I'm Erik Stuart, a 30-something married guy living in San Mateo, CA. I'm in eBay's corporate strategy group, and I lead eBay's efforts to look at & develop relationships with internet startups. (Posts about Web 2.0, the internet, and anything else are my fault and don't reflect on my employer, except to the extent that they hired me and continue to keep me around.) I'll also blog about sports, games, musical theater, economics/physics/other science stuff, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
Archive
Top highlights:
1) Seeing Phelps complete his perfect run, swimming the decisive leg in the 4x100 medley relay. It’s possible to argue that there are other athletic feats comparable to Phelps’ performance in the last eight days; it’s very difficult to argue that there any feat clearly superior to his.
2) A breathtaking sprint by Usain Bolt in the men’s 100m, breaking the world record by 0.03 seconds (a significant, if not huge, improvement), even though he slowed down in the last stride. The hand-waving and chest-thumping might have added a hundredth of a second or two to his time - but the clear deceleration on his last stride probably added several hundredths. Could he have gone under 9.6?
Other highlights & notes:
- The oldest female marathon champion in Olympic history (admittedly, a relatively small sample, since the women’s marathon has only been around since 1984); also, a gutsy run by hard-luck-in-the-Olympics Radcliffe, only eight weeks removed from a femur stress fracture, and an incredibly close battle for silver vs. bronze.
- The conclusion of Dara Torres’ remarkable journey, only 0.01 seconds away from winning the women’s 50m freestyle.
- A sweep for Russia in the women’s singles tennis tournament.
- Continued dominance by the British track cycling team.
- US men’s basketball smothering Spain in surprising fashion. I hope they see Spain again in the final (remember, Spain was taken to OT by China), and I hope to see a better game then.
Top highlight: Phelps’ amazing come-from-behind victory in the 100m butterfly, which almost defies explanation. Whereas the US victory in the 4x100 free relay was incredible, this one was… well, mystifying.
Other highlights:
- The US women’s soccer 2-1, extra-time quarterfinal victory over Canada. I woke at 3am Pacific to see this live, and then endured a 90-minute lightning delay invoked 15 minutes into the match. (I set my alarm 45 minutes forward, slept, woke up, saw that it was still delayed, repeated the process, and woke up again to find the match late in the first half.)
- Rebecca Adlington (from the UK) winning the 800m freestyle, breaking the oldest world record in swimming (previously set by Janet Evans in 1989).
- Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry continuing her outstanding Olympics by winning the women’s 200m backstroke and breaking the world record. She might be the star of the swimming competition if it weren’t for Michael Phelps.
- A big upset for the US men’s water polo team, upsetting the top-ranked Croatian team 7-5.
Top highlight: Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson winning gold and silver, respectively, in the women’s gymnastics individual all-around finals. Shawn was very good and Nastia was slightly better.
Other highlights:
- Lochte and Piersol winning gold and silver in the men’s 200m backstroke. In a Phelps-dominated swim meet, it was nice to see Lochte earn a gold medal (and set a world record in the process).
- Rebecca Soni winning the women’s 200m breaststroke.
- A strong effort from the US men’s indoor volleyball team against Bulgaria, winning in 3 sets.
- A fine defensive performance from the US men’s basketball squad (I refuse to call them the “Redeem Team”) against Greece. I was concerned about the US coach’s likely stubborness regarding playing man-to-man defense, especially against a Greek squad that’s had difficulties against a zone. Though I still think Coach K’s inflexibility is a weakness, in this case man D was the right call: even though they gave up a number of back cuts, they forced so many steals and got so many easy points that they were able to blow Greece out.
A lowlight: a Swedish wrestler’s demonstration during the medal ceremony, in which he received his bronze medal and immediately put in in the center of the mat and left the hall. I can only presume that he’s announcing his retirement (wrestlers often leave their shoes in the middle of the mat after their last match), since he’s likely to be banned after this display (he’s already had his medal stripped by the IOC). He was upset about officiating during the semifinal match, with which I can sympathize. However, his act was to the detriment of the other medal winners, and they don’t deserve that. (For an example of dignity and class following egregious officiating, see Roy Jones in 1988.)
Top highlight: Kristin Armstrong smashing the field to win the women’s cycling road race. A special shout-out goes to Christine Thorburn, who finished 5th, only 3.2 seconds out of 3rd place - she’s a doctor for my wife Melissa.
