Olympics Update part two
i am so proud of Nastia Liukin. she is an oustanding Olympic champion. She deserved the all around gold medal. I thought some of judging was "questionable" I felt watching NBC that the Chinese government had pressured the judges somehow, as the Chinese athletes were benefitting most from the odd scoring. You could tell Elfi Shalgel and Tim Daggett had picked up on it too.
Nonetheless, Nastia and Sean deserved clearly the overall gold and silver.
Michael Phelps is amazing and graceful, he is the star of the olympics no doubt. Here's a thought worth thinking. When American stars falter all the time, he went after something that not only was never done, but that no one even thought to attempt, and then. He did it! I mean it would have been easy to come up short. As American sports fans we expect our best to win. look at Michael, the basketball teams, the softball team, the women gymnasts. We just expect gold. When a fencer wins gold, or a rower, or a pistol shooter, its a wow, really? we won the gold in that sport? but the Stars? like Serena williams? like Misty may and Kerri walsh? like Kobe and Lebron and Dwayne? we expect champions to win Gold. Phelps came through like no one ever has. Thats the amazing thing. Look how many stars in week two come up just a lil bit short.
I still think May-Treanor & Walsh will win the Gold. The men of the beach could medal both teams. The softball team will win gold, there's little doubt. The basketball teams on both genders should win Gold. The women's soccer team could do it.
There will be plenty of Golds in Track & Field. Sprinters in the 100 for women, the 200, the 400, the 110 and 440 hurdles. The men's volleyball team look interesting, they could surprise.

I am sure there are more. We shall keep an eye on it.
Sean Johnson and Nastia Liukin come back for events finals, chances for more medals for each.
Saturdays show on NBC was pretty boring. It's hard to watch a marathon. You had the swimmers, the relays and Dara Torres. You had the 100 meters for men in track, but that was about it! very slow night.
funny thing about the mens 100 meters is, Bolt could have broken the world record by more, but he started celebrating and showboating before crossing the line!! like Boldon said on NBC, he could have run 9.59. He still will, eventually, just not at the Olympics. Still he has the gold and well deserved.
Heres a good luck to the US women in soccer. good luck with Canada in the quarter finals.
in case you did not notice tennis.
James Blake lost the bronze medal to a better player, Djokovic who beat him in two sets, the second in a tie breaker. and the Williams sisters were both beaten in the quarter finals, ( or was it in the round of 16? ).
Lets go cycling...we need to get our track cycling program going again.
BTW, the best women's water polo team in the world ? the USA.
men's water polo also out to a good start,
lets go water polo!

Big Brother 10 Thoughts

Big Brother 10.
my thoughts on the houseguests.
I liked Libra, but her temper didnt do her any good in the game. I like Keesha. Despite her annoying laugh, she needs to lay low a while. I didnt like Memphis the first three weeks. but now i am warming up to him. He is a threat in tme. Perhaps Brians week one prediction will come true. I dont like Michelle, she tends to be too negative and got all in over her head for whom? Jesse? You kidding me? you throw away the game for Jesse? she is in trouble. I am liking April less and less by the week. she is acting too smug and annoying. what a judgemental overly sensitive person. why does she have to call people "bitches" and be so negative. I liked April when she took down Brian with Libra and Keesha. but she over reacted to Jesse being sent home, She had no business promising anyone but Michelle they were safe when she won HOH by staying up on the wall. Renny i didnt like week one, but i am warming up to her. i like her now.
Dan is okay, i say i like him. I didn't care much for his guy alliance but now i appreciate him more that he is on his own. he over values his "playin weak, and laying low" strategy.
Jerry, i have come to really dislike! WHY is he so angry and bitter now? Jerry take a chill and let it go! Let Dan off the hook, is really not pretty. He is too much in April's back pocket. all of this over Jesse? Jesse wasnt very well liked by America. Ollie? he has to go, any boyfriend Showmance of April is now done with me. He seems decent enough but April drags him down. If he is all bout protecting April, i have no use for him.
Now that Renny is HOH, i tell you her nominees are April and Ollie. Time to break up the power couple and alliance. She could go after Michelle or Jerry, but why bother? Break up the couple, Michelle is more isolated.
Order of departure ( i wish! ) 1 april, 2 jerry 3 michelle, 4 ollie 5 dan
then the final three wwould be keesha, memphis and renny, ( you fans of dan, i can live with dan in Rennys place )
Sorry Libra, you deserved better, My best to you,
Scott

I have Olympic fever, but then every four years, i catch it. Like most of the nation, I have been inspired and awe-induced by the performances of Michael Phelps. I am also proud of Michael, not just as an American, but as a fellow University of Michigan Wolverine. Go Blue.
I enjoyed and got into the gymnastics. I feel for the US women's team. Injuries were more important than nerves in the team final. Sure Alicia Sacramonte lost it on the beam and it carried over and affected her Floor, but without the injuries to ankles on Chelsea and Sue, they wouldnt have had to rely on Alicia on every event but uneven bars. There was extra pressure on her due to the increased workload. Poor Chelsea, she probably would have gotten a lot of chances to perform in the team competition.
Sean and Natasa both have a great shot at either gold or silvers in the all-around. Their overall game is as good as anything China can throw at them.

The men's soccer team really should be in the Quarters and they must be kicking themselves. They had the Netherlands, their group's favorite pre-tournament, down 2-1 in injury time, with but a minute left to play. Then gave the Dutch a free kick outside the box. The American wall all jumped up at the kick, inexplicably allowing a low hard scudding shot to go under the wall, and directly in the net, with goalie Guzan no chance at it.
The 2-2 tie denied the US team a quarters berth with game to play.
Today they lost to Nigeria 2-1. The shame is in left back Michael Orozco who in the 4th minute threw an elbow at a Nigeria forward and got the red-card. His ejection left 10 men on 11, and the Americans fought hard swimming uphill for 86 minutes, went down 1-0 late in the half. and 2-0 down with 15 mins left. They kept fighting and scored with less than 4 mins left. But they couldn't get an equalizer and the Dutch beat Japan 1-0 to leapfrog the U.S. into the 2nd spot. We are out. A sad loss of temper costing a whole team.

The women's soccer team fared better. Despite a shocking 0-2 loss to Norway in the opener, they rallied past Japan 1-0 and New Zealan 4-0 to gain a quarterfinal berth. I think they can win the Quarter and the Semi and still medal. We shall see how they do if they face Germany or Brazil down the road.

Volleyball has been pretty exciting so far. The women were toast vs Cuba, getting swept in three games, but have gone 2-1 with wins over Japan and Venezuela.
the men have been impressive beating Italy in four games. Their stiffest challenge in group play will be vs. Bulgaria. The medal round will be harder with Brazil, Serbia and Russia.

Beach volleyball is all bout the golden girls: Misty May-Treanor and Kerrie Walsh. They seem to be unbeatable, just a beach machine chewing up now over 100 matches and 18 tournaments in a row. They rarely lose a game, must less two in a match!

The softball team also is a powerhouse, anything less than winning gold for them would be a shock and crushing disappointment. they took care of a very good, by rest of the world standards, Aussies 3-0. Australia failed to get a hit off Cat Osterman. Japan is the other medal contender.

More Michael Phelps to come this week, as he goes for 8 gold medals in one olympics. To think at 27 he could come back to the Olympics in London in 2012. He could add another 4 or 5 gold medals there too. He is amazing. The best swimmer of all time.