Once again, I must apologize for the delay in this post. It is official! A tornado touched down in Avon Lake. I count us VERY lucky in that we have power and AC and just have a few branches down and a little bit of bent gutter. My folks live 4 miles away in Westlake and they may not have power until the 14th ! So...some delays in my TV/Internet/Cloud-based recordings is understandable.
Gold Medals Awarded to Winter Olympic Athletes for Team Figure Skating!
If you remember, there was controversy at the Winter Olympics with the Russian women's single figure skater and her popping for doping. Due to this, medals were never awarded in that event. It took 2.5 years but the IOC finally came to a decision and awarded the Gold medal for this event to Team USA with Team China getting the Silver. Team Russia was demoted to Bronze position. Now normally when this happens, you never hear about it and the athletes are given their medals in a small ceremony in an airport or office building. NOT THIS TIME!
This time they brought the athletes to Paris and have them a proper medal ceremony with both Team USA's skaters and Team China's skaters in attendance. Well done!
Let's get into what happened this day!
Men's Springboard Semifinals: China dominated but Mexico, Canada, and Team GB are all in the mix. Team USA's Tyler is through to the finals but Copabianco is out. Should be an interesting final!
Women's Springboard qualifier: Team USA's Gibson hit her feet on the board on her first dive and went into the water all wonky. The dive was scored a 0 which effectively ended her competition. She tried to continue but couldn't make up the points and after hitting the board, her dives were just not up to her usual quality. Team USA's Bacon also seemed thrown by the whole situation and put in a poor performance. Team USA is out. Another thing of note is that one of the Chinese divers scored 4s on one of her dives! So...they do fail, occasionally. China, GB, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and Germany are still in the mix.
Indoor Cycling: Women's Team Sprint - This is a lot like the long track speed skating event where you have 3 skaters that face against 3 skaters for another team and you try to beat them on time or pass them. Well...this is on bikes instead of skates. Team USA dominated the field bringing home the Gold. Team New Zealand settles for Silver. Team GB gets the Bronze.
Men's Indoor Volleyball: Team USA faced off against one heck of a team from Poland! The match went 5 sets and unfortunately our boys couldn't pull out the win. They will go onto the Bronze medal match. This is the last time many of these guys will play together. They have been to the Olympics together since at least 2016. While we have a few new faces....many will be moving on. I love watching these guys play! Thanks for all the great memories guys! Let's bring home the BRONZE!
Men's Skateboard Park: This was one exciting competition! Guys flying through the air over concrete with just their boards....Wow! Team USA had three in the mix: Bottger, Carew, and Shaar. Only Carew and Shaar made it through to the finals. Both of our skaters put on quite a show but in the end, Australia came away with the Gold, Team USA's Shaar took the Silver and Brazil took the Bronze.
Men's Water Polo: OMG! Our guys are into the medal rounds! They faced off against Australia and it came down to a shoot-out where Team USA won!
Men's Weightlifting: In the 61kg class, we had a lifter the did an extraordinary job! Morris lifted himself and Team USA to a Bronze medal! The first medal for an American lifter in 40 years!
Women's Golf: Looks like Team USA had a hard first day. We've got some work to do but these ladies are awesome and have 4 days of competition to work things out. Let's go, Ladies!
Women's Speed Climbing: Team Poland proved too fast for the field! They win Gold and Bronze with China winning the Silver
Men's Boulder & Lead: Lead qualifiers were set. Team USA is thru to the final
Women's Basketball: Team USA won against a scrappy Team Nigeria. They move onto the next round.
Women's Wrestling: Team USA had another stand-out wrestler in the 50kg class. Hildebrant moved her way through the rounds besting opponent after opponent and eventually winning Gold! Way to go!
Artistic Swimming: Team USA put in an appeal on the score they received in the Technical program and they won! This moved Team USA from 7th place to 4th! The Free programs were really neat. Team France's program stood out with a theme of Women and faces on the backs of their swim caps! It was like swimming nesting doll faces....kinda creepy/kinda nifty/definitely FRENCH! Team USA's routine theme was "I Am Water" which featured narration from Jason Mamoa (Aquaman himself!) and even some lines from the Aquaman movie. It was strangely alluring and performed excellently which propelled Team USA to 2nd. The Chinese team....wow! They are soooo good!
The last and newest portion of the competition is Acrobatic, where teams have to perform 9 separate acrobatic elements like throws, platforms, and lifts. This is such a cool new addition. Yes the girls swim put less time is done with the leg moves. Stand out routines were France's Moulin Rouge/Can-Can routine which was just a HOOT! Team USA's Sorceress routine was magical! Their acrobats were phenomenal!
In the end, Team USA couldn't catch Team China though and China won Gold. USA won the Silver. Spain won the Bronze!
Men's Beach Volleyball: Team USA fell to Team Qatar in 2 sets. They are out. Team USA has no teams in the finals.....very sad!
Track & Field:
Qualifiers:
Women's 100M Hurdles - Team USA had two make it through and one go to the repechage
Men's High Jump: McEwan of Team USA is through. Harrison is out.
Men's 5000M: Blanks and Fisher are through. Nur fell and is out.
Men's 800M: Kessler and Hoppel are through. Miller goes to the repechage
Semifinals:
Men's 110 Hurdles: Halloway, Crittenden, and Roberts all are though to the finals
Men's 400 Hurdles: Bassett, Allen, and Rai Benjamin are all through. Rai Benjamin looked really good!
Men's 200M: Bendarek, Lyles, and Knighton are all through to the finals
Women's 400 M: Butler and Holmes are through but Ellis is out.
Finals:
Women's Pole Vault: Team USA's ( & Ohio's own!) Katie Moon faced off against tough Aussie and Canadian competitors. Katie vaulted well but couldn't hit that last height and had to settle for the Silver. Australia won Gold. Canada won the Bronze.
Men's Discus: Team USA didn't have a chance against this super-tough field! Lithuania set an Olympic record and then Jamaica broke it and set a new one! Jamaica won the Gold. Lithuania the Silver. Australia the Bronze.
Men's 400M: Quincy Hall of Team USA found another gear nd turned it on with 100 M to go to the finish, passing the rest of the field and winning the Gold. It was amazing! Team GB won the Silver. Team Zambia won the Bronze.
Men's Steeplechase: This was another amazing race! Team USA's Rooks stuck with the reigning Gold medalist from Morocco about 6 guys back from the front for the entire race, until the last 200 M where he zipped out around everyone and brought the Moroccan with him! The Moroccan had a little more speed and crossed the line first but Rooks won the Silver and Zambia won the Bronze. The Kenyan and Uganda runners didn't know what happened!
Thursday will have a lot of big Track medals, the start of the heptathlon, diving, basketball, volleyball, water polo, climbing speed and boulder & lead, and modern pentathlon!
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