Even more Beijing 2008

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.