Day 3 - Blog 4
BASSETERRE, ST. Kitts – THE ATHLETES of the 30th Olympiad are settling in and some events and surprises are going viral – as is the story of ‘Tameka’s tumble’. It has become a global story and is being translated in the languages of the Olympic Games – French, Spanish and even Chinese.
Wish this story were bringing more positive news to the Federation especially with the scale of exposure it is getting. Also wish we had more information to give but in actual fact we are learning more details from the overseas press than we have here. Overall it is not a happy circumstance. How can we turn this lemon into lemonade?
Even though some countries have not yet begun to win gold or break records, the level of their participation is already making them happy.
Jamaica is happy! Their 23 year old swimmer Alia Atkinson is doing quite well for herself. She placed fourth in the women’s 100 m breaststroke yesterday, causing her to tweet
“1:06:79 ranks me sixth overall in the world this year. Not too shabby considering I was 27th two days ago. Never give up, anything can happen.”
Lithuania is happy! – “Fifteen-year-old Ruta Meilutyte broke into tears on the podium after she became the first Lithuanian to win a swimming medal, winning the gold in the 100 m breaststroke.”
Britain is happy! They won their first gymnastics medal in a century!
Tennis sisters Venus and Serena Williams are happy! They both walked off the courts triumphant after winning their singles and began their bid for gold in doubles!
The USA Basketball team was happy yesterday when they trounced France 98 – 71!
There is a Missy Franklin – a 17 year old USA swimmer who won her first gold medal and gave USA a much-needed boost when she won the 100 m backstroke. She must be very happy!
And the Queen must be happy because her granddaughter, Zara Phillips, is doing well at the Olympics. As part of the equestrian team, she helped Britain to a second-place finish heading into the final round.
Cautiously happy must be Michael Phelps, the famous USA swimmer, who has begun to gather medals again. He moved closer to becoming the most decorated Olympian in history by gaining American silver in the 400-meter freestyle relay. This gave Phelps 17 medals for his career – 14 golds, a silver and two bronzes. Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina holds the record with 18. Phelps has five more events in London.
China is smiling because it still leads all countries with nine golds and is tied with the U.S. with 17 overall medals. The United States has five golds. Japan is third with 11 overall medals.
The Olympic record-breaking continues and tomorrow we will make a check of those.
Naturally there were those who had a not-so-happy day!
• Brazilian judo competitor Felipe Kitadai accidentally broke his Olympic bronze medal when he brought it into the shower as a joke and is trying to have it replaced.
• Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella was expelled from the Olympics for a threatening and racist message on Twitter about South Koreans after his team lost to that country Sunday.
• U.S. boxers suffered their first loss in London after a 4-0 start when light heavyweight Marcus Browne was defeated by Damien Hooper of Australia
DID YOU KNOW THAT
2.1 million people attended events in the first three full days of competition. They say 86 percent of ticket-holders showed up Saturday, 92 percent Sunday and 88 percent Monday?
The Olympic rings are colour coded? They’re blue, yellow, black, green and red, because at least one of those colours appears on the national flag of every country in the world?
Tomorrow we'll look at the records that have been broken thus far!
