1. United States 24 gold, 31 silver, 31 bronze (86 total)
2. China 22, 21, 16 (59)
3. Australia 14, 12, 9 (35)
4. France 13, 16, 19 (48)
5. Great Britain 12, 15, 19 (46)
6. South Korea 11, 8, 7 (26)
7. Japan 11, 6, 12 (29)
8. Italy 9, 10, 7 (26)
9. Netherlands 8, 5, 6 (19)
10. Germany 8, 5, 4 (17)
Previous reports:
Live men's indoor volleyball on USA Network ... Poland, which hasn't medaled in the event since winning gold at Montreal 1976, takes the first set in its semifinal with Team USA ...
ReplyDeleteBy the time the United States had completed its quarterfinal win over Brazil on Monday evening, Poland was already more than 13 hours rested from its quarterfinal experience that morning. Whatever argument has been trotted out as to why the only way to set up this week's knockout stage is to give one team two full days of rest and its opponent one and a half day's rest for a once-every-four-years Olympic semifinal is, of course, total jive. This is unfair.
ReplyDelete4-4 in the second set ...
ReplyDeleteI appear to have just completed my first-ever Wikipedia edit!
ReplyDeleteI went out to the page for Matt Anderson, one of the best players on Team USA, and was moved to learn that the 37-year-old who grew up in West Seneca, New York, was only 12 years old when his dad died. Then I was totally leveled to read a sentence that seemed to indicate that Anderson's wife and son had also died, which, thankfully, they have not, per this charming story from The Today Show. So I revised the punctuation on the Wikipedia page to hopefully subvert my mistaken inference for other readers, and now I feel like I should get a week off from work.
24-23, Team USA, in the second set ... set point ...
ReplyDelete24-24 ... dang ...
ReplyDelete25-25 ...
ReplyDelete26-25 ... third set point for Team USA ...
ReplyDeleteYES! EVEN AT A SET APIECE!
ReplyDelete7-4, Team USA, in the deciding set ...
ReplyDelete13-9, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete22-13, Team USA ...
ReplyDeleteYes! But, oh, what an idiot I am! That was not the deciding set; Team USA now leads the first-to-three-set-wins match by two sets to one.
ReplyDeleteOne of Poland's players got injured in the previous set, and Channel 6 (not USA Network as earlier reported) tells that Team USA outscored Poland by 12-5 after that event.
ReplyDeleteAnd to be clear and perhaps accurate this time, this is a men's indoor volleyball seminal, and Team USA leads Poland, 2-1 in sets and 3-2 in the fourth.
ReplyDelete12-10, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete13-13 ...
ReplyDelete16-14, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete16-16 ...
ReplyDeleteItaly and France will play the other semifinal.
ReplyDelete19-18, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete22-21, Poland ...
ReplyDelete24-23, Poland ... second set point ...
ReplyDeleteSet 4 to Poland.
ReplyDelete14-11, Poland ... second match point ...
ReplyDelete14-12 ... third match point for Poland ...
ReplyDelete14-13 ... fourth ...
ReplyDeletePoland advances to the gold-medal match. Team USA will play for bronze in men's indoor volleyball. Dang.
ReplyDeleteBoy, when you spend most of an afternoon silently fuming about the scheduling procedures of the ol' Fédération Internationale de Volleyball, hardly anything will more dependably help you turn that frown upside down than the Team USA women's basketball team (up 69-41 on Nigeria with about three minutes to go in the third quarter of a quarterfinal on USA Network).
ReplyDeleteWe've had three countries so far win their first Summer Olympics gold medals at Paris 2024, and I would struggle to identify all three of them on a blank map. (Which reminds me of Worldle, which I think I'll get back to playing.)
ReplyDeleteI didn't get the Worldle today and never got closer than 1,309 kilometers away.
DeleteWikipedia:
ReplyDeleteSaint Lucia first participated at the Olympic Games in 1996, and has sent athletes to compete in every Summer Olympic Games since then. The nation has never participated in the Winter Olympic Games.
Julien Alfred won the nation's first and only medals to date in 2024, earning both a gold in the women's 100 metres with a new national record (10.72s), and a silver in the women's 200 metres. It was the first time since 2004 that the 100m winner was not an athlete from Jamaica.
Saint Lucia is at the Venezuela end of that arc of Caribbean islands that would connect Florida and Venezuela if they were all connected by a big bridge. Here's some interesting stuff from Saint Lucia's Wikipedia page:
ReplyDelete-- "Saint Lucia was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse (AD 283 – 304). Saint Lucia is one of two sovereign states in the world named after a woman and is the only one named after a human woman (Ireland is named after a goddess)."
-- "The first proven inhabitants of Saint Lucia were the Arawaks, though there may have been other native peoples prior to them. The Arawaks are believed to have come from northern South America, sometime around AD 200–400, as there are numerous archaeological sites on the island where specimens of their pottery have been found. The Arawaks called the island Iouanalao, meaning 'Land of the Iguanas', due to the island's high number of iguanas."
-- "The Kalinago (Island Caribs) arrived around AD 800, and seized control from the Arawaks by killing their men and assimilating the women into their own society. They called the island Hewanarau, then later Hewanorra, which means 'there where iguanas are found'."
-- "In 1803, the British regained control of the island. Many members of the L'Armee Française dans les Bois escaped into the thick rainforest where they evaded capture and established maroon communities. ... The institution of slavery was abolished on the island in 1834, as it was throughout the British Empire. After abolition, all former slaves had to serve a four-year 'apprenticeship', to accustom them to the idea of freedom. During that period, they worked for their former masters for at least three-quarters of the work week. Full freedom was duly granted by the British in 1838."
-- "Saint Lucia is made up of 10 districts. The districts were created and named by French colonials, and the British chose to keep the names in an anglicised form. The largest district in both size and population is Castries, where the nation's capital of the same name is located."
-- "Saint Lucia has a wide-ranging public bus network which covers most of the island. Busses are owned by private individuals, whilst the government is responsible for setting up routes and hubs. The road network covers most of the island, although some rural areas still lack access to proper roads."
-- "Some common dishes include macaroni pie, stewed chicken, rice and peas, roti (Indian flatbreads) and soups packed full with fresh locally produced vegetables. ... Johnny Cakes (known as bakes) are also common, and are served with different sides, such as saltfish. The national dish of Saint Lucia is green figs and saltfish."
-- "Like most Caribbean islands, cricket is the most popular sport in Saint Lucia. The Windward Islands cricket team includes players from Saint Lucia and plays in the West Indies regional tournament. Daren Sammy became the first Saint Lucian to represent the West Indies on his debut in 2007, and was made captain in 2010. Sailing is also a major sport in Saint Lucia, with the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) race beginning in the Canary Islands and ending on the island. Other sports that are popular on the island include football, basketball, tennis, golf and volleyball. Karate and boxing have also seen increased popularity in recent years."
ReplyDeleteI would really enjoy checking in to a Saint Lucia-specific macaroni pie, and this map shows how the layout of the districts really lends itself to Saint Lucia hosting a big annual basketball tournament in the middle of the country, with buses shuttling in the fans of each team.