Another Exciting Day at the Olympics

Close to a billion people watched the basketball game between the United States in China, a game that the United States ended up winning easily, 101-70. That makes it one of the most widely-watched basketball games of all time. For comparison, just under 20 million people watched this year's NCAA national championship game in the United States.

The United States broke the world record in the men's 4x100 freestyle relay--in the prelims. However, even though they replaced their three slowest swimmers with three of the world's fastest 100m freestylers, including Michael Phelps, the French team, seeded second in the finals, was the overwhelming favorite to win. And indeed, despite a fast start by the Australians (and Phelps setting the American record in the 100m freestyle to lead things off), the French opened a wide lead over the Americans. Jason Lezak dove in about a body length behind the world record holder, Alain Bernard. With 25 meters to go, it looked as if the French would win it. And then came Lezak: he started inching closer to Bernard, came up right next to him right at the wall, and outtouched him by 8 hundredths of a second for the gold medal. Phelps now is a part of two out of the three American gold medals.

More tomorrow: my last full day in the States!

Olympics: 100m butterfly prelims

Can I just say right now how much I hate NBC? They advertise that they're broadcasting thousands of hours of the Olympics online. Which is great, right? Except that doesn't include swimming, because they'll show the prelims delayed this afternoon. At least they'll show them live tonight. However, if you want to see badminton, cycling, or equestrian, you're all set.

Thus, I dutifully got up this morning to see Elaine's swim online at about 7am this morning. No live feed. The best I got was the results of the heats. She managed to place 6th in the field of 49 with a time of 56:06, easily getting her to the semifinals. Jessicah Schipper of Australia won the heat with a time that is almost a half second faster than Elaine's. She's definitely the favorite to win gold in Beijing in this event.

She'll swim again tonight (well, in Beijing it'll be tomorrow morning), at a little after 10pm Eastern time. The swimming event starts at 10, and Michael Phelps will start his quest for 8 gold medals first, with the finals of the 400m IM (which he set an Olympic record in this morning). Elaine will probably swim in the second race of the evening, in heat 1 of the semifinals in lane 3.

Edit: Elaine will indeed be in heat 1 in lane 3, right next to fellow American Christine Magnuson in lane 4. Expect it to be at about 10:10 EDT.

The final weekend of Olympic Trials

Well, here are a few notes regarding the Olympic Trials. First, if you've missed it all week, it's going to be shown live tonight on NBC from 5pm to 6pm (Track and Field) and from 8pm to 9pm (Swimming). Tonight will feature the finals of the men's 50m freestyle, the finals of the men's 100m butterfly (Michael Phelps' last race of the trials), the semifinals of the women's 50m freestyle, the finals of the women's 200m backstroke and the finals of the women's 800 freestyle.

Last night was quite a spectacle at Trials. Michael Phelps set the world record in the finals of the men's 200m IM, with Ryan Lochte swimming a close second less than a half hour after getting out-touched at the wall by Aaron Piersol in the 200m backstroke. "Out-touched" is perhaps a misnomer, since Piersol beat Lochte by 0.02 seconds. Piersol tied the world record in that event--the world record also held by Ryan Lochte. Dara Torres took second place in the women's 100m freestyle. It will be her fifth Olympics, which is incredible to begin with. However, it's even more incredible when you consider that she's skipped two Olympics since her first Olympics in 1984 (the 1996 games in Atlanta and the 2004 games in Athens). She is 41 years old (with a 2-year-old daughter as well). The word "supermom" takes a whole new meaning.

It's been a fantastic week watching the Olympic Trials (especially for me!), and it looks like the United States will bring a very strong contingent of athletes to Beijing in swimming, led by the versatile swimmers Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Katie Hoff, and Natalie Coughlin.

In other (non-Olympic) sports news, the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, met in the ladies' finals of Wimbledon, with Venus winning the first two sets to claim the match and her fifth win at Wimbledon. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play tomorrow for the gentlemen's title. Also, the Tour de France starts today.

