I’ve seen a lot of photos of the olympic flame over these last 11 days, but none as interesting as this one.  I thought I’d share:

This is a very funny video that was brought to my attention, and I thought that I’d share it. Click the video below to be directed to the bbc website.

John Gall — Baseball: USA vs. Chinese Taipei [4 a.m. MSNBC Mult. Sports Coverage]

Matt Gentry — Wrestling: (Freestyle) 74 kg Qualifications [6:30 p.m. MSNBC Mult. Sports Coverage (8/20)]

Go Card!

All of these gymnastics competitions have brought back many memories of Kerri Strug’s memorable vault during the women’s team competition during the 1996 olympics in Atlanta.  And something that I didn’t realize was the Kerri is a Stanford alum.  Gymnasts usually compete in the olympics in the teens, and therefore, well before they go to college.  Thus, Strug attended Stanford after her amazing performance in the olympics.  She graduated in 2001.

In case you don’t remember, a video of the vault is below:

I can’t believe we’re already at Day 10 of the Olympics.  This is going by much too fast!

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John Gall — Baseball: USA vs. China [4 a.m. MSNBC Mult. Sports Coverage]

Gabe Gardner and Kevin Hansen — Volleyball (M): USA vs. Japan [7 a.m. NBC Part of Daytime Coverage]

Two more Stanford Athletes earned a gold medal today while rowing.  Adam Kreek won a gold medal with the Canadian Men’s Rowing Eight, and Elle Logan won the gold medal with the USA team in the women’s Rowing eight.

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Here is a picture of Adam’s Gold-medal-winning rowing team:

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Also on the water today was Lindsay Meyer who will be starting her freshman year at Stanford this fall.  According to NBC’s broadcast, she deferred starting at Stanford for one year because she was told that she had a chance of competing in the olympics.  This goal of competing in beijing did come true, but unfortunately, she was unable to bring home a medal.

1 gold!

1 silver!

3 bronze!

Ben Wildman-Tobriner earned the gold medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.  Julia Smit earned a silver medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, and she also won a bronze medal in the 4×200-meter relay.  In addition Bob and Mike Bryan both won a bronze medal in men’s doubles tennis.  Go Card!

The women’s basketball game today between the USA and New Zealand will determine if you are a bigger USA fan or a bigger Stanford fan because both of the Stanford athletes participating, Clare and Jillian, are both playing for the NZ team.

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Clare Bodensteiner and Jillian Harmon — Basketball (W): New Zealand vs. USA [7:15 a.m. NBC Part of Daytime Coverage]

Lauren Lappin and Jessica Mendoza — Softball: USA vs. Netherlands [4:30 a.m. MSNBC (LIVE) Live Game Coverage]

Lauren Lappin and Jessica Mendoza — Softball: USA vs. China [9 p.m. CNBC (LIVE) Live Game Coverage]

Tony Azevedo, Layne Beaubien, Peter Hudnut, and Peter Varellas — Water Polo (M): USA vs. Germany [11 p.m. USA Mult. Sports Coverage]

Today is going to be a relatively quiet day for Stanford athletes in the olympics…

Ogonna Nnamani and Logan Tom — Volleyball (W): USA vs. Poland {9:30 p.m. NBC Part of Daytime Coverage (8/17)]

Ara Abrahamian literally throws away his bronze medal after receiving it in protest of the officiating during his semifinal round.  Was this statement that he’s trying to make worth it?  I would argue probably not; however, I’m far from a wrestling expert and thus don’t really understand how outrageous the officiating was.

On the one hand, you can see that by him doing this action, all of a sudden, the officiating is brought into question a lot more than it would have been otherwise.  Also, here I am blogging about it when I probably wouldn’t even know who he was or much about the incident at all if he held on to his bronze medal.  That said, I enjoyed playing amateur sports, and we were always reminded that an official should not be able to decide the game.  There will be those days when it seems like no calls are going your way, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you can blame the officials for your loss.  The greater team or athlete will be able to raise above most calls made by officials and decide the outcome of the event for themselves.