Short ones galore!
1) As of August 22nd, South Korea has 11 gold, 10 silver and 7 bronze medals. North Korea has 2, 1 and 3. Together, Korea has 13, 11 and 10. A very decent performance so far. I confess I have no idea whether our brothers and sisters from the North can get any more medals but South Korea is still in the fight for the gold in at least 2 events (baseball and taekwondo).
2) South Korea brought four taekwondo athletes to Beijing. Three already ended their participation with the gold medal and the fourth one will compete tonight (PST). I confess I don't know much about this sport, especially when it comes to scoring. But I can't help but feeling that in case of doubt, the judges give the edge to the Koreans. They should come up with a better scoring system, one that everybody could understand. The way it is now, it gives too much margin for interpretation.
3) South Korea 6 x 2 Japan, baseball semifinals. DaeHan MinGuk, Ta-da ta-da da! Que vengan los Cubanos!
4) Despite my enthusiasm, I think the Cubans are the favorites in the gold medal match. I've watched most of the Korean Team matches (thank you nbcolympics.com) and their bats are not strong enough. A little better than in the World Baseball Classic (at least they didn't choke against Japan like in the WBC) but still not good enough to beat Cuba.
5) Lee Seung-Yeop (1B and 4th batter for the Korean Team), who has been struggling mightly throughout this season (in NPB and in the Olympics), came through in the clutch, delivering a go ahead 2 run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning.
6) It helped that the Japanese outfielders were playing for the Koreans. One grotesque error and a fly-out-turned-into-a-double generated 2 more runs, contributing for the 4 run bottom of the 8th.
7) My other motherland (Brazil) meanwhile collected another gold medal (Maureen Maggi in the long jump). Both soccer teams (women and men) failed to get the gold medal although being the favorites and both volleyball teams are in the finals.
8) Collective sports like soccer (well, maybe not women's soccer) and volleyball are heavily supported in Brazil but amateur sports like swimming and track and field receive no support whatsoever. Brazilian athletes who win Olympic gold medals in those sports (like Maggi and Cielo) are the true heroes. Not Ronaldinho and his bunch of millionaires.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
More Beijing 2008
More short ones:
1) As of August 14th, South Korea has 6 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze medals. North Korea has 1, 2 and 4. Together, Korea has 7, 9 and 7.
2) Park Sung-Hyun (South Korea) lost the gold medal to Zhang Juan Juan (China) in the women's individual archery final. Though it was a fantastic upset (after all, Park was defending the olympic title against the 30th seed), I was kind of expecting this after the Chinese athlete won two matches against other top seeded Koreans. The home field factor worked wonders here. Playing in your own country must do wonders for one's motivation to win. And as I was watching the match I couldn't help but think that Zhang deserved it.
3) Does anybody else think that Park Sung-Hyun is cute? By the way, I thought all of those women in archery were cute. Maybe it's the hat.
4) I was counting on women's individual archery as a sure thing when I made my forecast of 4~5 more gold medals for South Korea. I also thought judo would bring us one more gold, but it seems unlikely now. Well, I'll be extremely happy if they get another 3. I'm guessing 2 taekwondo gold medals and one more in some unexpected sport, like always happens.
5) A little historic of olympic medals for South Korea:
Los Angeles 1984: 6 gold / 6 silver / 7 bronze
Seoul 1988: 12/10/11
Barcelona 1992: 12/5/12
Atlanta 1996: 7/15/5
Sydney 2000: 8/10/10
Athens 2004: 9/12/9
6) So far, China is dominating the competition with 22 gold, 8 silver and 5 bronze medals against 10, 8 and 14 for the US (the second place).
1) As of August 14th, South Korea has 6 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze medals. North Korea has 1, 2 and 4. Together, Korea has 7, 9 and 7.
2) Park Sung-Hyun (South Korea) lost the gold medal to Zhang Juan Juan (China) in the women's individual archery final. Though it was a fantastic upset (after all, Park was defending the olympic title against the 30th seed), I was kind of expecting this after the Chinese athlete won two matches against other top seeded Koreans. The home field factor worked wonders here. Playing in your own country must do wonders for one's motivation to win. And as I was watching the match I couldn't help but think that Zhang deserved it.
3) Does anybody else think that Park Sung-Hyun is cute? By the way, I thought all of those women in archery were cute. Maybe it's the hat.
4) I was counting on women's individual archery as a sure thing when I made my forecast of 4~5 more gold medals for South Korea. I also thought judo would bring us one more gold, but it seems unlikely now. Well, I'll be extremely happy if they get another 3. I'm guessing 2 taekwondo gold medals and one more in some unexpected sport, like always happens.
5) A little historic of olympic medals for South Korea:
Los Angeles 1984: 6 gold / 6 silver / 7 bronze
Seoul 1988: 12/10/11
Barcelona 1992: 12/5/12
Atlanta 1996: 7/15/5
Sydney 2000: 8/10/10
Athens 2004: 9/12/9
6) So far, China is dominating the competition with 22 gold, 8 silver and 5 bronze medals against 10, 8 and 14 for the US (the second place).
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Beijing 2008
I'm hooked on the Olympic Games, can't think of anything else during these two and a half weeks. Short ones:
1) As of August 13th, South Korea has 6 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze medals. North Korea has 1, 2 and 4. Together, Korea has 7 gold, 8 silver and 5 gold medals.
2) Optimistic as I am, I predict South Korea will get another 4~5 gold medals. I'm guessing judo, archery and taekwondo will bring them.
3) Spanish people need to figure some things out. I didn't see this coming but people still managed to turn blatant racism against Asians into an African American issue.
4) I'm also part Brazilian (thus entitled to criticize Brazil) and what a ridiculous performance so far. Only 3 bronze medals??? Ridiculous for such a large and populous country.
5) American TV doesn't care for the Olympic Games.
1) As of August 13th, South Korea has 6 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze medals. North Korea has 1, 2 and 4. Together, Korea has 7 gold, 8 silver and 5 gold medals.
2) Optimistic as I am, I predict South Korea will get another 4~5 gold medals. I'm guessing judo, archery and taekwondo will bring them.
3) Spanish people need to figure some things out. I didn't see this coming but people still managed to turn blatant racism against Asians into an African American issue.
4) I'm also part Brazilian (thus entitled to criticize Brazil) and what a ridiculous performance so far. Only 3 bronze medals??? Ridiculous for such a large and populous country.
5) American TV doesn't care for the Olympic Games.
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