Zealanders needed to endure long sea voyages to participate. New Zealand sent its first independent team to the VII Olympiad in 1920, comprising two runners, a rower, and a 15-year-old swimmer. Prior to 1920, three New Zealanders won medals competing for Australasian teams in 1908 and 1912. Since the advent of international jet air travel in the 1950s, and the greater number of Olympic sports, the size of New Zealand Olympic teams has increased substantially."
ReplyDeleteNew Zealand's big Summer Games sports are rowing, athletics (track and field plus road running and racewalking) and sailing, but it also had previously medaled a couple of times in triathlon. New Zealand's a player--18 medals and four gold at Rio 2016, 13 and six at London 2012.
ReplyDeleteI think I've gotten too old to watch the gymnastics live. Makes me too nervous.
ReplyDeleteOH, MY GOSH, MY DAUGHTER JUST TOLD ME ABOUT LEE KIEFER OF LEXINGTON WINNING GOLD IN WOMEN'S INDIVIDUAL FOIL THIS MORNING (our time)! That's amazing!
ReplyDeleteFiveThirtyEight is doing a medal count that compares actual medals to projected medals. Here's where they are right now:
ReplyDelete1. China: 11 medals (6,1,4): 3 more than expected
2. USA: 10 medals (4,2,4): The same as expected
3. Russia: 7 (1,4,2): plus 2
4. Japan: 6 (5,1,0): minus 3
5. S. Korea: 5 (2,0,3): minus 2
FiveThirtyEight is projecting the USA to win a total of 129 medals, which seems really high to me. Another group, Gracenote, is projecting the USA to win a total of 96 medals. There's a huge difference between 129 and 96, and it's very surprising to me that these two projections are so far apart.
ReplyDeleteThe Nats were swept by the hapless Orioles this weekend. The Nats are now 45-53, eight games out of first in the NL East, and it looks as though they will finally break up their team and start over. This will effectively end the Nats as we knew them during their glory years from 2012 to 2019, which will always be one of my favorite teams ever.
ReplyDeleteI'm not complaining about the Nats, by the way. They had a great run, and I thought their strategy for this year made sense. But they need to rebuild.
ReplyDeleteI'm watching ESPN, which is showing a game between the Chicago White Sox (58-40), led by Tony LaRussa, and the Milwaukee Brewers (58-41). The White Sox lead the AL Central by 8 1/2 games, while the Brewers lead the NL Central by 7. A huge year for these two franchises, which rarely play such a major role in the world of MLB. After three innings in Milwaukee, the ChiSox lead 3-0.
ReplyDeleteApparently Milwaukee's Miller Park is now American Family Field. I don't think I'll be using that name. I may just go with County Stadium.
ReplyDeleteWhatever you call it, there's a huge crowd at the old ball park in Milwaukee for this game. The Brew Crew is riding high with Milwaukee's NBA title, and they are hoping for Cream City to get its first MLB title since 1957.
ReplyDeleteIf the A's don't win the World Series, I'd be happy for the Brewers to do so. You should've seen that stadium in the 1975 All-Star Game. They were so happy for Hank Aaron!
DeleteBy the way, props to ESPN for showing this game in prime time instead of making us all watch another Red Sox/Yankees matchup.
ReplyDeleteChiSox roll 3-1 over Milwaukee, now 19 games over .500.
ReplyDeleteUpdated medal count by 538:
ReplyDelete1. China: 18 medals (6,5,7): 3 more than expected
2. United States: 14 medals (7,3,4): 4 fewer than expected
3. Japan: 13 (8,2,3): minus 2
4. Russia: 12 (4,5,3): plus 4
5. Italy: 9 (1,4,4): same as expected
If Team USA doesn't win the medal standings, I'm (almost) always for the home team.
DeleteOh, my gosh, Amber English, a 31-year-old from Colorado Springs, won gold in women's skeet. I keep forgetting that tape-delay events relegated to the middle of the afternoon on USA Network are not necessarily Team USA losses in this Olympics. The prime-time Channel 6 show lines up with Japan's next-day morning, so they are focusing on live events (as opposed to tape-delay Team USA wins, as is often the case).
ReplyDeleteNow we've got Vincent Hancock (I'm not yet going to look up where he's from) leading in the men's skeet. Go, V-DOG!
ReplyDeleteThe other medalists in women's skeet were Diana Bacosi of Italy for silver and Wei Meng of China for bronze. Bacosi was the gold medalist at Rio 2016. Kim Rhode of Whittier, California, won bronze there, making her the first person to win an individual medal at six consecutive Olympic Summer Games. I'm not sure what happened to Rhode with regard to Tokyo 2020. Her Twitter page says she was shooting for her seventh medal, but she's not listed in today's results.
ReplyDelete"Rhode spoke at the 2012 Republican National Convention, introducing several other Olympians on the stage."
Hey! Hey! Vinny Hancock won, too!
ReplyDeleteThirty-two-year-old Vincent Hancock of Eatonton, Georgia, wins his third men's skeet gold medal (but first since London 2012 after being shut out of the medals at Rio 2016). Jesper Hansen of Denmark and Abdullah Al-Rashidi of Kuwait win silver and bronze, respectively.
ReplyDeleteHooray for you both, Amber English and Vincent Hancock!
ReplyDeleteThis was the second bronze in a row for Al-Rashidi, 57, but this is first officially for his native Kuwait. Wikipedia: "In the 2016 Summer Olympics, Al-Rashidi competed as an 'independent Olympic athlete' because Kuwait was banned from the Olympics by the IOC over government interference in sport. ... As his status of being an independent Olympian did not enable the restriction of the uniform of his nation team, he received media attention for competing whilst wearing the training shirt of Arsenal F.C. despite not being a supporter himself, leading to people on social media to draw comparison to him and the team's performance in the Premier League."
ReplyDeleteAlso:
ReplyDeleteNPR @NPR
2h
Olympic weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz has made history by winning the Philippines' first-ever gold medal. The country has been sending athletes to the Games since 1924.
I love it when a country wins its first medal of an Olympics. MSNBC should break into regular programming to alert me of this whenever it happens.
Wait! They're already showing swimming on Channel 6? It's only 5:30 a.m. in Tokyo; surely these aren't Day 4 heats.
ReplyDeleteNot going to lie ... I'm having a hard time finding my HP footing and rhythm with these Olympics.
No, this swimming took place Monday in Tokyo. Katie Ledecky, a 24-year-old from Washington, D.C., was racing in her third event of the day--a heat in the new Olympic 1500-meter freestyle, after winning silver in the 400 free and also competing in the preliminaries of the 200 free. Ledecky had the top time in Monday's 1500-free heats, so, in doing so, she established the Olympic record in the new competition. Katie Ledecky is, of course, amazing.
ReplyDelete