Other highlights/notes:
- Levi Leipheimer, in the men’s road race, winning the bronze
- Kosuke Kitajima, defending his Olympic titles in both breaststroke races
- A China sweep of the women’s 200m fly
- An impressive 4x200m free relay by the Aussie women
Sort of a lackluster day, actually. Maybe I’m just getting a bit tired (which won’t improve after the USA-Greece basketball game at 5am and the USA women’s first medal-round soccer game at 3 am).
Also, a note on yesterday’s post and the magnificence of what Phelps is doing: the one other feat I can think of that’s possibly comparable (in addition to Jesse Owens’ 4 world records in 45 minutes and Spitz’ 7-gold, 7-world-record performance) is Eric Heiden’s 5 golds & 5 Olympic records at Lake Placid 1980.
Top highlight: Phelps winning the 200m fly (with goggles full of water) and participating in the 4x200m relay to become the first Olympian with double-digit gold medals.
Phelps’ performance so far is superlative - the only accomplishment I can think of that’s in the same class is Jesse Owens’ four world records in 45 minutes while at Ohio State. (Phelps’ 5 gold medals this Olympics have each been accompanied by a world record.) … and yet, I wouldn’t be shocked to see him not win both of his remaining individual races (the 200IM seems especially dangerous). Even if he doesn’t go 8-for-8, we’re seeing the kind of athletic achievement that comes along once every century or so.
Other highlights/notes:
- A crazy flip-flop of fortune for the US soccer teams: the women go from allowing 2 goals in the first 5 minutes of the tournament to winning their pool (and avoiding Brazil/Germany until the finals), and the men lose 2-1 to Nigeria and are out of the tournament after being about a minute away from winning their pool before allowing a weird goal and settling for a tie against the Netherlands in their second game.
- India wins its first-ever individual gold medal. Some journalists are speculating that India in 2020 will be like China today with regard to sporting prowess; I think that’s unlikely (India doesn’t show any signs of implementing state-commanded athletic programs on China’s scale, and that’s probably a good thing overall). Still, India’s almost-inexplicable lack of Olympic success seems to be coming to an end.
- The Chinese synchronized divers are really, really impressive.
- One thing that irritates me: when a gymnast stumbles, the explanation is always something along the lines of “she buckled under the pressure”. As far as I can tell, doing a backflip onto a 4”-wide beam, or doing a triple-twist-blind-backwards vault, or whatever else, is just really hard, and they miss sometimes! If you do 20 crazy things across 4 or 6 routines, and you miss a couple - that should probably be expected. If Kobe Bryant goes 9-for-10 from the free throw line vs. Greece tomorrow morning, did he “choke” on that missed free throw? No - sometimes, you just miss, and the harder the thing is that you’re trying to pull off, the more often you miss.
Speaking of basketball - the Greece game tomorrow morning should be fun to watch. The Greeks are going to try to make the game rough and slow. My biggest concerns: 1) lack of size (and depth in the post) for the US; 2) Coach K’s likely stubborness about sticking to a man defense (which the Greeks clearly prefer playing against); and 3) what the hell is up with the ball they’re using? The red-and-yellow pattern makes every shot look really lopsided and ugly. It’s like China’s equivalent to the old (red, white, and blue) ABA ball from the 1970’s.
Top highlight is obvious: the men’s 4x100 freestyle relay. It was absolutely spectacular. If you’ve watched it, I don’t need to say any more. If you haven’t, go to the NBC Olympics video site and see it. It’s the current candidate for top event at the Olympics.
Other moments:
- Several great performances in the rest of the swimming events - Phelps in the 200m freestyle, Coughlin and Piersol in the backstroke, Leisel Jones in the breaststroke.
- A really, really gutsy performance by the US men’s gymnastics team to win the bronze medal. Their high bar routines were incredible. Even more incredible: the Chinese team on the rings and the vault.
A few other notes: first, Bob Costas is in good form here. He looked like he was sort of phoning it in in the last couple of Olympics, but when he’s on top of his game, he’s without peer. (I’m not old enough to really remember Jim McKay’s stewardship of the Games, so I’m not making a comparison to him.)
