Olympic Update: Day 1
The Olympics are now underway as the world lay witness to the first day of the London 2012 Olympics. Like many of the Olympic Games Day 1 saw a number of athletes begin and end their Olympic Games with their medal events happening immediately. As athletes began to go for their medals the talk started about who many expected to win their events. There were the events that went essentially according to plan but for the overwhelming majority of Olympic events in day 1 of competition everything was changed. It all started with the Men’s Road Race as over 1 million people lined the streets of London for what seemed to be the first real medal hope for the home team. Mark Cavendish was in the Olympics to win this race as Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins served as his main helper. Unfortunately for the British fans Cavendish did not really make it a race or even close to a race. Cavendish finished the race in 29th spot as the British Olympic glow after the opening ceremonies was put out fairly quickly. It also started the day off and set a tone of disappointment for some and surprises for others. The trend continued in the pool as the strange day continued. First came the story of Park tae-Hwan who was competing in the men’s 400m freestyle. Out of the blocks Hwan looked to get a great start and won his heat to make it into the finals. Then after the race finished FINA, swimming’s governing body, announced that he had been disqualified for a false start. Hwan’s camp immediately filed an appeal hoping to get their ruling before the finals later that night. FINA looked at the tape and announced that they would reinstate Hwan into the finals. With new life Hwan went on to win silver in the event only a few hours after being DQ’d. The strange night in the pool did not end there though as the much-anticipated matchup between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte would almost not take place. Phelps and Lochte are considered the two best swimmers in the 400m Individual Medley and with Lochte looking to be one of the few people to beat Phelps the focus of the night would be the finals of that event. For Lochte it was a chance at his first Olympic Gold while for Phelps it was a chance to earn his 17th Olympic Medal putting him once medal away from the career medal record. As the heats began many considered them a formality as the real race would be Phelps vs. Lochte but this was not the case. Phelps struggled in his heat as he almost missed the qualification for the finals giving rise to a few questions. Lochte meanwhile easily won his heat and moved to the Finals where he would look for that first Gold medal. The finals went on with many eyes focused on how these two swimmers would do in their first matchup. Many believed Phelps would come back and race hard to push Lochte in a tight race. Again the beliefs did not pay off as Phelps struggled again to the point where not only did he not get close to Lochte but he could not get close to a medal. Finishing in 4th place Phelps missed out on his 17th Olympic Medal. Now the question will be if Phelps is over the hill or can he come back in his other 6 events to earn his coveted medal record. Day 1 was a display of surprises and overall of great sports as London kicked off with plenty of storylines that will be played out even more as the days progress. If the rest of the Olympics are like this day all fans are in for a great two weeks of sports as we all look to see who will create the next storyline.
The Canadian Story:
Rowing Takes the First Blow:
The Men’s 8 team has always been one of the best in the world but they looked pedestrian as their 4th, making them last, place finish in their heat kicked off an up and down day for the Canadians.
Canadian Women Almost take out Russia:
The Canadian Women’s Basketball team is not expected to do much but nobody told them that as they were able to lead the #3 Russians all the way into the 4th quarter ultimately falling to one of the best teams in the Olympic tournament.
Cochrane Loses his shot:
As Park tae-Hwan was reinstated into the 400m Freestyle after being disqualified the Canadians were affected more than anyone else as Ryan Cochrane was pushed out of the finals to reinstate Hwan
Canadian Women Recover from opening loss:
The Women’s soccer team started off their tournament with a loss against the defending World Cup Champions in Japan but they recovered well as their offence woke up against South Africa wining 3-0 in their second game of the Olympics
|
Medal Totals |
||||
|
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
| China |
4 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
| Italy |
2 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
| USA |
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
| South Korea |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| Brazil |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| Japan |
0 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
| Russia |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Kazakhstan |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Australia |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Netherlands |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Day 1 Medal Results:
Archery:
Men’s Team
Gold- Italy
Silver- USA
Bronze- South Korea
Cycling:
Men’s Road Race
Gold- Alex Vinokurov (Kazakhstan)
Silver- Rigo Uran Uran (Colombia)
Bronze- Alexa Kristoff (Norway)
Fencing:
Women’s Individual Foil
Gold- Elisa Di Francisca (Italy)
Silver- Arianna Errigo (Italy)
Bronze- Valentina Vezzali (Italy)
Judo:
Women’s 48kg
Gold- Sarah Menezes (Brazil)
Silver- Alina Dumitru (Romania)
Bronze- Charline van Snick (Belgium)
Bronze- Eva Cservnoviczki (Hungary)
Men’s 60kg
Gold- Arsan Galtsyan (Russia)
Silver- Hiroaki Hiraoka (Japan)
Bronze- Felipe Kitadai (Brazil)
Bronze- Rishod Sobirov (Uzbekistan)
Shooting:
Women’s 10m Air Rifle
Gold- Yi Siling (China)
Silver- Sylwia Bogacka (Poland)
Bronze- Yu Dan (China)
Men’s 10m Air Pistol
Gold- Jing Jong-Oh (South Korea)
Silver- Luca Tesconi (Italy)
Bronze- Andrija Zlatic (Serbia)
Swimming:
Men’s 400m Individual Medley
Gold- Ryan Lochte (USA)
Silver- Thiago Pereira (Brazil)
Bronze- Kosuke Hagino (Japan)
Men’s 400m Freestyle:
Gold- Sun Yang
Silver- Park tae-Hwan (South Korea)
Bronze- Peter Vanderkaay (USA)
Women’s 400m Individual Medley
Gold- Yi Shiwen (China)
Silver- Elizabeth Beisel (USA)
Bronze- Li Xuanxu (China)
Women’s 4x100m Relay
Gold- Australia
Silver- Netherlands
Bronze- USA
Weightlifting:
Women’s 48kg
Gold- Wang Mingjuan (China)
Silver- Hiromi Miyake (Japan)
Bronze- Ryang Chun Hwa (North Korea)
Day 2 Medal Events:
Archery:
Women’s Team Bronze Medal Match (12:33 pm)
Women’s Team Gold Medal Match (1:01 pm)
Cycling:
Women’s Road Race (6:00 am)
Diving:
Women’s Synchronized 3m (10:00 am)
Fencing:
Men’s Individual Sabre Bronze Medal Match (1:50 pm)
Men’s Individual Sabre Gold Medal Match (2:10 pm)
Judo:
Men’s 66kg Bronze Medal Match (9:28 am)
Men’s 66kg Gold Medal Match (11:10 am)
Women’s 52kg Bronze Medal Match (9:00 am)
Women’s 52kg Gold Medal Match (11:00 am)
Shooting:
Women’s 10m Air Pistol Final (6:45 am)
Women’s Skeet Finals (9:00 am)
Swimming:
Women’s 100m Butterfly Final (2:30 pm)
Men’s 100m Breaststroke Final (3:11 pm)
Women’s 400m Freestyle Final (3:18 pm)
Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (4:00 pm)
Weightlifting:
Men’s 56kg Final (2:00 pm)
Women’s 53 kg Final (10:30 am)
The Sport Addiction 