The Olympic Games

[Critical]

You know, I thought Kate was a duchess as you say, Critical. The only reason I said princess was because that is what she was being called in all of the photographs of her at the Olympics. I thought something might have changed regarding the titles. Thanks for the correction.

I just looked it up to be sure and her complete title and "style" (not sure what that means) is "Her Royal Highness Princess William Arthur Philip Louis, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus." There is a "princess" in there, but I think she's generally referred to by the title "Duchess of Cambridge." All of the media folks refer to her as Kate and the royals said that, after the wedding, she was to be called Catherine. The media doesn't really follow orders very well!

Fun watching the video about the Dream Team. SO many iconic players. As I'm watching this, it's all coming back to me how much fun it was to watch them play together and how excited the teams from other countries were excited just to be beaten by them! I had such a crush on Karl Malone. THAT is one beautiful man! I liked that they pointed out that the push to include pros in Olympic basketball competition didn't come from America. I think a lot of people assume that it did.

I love hearing about the camaraderie of that team and the things they did together off the court. I don't think we heard about that at the time.

[justCoz]

Yea for our women winning the 4x100 with world record time!

Our medal count continues to raise. We have 94 to China's 81, with 41 golds. The women continue to impress. They have 27 of the golds. The perspective is that only China collectively has more golds than our women. China has 39 total gold medals, and GB has 25.

[Bearcata]

I heard Daley say that (about winning silver). The Mexicans have done really well. The Canadian commentators have noted that they consistently choose more difficult/higher start dives, which plays a role, but obviously the fact they're doing them well also is important.

He (Mellouli) didn't win the 1500 gold this year (he got bronze) - he won it in 08.

Nice story about triathlon from Houston Chronicle:
http://blog.chron.com/olympics/2012/...mpic-medalist/

Blame it on the announcer, he said made it sound how Tunisia has only ever won 3 Olympic medals and that the 2 of them were gold and won by Mellouli, implying that they were won in this Olympics. So I looked it up on wiki and Tunisia has won a total of 10 Olympic medals since they started participating in the modern Olympics in 1960. 3 Gold, 3 Silver 4 Bronze. And yes Melloudi has 2 of those gold. In fact the London 2012 games have been Tunisia's most successful games with 3 medals, 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze.

[Bearcata]

I heard Daley say that (about winning silver). The Mexicans have done really well. The Canadian commentators have noted that they consistently choose more difficult/higher start dives, which plays a role, but obviously the fact they're doing them well also is important.

He (Mellouli) didn't win the 1500 gold this year (he got bronze) - he won it in 08.

Nice story about triathlon from Houston Chronicle:
http://blog.chron.com/olympics/2012/...mpic-medalist/

I was very surprised to see how well the Mexican divers male and female were doing in the diving partly because all you ever hear in our US news broadcasts are all the issues about illegal immigration and all the about the drug cartels and how violent they are. I don't think I have ever heard any American news agency ever said anything positive about Mexico and that is sad.

[jacobson00]

I was very surprised to see how well the Mexican divers male and female were doing in the diving partly because all you ever hear in our US news broadcasts are all the issues about illegal immigration and all the about the drug cartels and how violent they are. I don't think I have ever heard any American news agency ever said anything positive about Mexico and that is sad.

i made that remark. and i was very happy for the diving team.

[Critical]

I'm following the gold medal women's volleyball match online and it's killing me! Brazil took the first set and is up in the second. Someone needs to tell the US ladies that they're supposed to win this one!

[Tilden]

Is anyone else a little disturbed by the way athletes' reactions are being interpreted and judged? The latest came with the U.S. runner who was tripped and went down for the second time in the finals of two major events--I can't think of her name, but I believe it was the 1500. People are tweeting/posting elsewhere that she was a big crybaby for not getting up and finishing the race. I can't help thinking that everyone reacts in an instant to situations like that, and there isn't necessarily one best right way to react. If she'd been thinking completely clearly and calmly, no, she probably wouldn't have continued to cry like that, but once she started, maybe the frustration just came pouring out so fast and so hard that she couldn't control it. Maybe that's why she didn't want to talk to the reporters afterwards--she just didn't feel in any condition to do so and was afraid of making the situation worse by saying the wrong thing. Or she just didn't feel like rehashing her defeat yet again. I mean, really, what was she going to say that they didn't already know? And why did NBC feel it necessary to focus the camera on her anguish and frustration for so long?