Anyway, I may have one more post about Olympic Trials, but in the next month before the Olympics start, I'll try to keep this blog updated with interesting tidbits about the Olympics, Beijing, and the United States Olympic Team.

UPDATE Tyson Gay, the defending world champion in the 200m dash, will not be going to Beijing in that event. He went down running in the quarterfinals of that event after suffering what looks to be a severe cramp. He has already qualified in the 100m dash, but the severity of the injury is not known, and it's possible he might not make it to Beijing. However, at this point, that doesn't look likely.

Day 5 at the Olympic Trials

Well, tonight is the fifth night of the Olympic trials, and the night that Elaine will try to secure her second spot on the United States Olympic team. Standing in her way will be Mary Descensa, Kathleen Hersey, and Kim Vandenburg, all very capable swimmers. I'll be updating this blog throughout the evening, so stay tuned. Elaine's event will be broadcast live on USA, or you can watch it online. This link will have the video posted at 8pm eastern.

As a recap, earlier today Michael Phelps placed second overall in the prelims of the 200 IM, an event that he holds the world record in. Rebecca Soni recorded the top time in the 200m breastroke, and 3-time Olympian Amanda Beard placed third. The semifinals for both events will be tonight, and the finals tomorrow night. The finals for the 100m freestyle will also be tonight, as will the finals for the men's 200m breastroke, featuring Brendan Hansen, who will try to take back Kosuke Kitajima's month-old world record. In any case, tonight should be a good night for swimming!

UPDATE Congratulations to Elaine Breeden!! She won the 200m butterfly, and will be heading to Beijing in three events--both the 100m and 200m butterfly as well as the 4x100 medley relay. In other updates, Lochte and Piersol look to be going strong for the 200 backstroke tomorrow night. Lochte is also going against Phelps in the 200 IM, both of whom easily won their semifinal heats. Cullen Jones, the first African-American to hold a world record, qualified for the 4x100 freestyle relay. Dara Torres moved to the finals with one of the top times in the 100m freestyle with her old school underwater technique. The shocker of the night was Brendan Hansen, the world record holder a month ago in the 200m breastroke, missing out on the Olympics in that event. Assuredly, the Japanese are celebrating, as Hansen is the biggest threat to Kitajima bringing home gold in the 200m breaststroke.

In any case, it looks like we've got a swimming schedule chock full of great events, from the semifinals of the men's 200m IM, the finals of the men's 100m freestyle, the finals of the women's 200m butterfly, and the 4x200 women's freestyle relay. It looks like it'll be a great trip!!!

Day 4 of the Olympic Trials

Well, we've seen a solid start to the morning prelims in Omaha. In the men's 100m freestyle, one of the toughest events of the competition, Jason Lezak set the American record in his heat. Garrett Weber-Gale followed in the next heat by resetting the American record. In the next and final heat, Michael Phelps was 0.14 seconds away from Weber-Gale's record. Quite a start! Phelps' coach said that he won't be swimming in the semifinals tonight in order to focus on the finals of the 200m butterfly.

The next race, the prelims of the women's 200m butterfly, saw a very fast set of results, as the cutoff for the semifinals was at 2:12:58. Elaine Breeden had the fastest time of the field with 2:07:72, besting Tanya Chrisman's second place time by a full 1.26 seconds. To view the prelims of future events, go here. Tonight the semifinals of this event will be broadcast simultaneously on USA and online. I'll try to post the link to the live video feed as soon as it's up. In addition to finals in the men's 200 butterfly, the semifinals of the women's 200 butterfly, Brendan Hansen will swim in the semifinals of the 200 breastroke, with the finals Thursday night.

UPDATE This page should have a link to the live video of the Olympic Trials, starting at 8pm eastern.

UPDATE 2 This page takes you straight to the video feed from Omaha. Go Elaine!

