Days 5-9 (Feb. 16-20)

Day 5 - February 16 The United States did not win any medals today.  

In men's Ice Hockey the USA beat Switzerland 3-1. In men's Curling Germany beat the USA 7-5. 

Japan beat the USA 9-7 in women's curling. 

 Erin Hamlin and Julia Clukey of the USA finished 16th and 17th respectively in the women's Luge singles with Megan Sweeney finishing 22nd. 

 In women's snowboard cross, the USA's Lindsey Jacobellis finished 5th and Faye Gulini finished 12th.

 In women's 500m speedskating Heather Richardson finished 6th. 

 In the men's 12.5k Pursuit biathlon Jeremy Teela of the USA finished 24th. 

Medal count through Feb. 16 Germany 3 gold 4 silver 2 bronze - 9 total USA 2 gold 2 silver 4 bronze - 8 total France 2 gold 1 silver 4 bronze - 7 total Canada 2 gold 2 silver 1 bronze - 5 total 

 Day 6 - February 17 

 The USA's Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick won gold and bronze respectively in men's 1000m speedskating. Tae-Bum Mo of Korea won silver. 

 In the men's snowboard halfpipe, Shaun White of the USA won gold and Scott Lago of the USA won bronze. Peetu Piiroinen of Finland won silver. Louie Vito of the USA finished 5th. 

Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso of the USA won gold and silver respectively in the women's Alpine skiing downhill. Elisabeth Goergl of Austria won bronze. 

In men's Curling Switzerland beat the USA 7-6. 

In women's Curling the USA lost to Germany 6-5. 

 Medal count through Feb. 17 USA 5 gold 3 silver 6 bronze - 14 total Germany 3 gold 4 silver 3 bronze - 10 total France 2 gold 1 silver 4 bronze - 7 total Canada 2 gold 3 silver 1 bronze - 6 total 

 Day 7 - February 18 

 Hannah Teeter and Kelly Clark of the USA won silver and bronze respectively in the women's snowboard halfpipe. Torah Bright of Australia wins gold. 

The USA defeated Norway 6-1 in men's Ice Hockey. 

In men's figure skating, the USA's Evan Lysacek wins gold while Evgeni Plushenko of Russia wins  silver. The bronze went to Daisuke Takahashi of Japan. Johnny Weir of the USA finished 6th. 

The USA did not win a medal in women's 1000m speedskating. Jennifer Rodriguez of the USA finished 7th while Heather Richardson of the USA finished 9th. 

 In women's Alpine Skiing- Super Combined,  Julia Mancuso of the USA won silver. Maria Riesch of Germany won gold while Anja Paerson of Sweden won bronze. Lindsey Vonn of the USA did not finish.

In men's Curling Denmark beat the USA 7-6. 

Medal count through Feb. 18 

USA 6 gold 5 silver 7 bronze - 18 total Germany 4 gold 4 silver 3 bronze - 11 total Norway 3 gold 3 silver 2 bronze - 8 total Canada 3 gold 3 silver 1 bronze - 7 total France 2 gold 1 silver 4 bronze - 7 total 

 Day 8 - February 19 

The USA did not win a medal at men's Skeleton. Zack Lund of the USA finished 5th. 

The USA also missed out on a medal at women's Skeleton. Noelle Pikus-Pace of the USA finished 4th.

Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht of the USA won silver and bronze respectively in men's Alpine Skiing Super G. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won gold. 

In women's Figure Skating Ice Dance, the USA team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White were in 3rd place after the compulsory dance. Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto of the USA were in 4th place. The Russian team of Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin were in 1st place followed by Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir in 2nd place. 

 In women's Curling, the USA beat Russia 6-4. 

 In men's Curling, the USA beat France 4-3.

 Medal count through Feb. 19 

 USA 6 gold 6 silver 8 bronze - 20 total Germany 4 gold 5 silver 4 bronze - 13 total Norway 5 gold 3 silver 2 bronze - 10 total Canada 4 gold 3 silver 1 bronze - 8 total France 2 gold 1 silver 4 bronze - 7 total 

 Day 9 - February 20 

Shani Davis of the USA wins gold in men's Speedskating 1500m. Mark Tuitert of the Netherlands wins the gold while Havard Bokko of Norway won bronze. American Chad Hedrick finished 6th.