Similarly, why did they keep the camera on Jordan Wieber while she was crying over not making the All-Around finals, which I'm sure she didn't appreciate and which made it harder for Ally Raisman to be truly happy about her own achievement without looking like she wasn't being sympathetic about Jordan's pain? And why is it okay for Jordan to cry over not making a final but it's not okay for someone else to cry when it must have felt like fate was out to get her in every recent important final? Why is it okay for the Russian gymnast who took second in the all-around to burst into tears of disappointment, but it's not okay for McKayla to show her annoyance with her self over ruining her own chances by sitting down at the end of her vault in a different way? I know she did it on the medal stand, but compared to some reactions I've seen to silver medals, that wasn't that big of a deal.

The member of the U.S. relay team who broke his leg and continued to run until he handed off the baton, just to help get his team to the finals, said he looked at twitter afterwards and stopped almost immediately, because he couldn't believe that people would jump to the conclusion that he was so slow because he didn't care or was sluffing off or whatever before they could possibly know what was really going on. Maybe we should give them all a collective break unless we know there's something deliberately unsporting happening.

In a similar, though lighter vein, I noticed a U.S. woman in a track semi-final with a big red flower in her hair. I thought that was an unusual choice for a runner at the Olympics. Then I found out it was her grandma's 100th birthday, and she was wearing the flower, because her grandma always wears flowers in her hair--and then they showed a photo of her grandmother with a very similar flower in her hair. Just because I knew the whole story, the flower in her hair suddenly meant something so much more. It wasn't just a fashion statement--it was a shout-out to her grandma on a very important birthday that she couldn't share with her in person.

[Florimel]

I just looked it up to be sure and her complete title and "style" (not sure what that means) is "Her Royal Highness Princess William Arthur Philip Louis, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus." There is a "princess" in there, but I think she's generally referred to by the title "Duchess of Cambridge." All of the media folks refer to her as Kate and the royals said that, after the wedding, she was to be called Catherine. The media doesn't really follow orders very well!

I did a little looking myself and what I think is that there are royal titles (king, queen, prince, princess, etc.) and noble titles (duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron) which have to do with landholdings or they did in the past. Duke rules a duchy, for example. Prince Charles is also Duke of Wales and Prince Phillip is Duke of Edinburgh.

Just read that Evan Lysacek is un-retiring to try for the next Winter Olympics in 2014.

[Tilden]

I did a little looking myself and what I think is that there are royal titles (king, queen, prince, princess, etc.) and noble titles (duke, marquis, earl, viscount, baron) which have to do with landholdings or they did in the past. Duke rules a duchy, for example. Prince Charles is also Duke of Wales and Prince Phillip is Duke of Edinburgh.

Just read that Evan Lysacek is un-retiring to try for the next Winter Olympics in 2014.

He officially announced that his first competition will be Skate America. He did this Friday on the Today Show. He's also now living with Vera Wang, who's designed costumes for him in the past and has designed his 2012-2013 season costumes as well.

Johnny Weir says he's back in too. Sounds like Joanne Rochette of Canada may be too, likely because Canada's one obvious weakness in the new team competition would be in ladies. I think the team competition concept may be drawing a lot of former Olympians back to competition. Word is Plusheynko is training for a return too.

[jacobson00]

He officially announced that his first competition will be Skate America. He did this Friday on the Today Show. He's also now living with Vera Wang, who's designed costumes for him in the past and has designed his 2012-2013 season costumes as well.

Johnny Weir says he's back in too. Sounds like Joanne Rochette of Canada may be too, likely because Canada's one obvious weakness in the new team competition would be in ladies. I think the team competition concept may be drawing a lot of former Olympians back to competition. Word is Plusheynko is training for a return too.

Male figuring staking is sort of dying. No one is that great right now. so they oldies can still win again