UPDATE 3 Elaine Breeden lowered the personal best she set this morning by recording a 2:07:33 in the second semifinal of the 200m butterfly. She'll take the top seed in tomorrow evening's final. Congrats, Elaine, and good luck tomorrow night!!

Congratulations to Elaine Breeden!!!

As a recap of the race, which you can watch here¹, the winner of the 100m butterfly in the 2004 Olympic trials, Rachel Komisarz, jumped out to an early lead out of the start. The favorite, Christine Magnuson, recent graduate of Tennessee, caught up with her and made it a two person race for most of the race. Coming out of the turn from the 50, Elaine Breeden (pictured) was fighting for fouth place. As the swimmers made it to the 75 meter mark, the field was tightening up, and as they went under the flags, it looked like Rachel and Christine were going to punch their tickets to Beijing. However, as the swimmers came into the wall, Elaine pulled enough to reach the wall 0.16 seconds ahead of Komisarz to place second behind Magnuson.

Congratulations to Elaine (and Christine) for making their first Olympics with this event, and we'll be looking forward to seeing her in China. As a note, we won't be in China during the 100m butterfly (the finals which will be shown here in the US on NBC during prime time on Sunday, August 10). Anyway, I'll keep you posted on more happenings at trials throughout the rest of the week.


1. note: works best with Safari over Firefox 3. It requires the installation of Microsoft Silverlight software to work.

Trials Update

Wow...lots of news to cover. First off, the finals are set for the 100m butterfly, and I couldn't be happier with the way it's turned out! In addition, two world records were set at the trials, both in the 400m IM. One was in the men's set by none other than Michael Phelps, and the other in the women's by 19-year-old Katie Hoff. Brendan Hansen blazed through the semifinals of the 100m breastroke, recording the second fastest time ever swum in that event. Kudos to him for that effort.

On the track and field side of things, there were several upsets at the trials, which may turn out to be detrimental to American medal chances. Jeremy Wariner easily won his quarterfinal event in the 400m dash (an event that is an American powerhouse, and perhaps the most likely event for the Americans to go 1-2-3, as they did in 2004. As an aside, I'd really like to see an event where the Americans sweep the medals, and watch as the three American flags rise with "The Star Spangled Banner" playing).

However, the news of the day was Lexington native Tyson Gay, who ran the 100m dash in 9.68 seconds. The 4.1 m/s tailwind denied him the world record (which is 9.72 seconds, set this year by Usain Bolt), but no man has ever run the 100m dash that fast, even with a tailwind. He will be heading to the Olympics as America's best hope to capture gold against the two Jamaicans, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.

Anyway, the finals for the 100m butterfly are on tomorrow night on USA, NBC's cable affiliate, from 8pm to 9pm live from Omaha. Brendan Hansen will also be competing to cement his spot on the Olympic team in the 100m breastroke, an event where he owns the world record. Michael Phelps does not have any finals tomorrow, but he does have two prelims and two semifinals (the 200 freestyle and the 100 back). The finals for those events will be on Tuesday.

I'll probably have daily updates on trials, and when we get past trials in the time right before the Olympics, I'll post a couple blogs on the Speedo LZR that's been in the news, a bit of Olympic history, and a preview of China and Beijing.

Olympic Trials

Today is Day 1 of the Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska. I'll post updates when finals results come in, but here are just a couple websites for those of you who want to keep track of the trials. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday(s), the evening events will be shown on NBC. During the week, the evening events will be shown on USA. The morning events will all be broadcast live online here.(the feed had issues with Firefox 3, but on Safari it worked fine). If you want to see the results, go here.

The events I'm paying special attention to are the women's 100m and 200m butterfly, men's 200m breaststroke, women's 100m freestyle, men's 200m backstroke, men's 100m freestyle, women's 200m breastroke, and men's 200m IM (the events that my friend is going in, as well as the events we'll be seeing at the Olympics).

I'll post results later on.