Lindsey Vonn of the USA wins bronze in the women's Alpine Skiing Super G. Andrea Fishbacher of Austria wins gold while Tina Maze of Slovenia wins the silver. 

American Apolo Anton Ohno wins bronze in the men's Short Track Speedskating 1000m. Korea's Jung-Su Lee and Ho-Suk Lee wins gold and silver respectively. J.R Celski of the USA was disqualified and finished 8th,

Katherine Reutter of the USA finished 4th in the women's Short Track Speedskating 1500m. Yang Zhou of China wins gold, Korea's Eun-Byul Lee and Seung-Hi Park wins silver and bronze respectively.

In men's curling the USA beat Sweden 8-7. 

In women's curling the USA beat Great Britain 6-5. 

 Medal count through Feb. 20 

 USA 6 gold 7 silver 9 bronze - 22 total Germany 4 gold 6 silver 4 bronze - 14 total Norway 5 gold 3 silver 3 bronze - 11 total Canada 4 gold 3 silver 1 bronze - 8 total

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Day 3 and Day 4 - February 14-15

Day 3 - February 14

Bryon Wilson of the USA won bronze in mens freestyle skiing moguls. Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau won the gold and Australian Dale Begg-Smith won silver.

In the Nordic combined Johnny Spillane of the USA won silver while Jason Lamy Chappuis of France won the gold and Italy's Alessandro Pittin won bronze. Todd Lodwick of the USA finished 4th.

In the Luge mens singles American Tony Benshoof finished 8th. Felix Loch of Germany won gold, David Moeller of Germany won silver and Armin Zoggeler of Italy won bronze.

The USA beat China 12-1 in women's Ice Hockey.

Medal count after Feb 14

USA 1 gold 2 silver 3 bronze - 6 total
Germany 1 gold 3 silver 0 bronze - 4 total
France 2 gold 0 silver 1 bronze - 3 total
Canada 1 gold 1 silver 1 bronze - 3 total


Day 4 - February 15

In men's snowboard cross Seth Wescott of the USA won gold, Mike Robertson of Canada wins the silver while Tony Ramoin of France wins the bronze. American Nate Holland finished 4th.

Bode Miller of the USA wins bronze in men's downhill Alpine Skiing. Switzerland's Didier Defago wins gold and Askel Lund Svindal of Norway won silver.

In Pairs Figure Skating the USA team of Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig finished 10th. China won gold and silver while Germany won bronze.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal count through Feb. 15

USA 2 gold 2 silver 4 bronze - 8 total
Germany 1 gold 3 silver 1 bronze - 5 total
Korea 3 gold 0 silver 1 bronze - 4 total
France 2 gold 0 silver 2 bronze - 4 total
Canada 1 gold 2 silver 1 bronze - 4 total

2010 Vancouver winter Olympics- Opening Ceremony and Day 2

Last night was the opening ceremony for the Vancouver winter games. It was held at BC stadium. The opening ceremony started with a canadian athlete(snowboarder Johnny Lyall) leaping through the olympic rings, then there was the dances of the aboriginal Canadians followed by the parade of nations. There will be 82 countries competing with over 2600 athletes. Its fun to watch how many athletes a country has competing compared to their population. The USA has 304 million people in it with 216 athletes, China had 90 athletes with a 1.3 billion population, Russia had 178 athletes competing with 140 million population.
After the parade of nations a song was sung by Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams called Bang the Drum. Then there was the cultural section to celebrate the vast geography and people of Canada. There was a polar bear that rose from the floor of the stadium, totem poles rising up from the ground, a song by Sarah McLachlan(Ordinary Miracle), fiddlers dancing tap, a song by Joni Mitchell(Both Sides Now), Snowboarders and skiers going down a mountain and speed skaters circling the area around the mountain. There was narration by actor Donald Sutherland.
KD Lang sang Hallelujah, followed by the carrying of the Olympic flag by eight canadians of all cultures. The Flag carriers were hockey's Bobby Orr, singer Anne Murray, Betty Fox, mother of cancer patient Terry Fox, actor Donald Sutherland, gold medal figure skater Barbara Ann Scott, race car driver Jacques Villeneuve, UNAMIR commander Romeo Dallaire, and Canadian astronaut Julie Payette.
Then there was a moment of silence for the tragic death of a Georgian Luger named Nodar Kumaritashvili who died while in a practice run before the opening ceremony. He flew off the track and onto a steel pole.
Then the Olympic torch was carried into the stadium by Paralympic athlete Rick Hansen who passed it to speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan. She passed it to basketballs Steve Nash. He passed the torch to skier Nancy Greene who then passed the torch to hockey's great one Wayne Gretzky.
All of the athletes waited for the four legs of the cauldron to arise from the floor. Only three legs arose so Gretzky and the others lit the cauldron.
Gretzky also lit the outdoor cauldron as well.


