2008 Olympics: Bits and Pieces

After the fabulous opening ceremonies of the 08.08.08 Beijing Olympics (I’d like to describe it more but I guess all will agree that it was just really fantastic!!!), we head on to the more exciting part, the main plot of this grand event, the competition proper. Based on my previous post here, we’d take on some of the developments in the Olympics as of the date of this writing.

Here we go…

Team USA Men’s Basketball: First assignment is the host China. The formidable trio of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade against the towering Chinese headed by Yao Ming, Yi Jian lian and the veteran Wang Zhizhi.The result, USA winning by a whopping 31 points. King James and Dwayne Wade spearheaded the assault. Team USA is on the right track on their quest for redemption of glory. Here is the result of their game played last Sunday.

Bits and pieces: The basketball stadium where the game was held was jam packed with roaring fans. What’s worth noting here is that, the crowd, mostly Chinese, cheered on both sides. Team USA may have found a second home court, and this may prove to be crucial in their quest for Olympic gold. Yao Ming had his usual game, leading the Chinese, but this maybe the last time that we see Yao play in the Olympics.

Argentina, which we earlier predicted to be a spoiler, lost their first game against Lithuania. The strong contender for the finals, World Champions Spain, defeated another contender, the Greek team on their encounter.

Based on the total points registered by all teams that played on their first assignments, we have generated a graph here. Winners are marked.

Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal: Both won their first assignments in the singles and doubles event. Nadal faced Potito Starace of Italy and cruised to a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory. Federer on the other hand beat Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2. On the doubles event, the Swiss team of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka beat the Italian duo of Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi of Italy, 7-5, 6-1. Rafael Nadal on the other hand paired with Tommy Robredo for the Spanish team beating the Swedish team of Jonas Bjorkman and Robind Soderling, 6-3, 6-3.

Bits and pieces: Both Federer and Nadal are trying to win their first Olympic medal at this year’s Beijing Olympics. One of the spectators in R-Fed’s win in his singles match up was LeBron James, who congratulated the former after his win. Talk about two superstars hanging around.

Michael Phelps: You bet, yes, he is definitely on track. First was the 400m individual medley (he just set a new world record!), next was the 400m freestyle relay. Thanks to a historic comeback by teammate Jason Lezak who raced against a French swimmer in the final 25 meters to give the gold to Team USA. And yes, it is two for two for the great Michael Phelps.

Bits and pieces: I just heard the news; Michael Phelps just won the 200m freestyle. There goes gold number 3…

Overall medal standings: China is atop as of this writing. USA is closely behind, and Russia is still among the top 5. Still too early to tell…

~ by licruz on August 12, 2008.