Positive Energy

Olympics highlights, Day 10

Top highlight: the US sweep of the men’s 400m.  While their dominance of the sprints has faded, the US is still the leader when it comes to the 400 distance (with or without hurdles).  Hopefully, this is a prelude to better performance by US tracksters for the rest of the Games.

Other notes/highlights:

• US women win their soccer semifinal 4-2 over Japan after trailing early.  They’ve improved their play throughout the tournament as they learn to live without injured Abby Wambach - but Brazil in the final will be a stern test.
• A dominating performance by Kerri Walsh and Misty May in beach volleyball, annihilating a Brazilian team to reach the gold medal match.  The other semifinal was a titanic battle between two Chinese pairs, with each of the first two sets going well past 21 points.
• I won’t call it a highlight, but the US-China baseball game was brutally intense.  Two massive collisions at home plate were a prelude to a beaning that gave an American batter a concussion.
• Another world record for Isinbaeva of Russia in the women’s pole vault, who seems to be following the Sergey Bubka strategy of breaking the world record by the minimum amount each time.  (His practice was clearly due to significant monetary incentives given by the USSR for each new world record; are similar incentives still in place?)
• A gold medal for American Stephanie Brown Trafton in the discus - an extra shout-out for being a resident of Sacramento (where I grew up) as well as throwing the disc (which I did in high school).
• Gold for the US equestrian team in team jumping, and Canadian Ian Millar’s first medal (silver) in 9 Olympics. Extra credit for being one of the Olympic events mixing men and women.