Trust But Verify

A photo-op we see over and over at the Olympics is the Gold Medal Winner biting the medal, an apparent reference to the old time practice of biting a gold coin to verify that it's made of true gold:

Aly Raisman - US Gymnastics

Of course, Olympic Gold Medals are not pure gold.  Olympic Gold medal are actually 92.5% silver, plated with 6 grams of 24 karat gold.  Since silver is slightly harder than gold, and most alloys are harder than the pure metal, these girls are risking dental damage.

Jaime Gray - US Rifle

 More Olympic chicks biting their medals below.  They guys do it too, but who cares?

Jessica Ennis - UK Heptathlon

Jessica Rossi - Italy Trap Shooting

Kayla Harrison - US Judo

Kim Jang-Mi - South Korea Pistol

Roosannagh MacLennan - Canada Trampoline

Wenjun Guo - China Air Pistol

Yana Shenyakin - Ukraine Fencing

Ruta Meilutyte - Lithuania Swimming

Serena Williams - US Tennis

An Kum Ae - North Korea Judo

This last one looks like she might really want to eat it.

North Korea's key to success: Fridges for winners, labour camps for losers

Italian Fencing Team

Elisa Di Francisca, Arianna Errigo, Valentina Vezzali and Ilaria Salvatori

Olympic Gifts

Talent belongs to God. Training comes from the robots within us. What makes the equally trained and the equally talented unequal is their humanity. Gabby Douglas' charisma, Missy Franklin's sweetness, and Michael Phelps' humility, qualities they sustain regardless of the results, sets them apart from their sometimes more qualified opponents, whose desire to win is palpable and gives away their ego (or their parents' and trainer's egos, in some cases).

Within my own talent and my own training, I have often felt that subtle tug-of-war between my ego's need to succeed and my gift's desire to serve. Before I step on stage, I have learned to ask of myself, May my ego step aside and make way for my gift. May I give what I am meant to give to this character on this stage for this audience. May I have the courage to serve, may I love every minute of it, and may I remember to be grateful for the experience in its entirety. 

I do not always grant my own request. I am sometimes too pleased with myself. I sometimes want to shine more than I want to give. But it is never long before I am humbled. On those moments, I look much like Jordyn Wieber, Viktoria Komova, and Ryan Lochte. Failure shatters poses.

Gifts are delicate. They shy away at the sight of arrogance. I must always keep myself in check, and practice catching it as it happens. If I have enough clarity and presence of mind, sometimes I can reverse it as it is happening. I am failing. I suck tonight. I am shmacting. It is hurting me to fail because I stepped on stage tonight wanting to succeed, wanting to be known as a great actor, wanting to be applauded.  I must let that go. It is not my job to succeed. It is my job to get out of my own way. I'm sorry, Talent. I tried to use you to make others see me, admire me, and love me. That is not your purpose. I accept failing tonight so that I may learn and grow for your sake. 

I watch the Olympics not only to cheer on the athletes I admire, but to study their humanity. I hope to absorb their clarity, their balance, and their drive. And I always applaud the courage it takes to remain humble, kind, and grateful after their consecutive wins.

Win Gold - Pay IRS

 Go for the Gold! (Pay the IRS.)

Because conservatives are scrooges, the good folks at Americans for Tax Reform have gone through the fine print to find out what our Olympians will have to cough up to the IRS should they be lucky enough to win any medals in London.

Even by the standards of our government, the numbers are insane.

For instance: Americans who win bronze will pay a $2 tax on the medal itself. But the bronze comes with a modest prize—$10,000 as an honorarium for devoting your entire life to being the third best athlete on the planet in your chosen discipline. And the IRS will take $3,500 of that, thank you very much.

There are also prizes that accompany each medal: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze.

Silver medalists will owe $5,385. You win a gold? Timothy Geithner will be standing there with his hand out for $8,986.

So as of this writing, swimmer Missy Franklin—who's a high school student—is already on the hook for almost $14,000. By the time she's done in the pool, her tab could be much higher. (That is, unless she has to decline the prize money to placate the NCAA—the only organization in America whose nuttiness rivals the IRS.)

