Category: Olympics

The Jamaican newspapers have asked a pretty interesting question–what kind of name is Usain and Asafa, the first names of the two Jamaican sprinting stars?

The name ‘Usain’ was picked out for the sprinter by his aunt, Betsy Davis.

When The Star contacted her yesterday, she said that she could not immediately recall what the name meant, jokingly stating it was 22 years ago that she chose it. She did, however, mention that the runner’s pet name, ‘Vijay’, was a Hindi word/name meaning ‘victory’.

While attempts to contact the star (Asafa Powell’s) parents were not successful, postings on a website dedicated to the former 100m world record holder revealed that the name ‘Asafa’, means ‘To rise to the occasion’. It is of African origin.

China is in shock. Defending gold medalist Liu Xiang of China, the great hope for a Chinese gold in track and field, has pulled up injured in a preliminary of the 110m hurdles and dropped out of the Olympics. Most of China is in utter and complete shock. In fact thousands left the Birds Nest stadium after he pulled out of the race.

“Liu Xiang has two injuries, one in his foot and one in his leg,” his coaches told a news conference.

“One of the injuries is an accumulated injury. In the past he has not dropped out of any competition easily.

“His right heel injury has been a problem since six years ago, even before the Athens Olympics.

In China Liu Xiang is as popular as Yao Ming–perhaps even more popular as Yao has to compete with Kobe Bryant and Lebron James, but Liu Xiang sort of stands alone (and is also seen endorsing products, in the society pages, etc). This is a major blow to the Chinese hopes for track and field glory, but many folks who follow athletics were expecting something like this. They knew of his injury and the absolutely sick amount of pressure that was placed on Liu to win gold.

You might have heard the story of Matt Emmons who was oh so close to a Gold in the Athens Olympics. He only had to hit the target in the general vicinity of the bullseye to win, but when he started shooting he shot the wrong target and lost.

Well it’s deja vu all over again. He had to get basically a 6 out of 10 possible to clinch a gold today, and his gun misfired causing him to lose one shot and get 4th place in the overall.

And you thought Dan Jansen had it bad.

At home in Maryland, apparently. He’s been tracked down by the Baltimore Sun but has refused interview requests. Just for background, the family has had a bit of a rough time with estrangement and whatnot, but things do appear to be better now. It’s just the Senior Phelps didn’t want to distract from the attention due his son.

“This is just about Michael,” he said. “This is his glory, his time to shine, and I want him to get everything he wants.”

Rest assured, while Phelps is in the Beijing pool, his father is paying close attention, cheering from back in Maryland.

“I’m just on pins and needles every time he hits the water,” Fred Phelps said.

UPDATE : New story and photo here.

Who would win? Not even a contest. Again from my dad:

* the 100 meter dash guy (Bolt) is going 10,235.41 mm per second

The New York Times is reporting that the actual photo finish of the Michael Phelps’ 7th gold medal will not be released, despite the requests from many in the media.

Apparently Omega has underwater video that slows the action even more than the one-hundredth of a second that Phelps won by….

Christopher Clarey of The International Herald Tribune tracked down Cornel Marculescu, FINA’s executive director, at the Water Cube to ask him about the decision to not release the images. Marculescu said it was a matter of policy, and that the Serbian team was satisfied with the ruling after seeing the images — so there is no need to share the images.

As mentioned last night, the margin of victory is approximately 19.766mm, but I for one would really like to see it close up if they have the footage available.

UPDATE: Check out Sports Illustrated’s frame by frame. You can see the difference.

My dad just did the math and it works out like this:

Phelps was splashing 1,977.066 mm per second. the ‘loser’ paddled at 1,976.675 mm per second – so he won by 0.391 mm per second difference x 50.58 seconds . . .19.766 mm –

About two seconds after the announcer on tv said “these kids are representative of the average kids in China” my friends (from China) all said ‘bull crap”. The kids were dressed in fancy ethnic costumes of the 56 various ‘minorities’ in China but if you looked at them they were all very attractive and cute, and as we found out recently, all members of the Han majority.

Disney's small world puppets have escaped.

In other oddities, the soldiers who were inside the ‘Chinese characters’ demonstration have admitted they all wore adult diapers as they were in place, under the stadium, for upto seven hours before the ceremony with no time for a toilet break.

A quiet protest is underway at the Olympic village by a number of athletes unhappy with the services. At all Olympics, a religious center is set up to handle athletes spiritual needs. Chaplins and Imans and other religious persons were brought in from around the world with multi-lingual abilities to help athletes prepare mentally before their events. But in China, the government steadfastly refused to allow any foreign religious leaders in, and instead is making do with Chinese volunteers, few of which speak the language of the athletes fluently.

The quality of the religious services center came into sharper focus on Saturday after the fatal attack against Todd Bachman, the father-in-law of the coach of the U.S. men’s volleyball team, at a popular tourist spot in Beijing. To help athletes with their grief, the U.S. team had to scramble for official permission to get a chaplain who spoke English fluently into the village.

Phelim Kine, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group, said the ban on foreign chaplains runs counter to the Olympic charter’s “dedication to fundamental ethical principals and freedom of expression.” He also said the International Olympic Committee shares the blame.

“This is yet another example of IOC’s failure to enforce and to stand up to China’s efforts to roll back basic freedoms that have been taken granted at previous Olympics,” Kine said.