Bad sports, good sports: Olympics, Olympics, everywhere
As I sit here on Sunday night looking over my list of stories from the week, it is hard to miss that most of them involve the Olympics. I have never been a big fan of the Olympics, and I will admit that I have not watched a great deal of it this time around either. I have enjoyed what I have watched, though, and some of it has been really exciting. Perhaps I should watch more of it the next time around. I especially liked watching the running, which is likely due to my own interest in the sport, which I did not have during the last Summer Games. Rather than write a long piece on one of these stories, I am going to try to give some time to a bunch of the great performances, along with the usual list of some unfortunate ones.
Good sports, continued:
1) Michael Phelps proved that he is simply the greatest Olympian of all time. Some would argue that he had many more opportunities for medals than people in other sports, simply because there are so many swimming events. There is some validity to that, but it’s really hard to dispute the results. Phelps ran his lifetime medal total to 22, which includes 18 golds. No one else has more than nine gold medals, and that includes all sports. Yes, he has some team medals in there for relays and such, but 11 of his golds are for individual events, which is still more than anyone else. Ever. This year was supposed to be the year that the pack caught up to Phelps, or at least that is how it was being presented to us. Phelps is 27 now, and was slowing down. Ryan Lochte, another U.S. swimmer, was sure to blow him away. Phelps barely qualified for his first event, the 400 meter individual medley, and then he failed to medal, finishing fourth. Instead of fading away, however, Phelps went on to win 4 golds and 2 silvers, cementing his position as the greatest ever.
2) The youngest member of the U.S. Olympic delegation, Katie Ledecky, is only 15 years old. That did not stop her from winning swimming gold in the 800 meter freestyle on Friday night. She dominated the race, winning over many much more heralded competitors.
3) A tie in any timed event is remarkable. A tie at the end of a triathlon, which included a 1500-meter swim, a 43-kilometer bike ride, and a 10-kilometer run is ridiculous. That is essentially what happened on Saturday, though, as Nicola Spirig and Lisa Norden crossed the finish line at what appeared to be the same time. A video review gave the gold to the Spirig of Switzerland, who edged Sweden’s Norden by an inch or two. Amazing.
4) Usain Bolt is an incredibly entertaining athlete. He is the best sprinter in the world, and he lives up to that title despite the fact that he manages to have fun while doing all of it. I watched his heats in the 100-meters, and he won them despite appearing to ease up well before the finish. These were no slouches he was running against, of course, yet he clearly outclassed them. He won the gold by blowing away the Olympic record on Sunday afternoon, finishing in 9.63 seconds.
5) Gabby Douglas, the tiny 16-year-old American gymnast with the huge smile, won gold in the all-around on Thursday. She seems sure to be someone of whom we are about to see a lot.
Non-Olympics) The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians were tied after nine innings on Sunday. Cleveland scored three runs in the top of the 10th inning, making a victory seem likely. The Tigers made two quick outs in the bottom of the tenth, so there was little hope for them. Two walks, a double, and a single later, the game was tied and Miguel Cabrera came up to bat. All he did was hit a two-run homerun, winning the game for the Tigers in incredibly unlikely fashion.
Bad sports:
1) A match-fixing scandal hit the Olympics this week, as the Chinese Badminton team had a bunch of players disqualified for allegedly throwing matches in order to set the competition bracket the way they wanted it. This one falls into the category of one of the reasons why I usually don’t watch the Olympics. They play badminton for gold medals? Really? Are lawn darts next?
2) Greek triple-jumper Voula Papachristou was kicked off the country’s team early this week after she tweeted a racist comment. She has also expressed support for a neo-Nazi group in Greece.
3) Wu Minxia, a Chinese diver, won gold in the 3-meter synchronized springboard event this week. This was the third straight Olympics in which she had won this event. That is the good part. The bad part of the story is that her family had hidden the fact that both of her grandparents had died this past year, and that her mother has been fighting cancer for the past eight years. She was kept in the dark in order to keep her focused on her training. It seems that some priorities are pretty screwed up here.
4) Kim Collins is a sprinter from St. Kitt’s and Nevis, and he was supposed to compete in the 100-meters this week. Instead, he was dropped from the race by his country for seeing his wife at the hotel in London where he was staying. Apparently, that broke some sort of rule.
5) The U.S women’s volleyball team has a player named Destinee Hooker. She must be a pretty great player, I would assume, and has done nothing to see herself included in “Bad Sports,” but I feel the need to point out the fact that her parents were cruel. If a girl is starting off life with the last name of “Hooker,” don’t you think it might have been wiser to give her a name that would sound less-pornstar-like than “Destinee?” China has a trampoline gymnast at the games named Dong Dong. Those parents were creative, huh? Put the two athletes together, and the jokes write themselves.
Non-Olympics 1) O.J. Murdock, a wide receiver for the Tennessee Titans, was found dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his car on Monday morning. He was 25.
Non-Olympics 2) Garrett Reid, the oldest son of Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid, was found dead in his room at the team’s training camp site on Sunday. Reid had struggled with drug and legal issues for a number of years.
Non-Olympics 3) One of the P.A. announcing crew for the minor-league Daytona Cubs was ejected by the home plate ump for playing the music to “Three Blind Mice” after a disputed call.
Non-Olympics 4) One person was killed and nine were injured by lightning at the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania on Sunday. The race was shortened by the storm, which chased most spectators under the grandstands.
Non-Olympics 5) Kirk Urso, a midfielder for the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, died early Sunday morning at the age of 22. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
Bad sports, good sports appears every Monday
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Alan, you are insightful as always but #3 under “bads sports” had me scratching my dome.
“Both” of her grandparents? How do you get fewer than four? Anyway, we knew what your meant. Later, you really threw me.
I guess you meant to say that her parents had hidden -from her- the facts that. . . .
Fair points, Mike. Thanks for the corrections.