ATR notes that the real twist of the knife is that most other Olympians won't pay any taxes on their medals because America is one of only a handful of countries which taxes "worldwide" prize income earned overseas.

I hope Obama is rooting for the US teams.

I wonder if training costs can be deducted?  Not that it would help Michael Phelps.

UPDATE:  Marco Rubio offers bill to waive tax on Olympic medals.

Women's Team Finals - American Success

They did it! The USA Women's gymnastics team earned the gold medal today by over five points. Twelve nearly flawless performances clinched the gold for the exceptionally young team including literally the most beautiful vault I've ever seen. To watch the women hit routine after routine was incredibly satisfying. The Fierce Five were as fierce as ever.

Why is the US Succeeding? I personally like to think that it's our "melting pot" and "best of both worlds" structures that provide everything and the kitchen sink to the American athletes. The Women's US Olympic Gymnastics Team is coached by individuals from each of the top 4 gymnastics nations, if you consider the old USSR & Russia one and the same. Rather than having a distinct weakness like some other teams, the varied coaching styles present different strengths amongst Americans. For instance, Aly Raisman is coached by Romanian Mihai Brestyan seemed to inherit the nation's weakness on bars but their strengths on beam and floor. Kyla Ross, Gabby Douglas and US Alternate Anna Li have all been nurtured by Chinese Coaches and seem to prevail on bars. Of course, many coaches are present within a young gymnast's career and other factors influence success besides coaching, but I thought it was worth noting that the US relies on a melting pot environment to hone a strong team.

I do think that we all need to applaud Marta Karolyi. For all the slack that we as fans give Marta, we should realize that she does have some earthly idea what she's doing. The USA's never earned lower than silver at the Olympics under her direction and today they not only earned the gold, but it was by a fairly hefty margin. At the end of the day, Marta has the majority of the control over who makes the team and on which events they compete.

But of course, the real indisputable reason for the win was the USA's performances. When competing that level of difficulty that impressively, they were nearly uncatchable. The USA stayed solid while competing some of the most difficult routines in the world. Ultimately, THAT'S why they won. I've already heard many people saying, "Well, if the Russians would have hit, they'd have the gold." Not only is that irrelevant, it's also untrue. I did a little experiment wondering if Russia had the opportunity to take the higher scores between prelims and finals for each routine, if they could beat the USA's performances today. The numbers that are crossed out are Team Finals results replaced by qualifying scores.

Vault-

Komova- 15.833

Mustafina- 15.225

Paseka - 15.3  15.533

Bars- 

Grishina - 14.7 

Komova - 15.766  15.833

Mustafina - 15.7

Beam- 

Komova - 15.033  15.266

Mustafina - 14.533  14.7

Afan - 14.833 15.066

Floor - 

Grishina - 12.466 14.066

Mustafina - 14.8

Afan - 14.333  14.833

Russian Olympic High Score Total : 181.555

USA's Actual Team Total : 183.596

The bottom line is, it doesn't matter. The USA simply out performed Russia in both Prelims and Finals. Grishina & Afan's Floor Mistakes, Paseka's step on vault, as well as Komova and Mustafina's beam struggles were all frankly irrelevant. It wouldn't have mattered. It was the USA's competition to lose and they didn't budge. 

It was an exciting event and until Grishina's floor mishaps, I wondered if the USA would falter and Russia would prevail. The pressure was on the USA's shoulders and they rose to the occasion.  

Pictures all property of ESPN.

The Olympic Babe Page

I'm starting to see "Hot Babes of the Olympic" type posts pop up here and there (not to mention my own feeble attempts , so I though I'd start a page to celebrate and direct you all to notable ladies of the 2012 Olympiad.  I'll update this page as I find things, so come back often.