Day 2 - February 13

American Apolo Anton Ohno won the silver medal in the 1500m short track speedskating. Ohno was forth into the final turn when two Korean speed skaters crashed into each other. JR Celski of the USA won the bronze medal. Lee Jung su of Korea won the gold.
Ohno tied American Bonnie Blair for most medals won in an Olympics - six.

Hannah Kearney of the USA won gold in the women's Freestyle Skiing Moguls beating Canadian Jenn Heil. Shannon Bahrke of the USA finished third and won bronze.

Photos credit: Getty Images, UPI and other media sources. For blog use only.

Medal Count after Day 1:

USA 1 gold. 1 silver 2 bronze - 4 total
S. Korea 1 gold, 1 silver 0 bronze - 2 total

Rio de Janeiro 2016

Facts

Today Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was awarded the 2016 Olympics by the IOC. Chicago was considered the favorite going in to the vote.
After the first round of IOC voting Madrid had 28 votes, Rio 26, Tokyo 22 and Chicago was eliminated with 18 votes.
In the second round of voting, Rio had 46 votes followed by Madrid with 29 votes, Tokyo was eliminated with 20 votes.
In the final round of voting, Rio had 66 votes, Madrid 32 votes.

Opinion

Today was supposed to be the day that Americans and the people of Chicago celebrated bringing the summer games to Chicago instead Rio de Janeiro was awarded the games. The fact that Madrid was a finalist had to do with the influence of Juan Antonio Samaranch who was the IOC President for 21 years.
There is nothing wrong with awarding the Olympics to a continent that has never staged the games before but in my opinion the IOC should have given the games to the USA in 2012 instead of Europe(London). Barcelona had the games in 1992.
We've lost two straight Olympic bids, 2005 New York and 2009 Chicago. I blame the lack of an American IOC voting member & George Bush's war in Iraq and unilateralism.
Chicago's ouster in the first round of voting is a slap in the face of the USA and President Obama. Chicago was the favorite. There is evidently lots of anti USA sentiment still left out there.
The USA has hosted two summer Olympic games between 1984 and 1996 and now it looks like we may go another four to eight years more without a games on our soil, that translates to 2020 and 2024. Too long in my opinion.

World Track and Field Championships - Aug. 15-23 2009

I haven't updated this blog in a while. I wanted to recap the World Track and Field Championships held in Berlin, Germany. Jamaica is clearly our rival and has been beating us regularly now for at least 2 years. Usain Bolt of Jamaica set two world records. He ran the 100m in 9.58 and the 200m in 19.19 seconds. Tyson Gay of the USA ran the 100m in his then personal best 9.71 seconds but pulled out of the 200m.
In the men's 200m Wallace Spearmon of the USA finished third in 19.85 and Shawn Crawford of the USA finished fourth in 19.89.
Allyson Felix won the womens 200m beating Veronica Campbell Brown of Jamaica. Her time was 22.02. Muna Lee of the USA finished fourth.
Sonya Richards of the USA won her first major gold medal winning the womens 400m in 49 seconds.
In the mens 400m LaShawn Merritt of the USA finished first and Jeremy Wariner of the USA finished second.
In the womens 100m Shelly Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart of Jamaica finished first and second, respectively while Carmelita Jeter of the USA finished third.
In the mens 400m hurdles Kerron Clement of the USA finished first while Bershawn "Batman" Jackson finished third.
Bernard Legat of the USA finished third in the men's 1500m but the USA's Lopez Lomong finished eighth and Leonel Manzano of the USA finished 12th.
In the womens 1500M Shannon Rowbury of the USA finished third.
In the womens 400m hurdles Lashinda Demus of the USA finished second to Jamaica's Melaine Walker, Tiffany Williams of the USA finished fifth.
In the mens 110m hurdles Terrence Trammell of the USA finished second and David Payne of the USA finished third.
In the womens 4 by 400 relay the USA team of Debbie Dunn, Allyson Felix, Lashinda Demus and Sanya Richards finished first.
In the mens 4 by 400 relay the USA team of Angelo Taylor, Jeremy Wariner, Kerron Clement and LaShawn Marritt finished first.
Dwight Phillips of the USA finished first in the mens long jump.
In the womens 800m final Caster Semenya of South Africa finished first in 1:55.45. Her times had improved quite a bit in the past two years and suspicions of cheating arose. It turned out that she is a hermaphrodite(male and female parts) and is being investigated to see what sex she is.
The USA did not do well in the women's 100m hurdles with Dawn Harper finishing seventh, in the women's high jump Chaunte Howard and Amy Acuff finished in seventh and 12th places respectively. In the womens and mens 4 by 100 relay teams were both disqualified. The womens team had a bad baton pass, the mens team passed the baton too soon. Jenn Rhines finished ninth in the womens 5000. Nick Symmonds finished sixth in the mens 800m