Also, I’ve seen a bunch of complaints about NBC’s online coverage (e.g., here). Many of the gripes are valid: the large version isn’t nearly as full-screen as it could be, the 4-in-1 screens aren’t large enough, and the finding experience is crappy (no organized directory, no good search, structured data is lacking). I’ve seen complaints that there isn’t any commentary, and complaints that the commentary isn’t perfectly synchronized with the action (so that the announcer talks about a home run in softball moments before it’s seen on video).
And yet: I’m really glad to have it. I’ve seen things I would have never seen without the online streams - detailed competition in fencing and judo, the entire cycling road races live and without interruption. I just watched the very exciting US/Italy men’s water polo match at the same time as the Phelps 200m free victory. I saw a crazy-cool dance/mock sword-fight performance right before the medal ceremony for women’s foil - the kind of thing that would never, ever make it onto TV coverage.
As is said sometimes in the Web 2.0 world: you’ve taken the first steps toward success when people complain about the details of your product. I’m glad for what NBC is doing, and I expect it to be better in Vancouver 2010 and better still in London 2012.
Not to give NBC too much praise, though: it’s still a bad, bad decision to hold popular event streams until after Pacific TV coverage. WSJ coverage has stated that 10% of viewers are watching both online and TV coverage, while only 0.2% are restricting their viewing to the internet. Concerns of cannibalization were grossly exaggerated.
Top highlight: US women sweeping the sabre event in fencing. I’ll admit that I can barely follow, and certainly don’t understand, this sport. Basically, the fencers face off, then there’s a flurry of activity, then both fencers shout, and finally one of them is awarded a point. The referee even has to go to a video replay every third or fourth point to check that he made the right call. How on earth did they judge this in the days before video replays and even electronic sensors? (… and this was one of the original Olympic sports from Athens 1896.)
Other things:
- Three “almosts” for the US in shooting - two fourths and a fifth in the men’s 10m air pistol and the women’s 10m air rifle
- An incredible comeback for the South Korean women in handball against Russia, coming back from 8 down in the second half to achieve a tie
- A big upset of the top US men’s beach volleyball team by Latvia
- A gutsy prelim performance by the US men’s gymnastics team, given the loss of the Hamm brothers to injury (I don’t expect a team medal, but a few individual event medals would be very nice)
- An incredibly dramatic men’s road race (in cycling), with a chase group catching the leading trio with about 1 kilometer left
On the other hand: the murder of the father-in-law of the US men’s indoor volleyball coach. Incredibly, terribly tragic.
No sports today, but:
The Opening Ceremony: wow. (I’m watching the Parade of Nations as we speak.) Story, costumes, dancing, technology, fireworks - spectacular.
I loved the arrow-to-light-the-torch in Barcelona, and the ceremony in Athens 2004 had a wonderful connection to the ancient Games that no other country could replicate. For me, though, this is the most impressive opening ceremony ever.
NBC’s coverage: pretty good, I think. Good camera angles, short commercials. It looks like they’re preparing the transition from Bob Costas to Matt Lauer; that’s a big step down, but I guess Bob wasn’t going to last forever. (He’s generally been outstanding with the Olympics since Seoul 1988.) It also looks like they’re showing all 204 countries during the Parade of Nations - doing some editing to show countries in quicker succession, instead of skipping some during commercial breaks. Good choice.
NBC’s online coverage: I’m liking it, so far. Streaming quality is pretty good, and the ads aren’t too intrusive. My biggest complaint is that I’d like more metadata accompanying the directory (and better organization overall): when there are four Women’s Individual Sabre streams, it would be nice to see the country and/or athletes for each one. Still, I love the fact that I’m sitting here watching the men’s cycling road race during commercials. (… and it looks pretty smoggy, by the way.)
Not much to report today either, as only men’s soccer pool play was in action. The US men started off well with a 1-0 win over Japan - crucial for their medal hopes in a tough group.
The Opening Ceremony starts in a little over 7 hours. Woohoo!
Other than men’s and women’s soccer pool play, competition starts at 8:30 AM Saturday morning (Beijing time) with the women’s 10m air rifle (shooting), whose finals start at 7:30 PM (before the broadcast of the OC starts) on the West Coast. The other notable event for tomorrow evening is the men’s road race in cycling, starting at 8 PM Pacific.