First up, from Paraguay, the noted spear chucker (and model) , Leryn Franco.  More photos here:

Next, Australian Pole Vaulter, Melanie Adams:

U.S. Women's Volleyball Jen Kessey:

Isabelle Gulden, Sweden, Handball:

Jacque Carvalho, Brazil Volleyball:

Wizbang's Olympic Babe du jour, Logan Tom, USA Beach Volleyball:

Another Wizbang Girl, Darya Klishina, Russian Long Jumper

Olympic athletes tattoos; warning, some of these are male!  Anastasia Davydova, gold medal winning synchronized swimmer:

Jewish American Princess Aly Raisman brings home the gold, and incurs a $10,000 debt to the IRS to the strains of 'Hava Nagila':

Wizbang's Girl du jour is Staphanie Rice, the swimmer from Australia:

Wizbang's Olympic babe for 8/2/12 Emilia Pikkarainen, swimmer from Finland:

While not exactly the height of babedom, the Chinese Badminton pair, Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, 2012 World Champions,  made the news by being disqualified for throwing a match to better their position later in the tournement:

Similarly Korean pairs Kyung Jung and Ha Na Kim:

and Jung Eun Ha and her partner Min Jung Kim

and Indonesian couple Meiliana Jauhari and Gresia Polii were also tossed:

I blame whoever made the rules that allowed throwing games to be potentially advantageous.

Rebecca Soni incurred a debt of almost $10,000 to the US government, by winning the Gold Medal in the 200 meter breaststroke (and setting a new world record).  But she couldn't have done it without Obama's stimulus spending, so she owes it to him.

Gold Medal winning Chinese diver Wu Minxia (now there's a name to conjure with), won the gold, and was then told that her grandparents had died the year previous, and her mother was being treated for breast cancer.  No personal distractions allowed in the the Chinese program:

Wizbang add Jennifer Ennis, British track and field start to their collection:

Urska Zolnir (top) from Slovenia beat China's Xu Lili (bottom) to win the Gold in Judo.  She's not that cute, but I thought if I didn't include her, she might hurt me...

Wizbang's Olympic Babe of the Day is Ivet Lolova, Bulgarian sprinter.

Playing now in the Beach Volley Ball Quarterfinal, Sara Goller, for Germany:

Wizbang's Olympic Chick of Yesterday was Christine Sonali Merril, Track and Field, Sri Lanka.

and their babe of today was Lolo (Lori) Jones, US track and Field.

Rule 5 Sunday done come on Sunday this week at the Other McCain, with "Every Rose Has It's Thorn."

Twas the night before finals...

Twas the night before finals and all through the net, 

The gymnernet waited and started to fret.

Filled with excitement, knowing drama's ahead, 

Visions of Amanars, danced through my head.  

While lying awake, I started to think, 

What will they wear? Will the leos be pink?

Will Jordyn stay strong? And with Gabby on beam, 

Can the USA Women fulfill such a dream?

To win the team gold, it will sure be a fight, 

with the USA's lead just ever so slight,
Russia could overcome with their fabulous bars,
Either team could win big and become the new stars.

When thinking of this, I started to shake,
and decided to stop and just take a quick break,
So to twitter I headed and started to read,
and quickly found bitching about Aly's lead.

"She sucks", one girl wrote, "Ew, her toes!" another read,
 And yet still a few more were just tweeting with dread,
about Marta's choices, the rules and results,
a few more went on and sent Douglas insults.

As I kept reading tweets, I just had to yell "FUCK!"
Can you not just be funny and make jokes like Buck?
It's okay to be funny, without being a dick,
But to hate on sweet Gabby? You're just fucking sick.

As I read and I read I became more enraged,
With the BS on twitter, the girls are upstaged!
This is the Olympics! It's about the sport!
We shouldn't be hating, we should give support.

It's McKayla, Gabby, Kyla, Aly & Jo,
These girls are so fierce even with a bad toe.
While the placements have changed these girls still are on top,
We don't know if they'll stay there, or whether they'll flop.

We'll find out tomorrow, when finals begins,
 which countries will fail or will earn their first wins,
I can't believe that tomorrow the day will arrive,
when I'll get to cheer for my favorite Fierce 5.