Medal table below:


ResultsRank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 UNITED STATES (USA) 10 6 6 22
2 JAMAICA (JAM) 7 4 2 13
3 KENYA (KEN) 4 5 2 11
4 RUSSIA (RUS) 4 3 6 13
5 POLAND (POL) 2 4 2 8
6 GERMANY (GER) 2 3 4 9
7 ETHIOPIA (ETH) 2 2 4 8
8 GREAT BRITAIN & N.I. (GBR) 2 2 2 6
9 SOUTH AFRICA (RSA) 2 1 0 3
10 AUSTRALIA (AUS) 2 0 2 4
11 BAHRAIN (BRN) 2 0 1 3
12 CUBA (CUB) 1 4 1 6
13 PR OF CHINA (CHN) 1 1 2 4
14 NORWAY (NOR) 1 1 0 2
15 SPAIN (ESP) 1 0 1 2
16 BARBADOS (BAR) 1 0 0 1
16 CROATIA (CRO) 1 0 0 1
16 NEW ZEALAND (NZL) 1 0 0 1
16 SLOVENIA (SLO) 1 0 0 1
20 FRANCE (FRA) 0 1 2 3
20 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (TRI) 0 1 2 3
22 BAHAMAS (BAH) 0 1 1 2
22 JAPAN (JPN) 0 1 1 2
24 CANADA (CAN) 0 1 0 1
24 CYPRUS (CYP) 0 1 0 1
24 CZECH REPUBLIC (CZE) 0 1 0 1
24 ERITREA (ERI) 0 1 0 1
24 IRELAND (IRL) 0 1 0 1
24 PANAMA (PAN) 0 1 0 1
24 PORTUGAL (POR) 0 1 0 1
24 PUERTO RICO (PUR) 0 1 0 1
32 ESTONIA (EST) 0 0 1 1
32 MEXICO (MEX) 0 0 1 1
32 QATAR (QAT) 0 0 1 1
32 ROMANIA (ROU) 0 0 1 1
32 SLOVAK REPUBLIC (SVK) 0 0 1 1
32 TURKEY (TUR) 0 0 1 1

Olympic updates

USA Swimmer Gary Hall Jr. retired at the age of 34. Hall is a 10 time Olympic medalist. He has disclosed he has diabetes and will try to help others who have the disease.

Also Johnson and Johnson's sponsorship with the IOC will end at the end of 2008. The sponsorship was in the range of 60-80 million dollars from 2005-2008. A renewal from Johnson and Johnson would have been close to 100 million dollars over 4 years. There were 12 worldwide sponsors of the IOC at the Beijing games in 2008 that generated 900 million in revenue. This revenue was achieved from 2005-2008. 9 companies are signed on with the IOC currently through the 2012 London games. Panasonic and Coca-Cola are signed to long term deals. Visa and McDonalds are also worldwide sponsors as well.

Post Olympics updates

Marion Jones was released from prison today. She served most of her 6 month sentence for lying about steroid use. She was stripped of 5 medals from the Sydney games in 2000.

4.7 billion people watched some of the 2008 Beijing games according to Nielsen Media Research, that compares to 3.9 billion people who watched a part of the 2004 Athens games. The 2008 Beijing games were the most watched event in USA television history.