Women's Qualifying - A Closer Look

Yesterday the women kicked off their Olympic experiences with an, all things considered, fairly uneventful day. The four top teams finished in their expected positions with the exception of Romania who seemed to have some uncharacteristic struggles. Romanian proclaimed "Future Olympic All Around Champion" Larisa Iordache was expected to be left out of the All Around due to plantar fasciitis but was thrown back in after a shitload of tape on her foot supposedly alleviated the issues. Apparently the tape didn't work its magic  as Larisa qualified 9th in the All Around and failed to qualify for any event finals. Her teammate Catalina Ponor, the 2004 Balance Beam & Floor Exercise Olympic Champion, had some issues as well, bobbling significantly on beam and balking a tumbling pass on floor, although her scores were still high enough to qualify her for the event finals on both apparatuses. China just had a really shitty day, lead by the mistakes of 2011 World All Around Bronze Medalist Yao Jinnan who fell on three of her four events. 

Japan & Canada both placed surprisingly well although Canada struggled with falls throughout the day. Regardless, they qualified the women for their first team final in Olympic History. Great Britain also seemed to rise to the pressure of competing on home turf rather than crumbling. Italy, who didn't qualify to team finals in 2011 yet placed 1st at the test event qualified to the team finals as well. 

Russia and the USA will be the two major contenders for the Gold Medal with each team lead by 3 strong all arounders. Russia seems to be closing the USA's difficulty gap with upgraded vaults. Historically this quadrennium, the USA's had an advantage on vault that Russia had the potential to overcome with their Uneven Bar scores. While each team gets stronger on every event, the winner may come down to small performance errors. 

Of course, the media portrayed the biggest story of the day as Jordyn Wieber's failure to qualify for the All Around Finals. I feel like people are making it a lot less cut and dry than it really is. It's been the rule since 1976 that a set number of gymnasts from each country are allowed into each final. (The number was 3 until 2004, now it's 2). You'd have thought that someone had murdered Jordyn Wieber with the way that people were talking. Phrases like "horrific" and "something she'll spend years coming to terms with" are the way that I hear violent attacks described. In reality, Jordyn was simply met with the same fate that many expected Aly Raisman to be faced with. People tend to forget that every member of the 2011 World's team would have qualified without the "2 per country rule" and that Gabby Douglas qualified just 1 place lower than where Wieber sits currently. Where were the cries of outrage then? I understand that Jordyn is the reigning World Champion and my heart goes out to her, but to be frank, I worry that the outrage is more about being bummed that a "favorite" is out than wanting actual "fairness" within the sport. 

People keep saying "The Olympics is supposed to be the best gymnasts in the world competing." Is it? If that were true, the IOC wouldn't have 2 Egyptian gymnasts competing rather than extra gymnasts from the USA, Russia, Romania & China. Certainly had Alicia Sacramone made the team, she'd be in Vault finals. Fifteen American Seniors scored higher than the 54.232 needed to qualify for this year's Olympic All Around Finals this season. Some of those girls didn't even qualify for the US Olympic Trials such as Amanda Jetter, Brianna Brown, Mykayla Skinner and Abigail Milliet. It's just a fact that the Olympics are NOT simply the best in the world competing. Although many of the gymnasts are the strongest, the entire field is never present for every competition as there are injuries, politics, age limits and limits on team size which prevent that.

It's not just gymnastics. A competitive swimmer recently told me on Twitter that her freestyle times were faster than numerous Olympians. Yet, she wasn't even close to qualifying for her country's team due to its dominance within the sport of swimming. If the Olympics were just for "the best of the best", the USA would have 20 female artistic gymnasts and no rhythmic gymnasts. (Yet we seem to be celebrating Julie Zetlin's inclusion by the IOC.) I suppose It's important to ask ourselves what the reaction would be if Aly were the gymnast left off the All Around roster.   

All in all, it's sure to be an interesting final. In my opinion, if the USA hits it will be difficult for Russia to catch them, but it's important to remember : This is gymnastics; anything can happen. 

Pictures property of Grace Chui (1&2), NBC Sports (3) & Sports Girls Play (4)