Olympic Headlines

Phelps is a beast: 6 events, 6 golds, 6 world records. Pure domination. But can he swim faster than Chad Ocho Cinco?

Gym-Nastia is Liukin good: Nastia Liukin had a near flawless all-around final to secure gold. Shawn Johnson came up big when it mattered, scoring 15.025 on the floor to nab the silver by a mere 0.075 points. The real question is, are male gymnasts the gayest straight men in the world, or the straightest gay men?

Newsflash: The US is Hellas good: The US Men's Basketball Team brushed off their first "big" challenge, beating Greece by a score of 92-69. Other scores of note: Yao keeps China's hopes alive, scoring 30 in a 85-68 win over Angola. Spain routs Dirk, 72-59.

Call of the night: Whoever the announcer is on CBC, calling Round 2 of the Men's 100m dash: "And here comes Dix pumping hard!." Dix finished second to Asafa Powell in the heat with a time of 10.08. Video of the event not found.

[edit] Is anyone else excited about the prospect of a Gay-Dix-Bolt heat? How about Bolt-Burns-Gay-Dix?

Add another to your list of hot female Olympians you've never heard of and never will again: Almudena Cid, Leryn Franco, most of the German team, and now Victoria Pendleton. Downside: Despite most of the above not being in contention for a medal, they all could probably still maim you in some way in your quest to lock them in your basement.

No village for USA Basketball

I was talking to my sister yesterday as she returned from a trip to Vancouver, and she discloses that on her flight out, she sat next to none other than Juli Boeheim and her three kids, who were flying out to Beijing.

The conversation went something like this:

Sister: On the flight, we sat next to someone who said that she was the wife of the assistant coach of the Men's Basketball Team, but I don't remember the name.
Me: Well, there are a few assistant coaches. Was she Black or White?
Sister: White.
Me: Judging by the fact that she is sitting in coach class and doesn't have a direct flight to Beijing, it is probably Jim Boeheim's wife. [pulls up a picture of Boeheim and wife]
Sister: Yeah, that's right.

They had a conversation during the flight, in which two things were disclosed.

1. The Olympic committee wouldn't pay for their flight out to Beijing, hence the sitting in coach and stopping in Vancouver. Moreover, they weren't even able to secure tickets to all the basketball games let alone the ceremonies. Can't they arrange that for them?

2. Neither they nor any members of the USA basketball team is living in the Olympic village. Instead, they are staying in a hotel in Beijing. Apparently, in all the years of Boeheim being a national team coach, they have never lived in the Olympic village.

So much for needing those 100,000 condoms.

Team China Olympic Basketball Schedule

I guess the hot thing to do is to list the games for a certain team that your readers might be interested in. Since my main source of traffic is coming from image hits for Team China basketball, I said to myself, "why not?"

I'll give a little preview of each match too, so that you can see how wrong I am.

A lot of people are writing China off as not being able to make it out of a tough Grou B featuring USA, Spain, Germany, and Greece. I say they have their work cut out for them, but that there's always hope. You really only need 2 wins to make it out of the group, which means that China needs to take care of business against Angola, and then steal one from either Germany or Greece.

Game 1 vs. USA, Sunday 8/10, 10 AM EST

In the Pre-Olympic warm ups, we've seen a couple weaknesses for Team USA, mainly efficient, guard-oriented offense (limit turnovers) and a swarming, but not overaggressive team defense to try to force them into isolation plays.

The Chinese team has neither of those, so get ready for a blow out.

Prediction: USA 113 - China 68

Game 2 vs. Spain, Tuesday 8/12, 4:45 AM EST

The Chinese probably have the toughest first two games of any team as they open against the like gold and silver medalists. I'm not sure if the Spanish offense is quite as good as the US one, but I do know that they own a ridiculous defense, which ut on a show during their 85-60 win over fellow international powerhouse Argentina, who seem to be on the decline (In an earlier game this year, the score was a bit closer, 90-88). If Argentina has trouble putting up points against Spain, China is going to have a lot of fun this game.

Prediction: Spain 92 - China 54

Game 3 vs. Angola, Thursday 8/14, 2:30 AM EST

China has to win this game if they want to have any chance at making it out of the group, and they definitely should. They had a solid performance against them during the Diamond Ball tournament, winning by 9 and shooting 59% behind 21 points on 8/10 shooting from Yao Ming.

Prediction: China 85 - Angola 76

Game 4 vs. Germany, Saturday 8/16, 8 AM EST

Germany is a dark horse for a medal in these Olympics, but in my opinion, this is China's best chance for an upset. China matches up almost perfectly against Germany, with Yao neutralizing Kaman and Yi chasing around Dirk. Neither of them really have world-class guards, but could Sun Yue, with his new 2-year contract from the Lakers, be the X-factor in this game? Maybe, if he got some playing time in, as he averaged only 21 minutes in the Diamond Ball Tournament throwing in averages of 4 points, 2.3 rebounds, and less than 1 assist (what a point guard).

Prediction (Upset Special): China 72 - Germany 69

Game 5 vs. Greece, Monday 8/18, 2:30 AM EST

Greece kind of resembles the old guys you find at the Y who play really dirty, push you around, and just jack up threes. They are guard-led and could definitely be a big problem for Team China because of that. China's bigs would destroy Greece's, but the team has historically has had a problem with post-entry passes and if you can't get the ball to your big man, they can't help you. This means that Yi and Sun really need to step up in this game, as they will be the ones who can both handle the ball on the perimeter and keep it away from those pesky Greek guards and fire in a pass to Yao for some punishment. Maybe we'll see a coming out party for Ricky Rubio-esque guard Chen Jianghua also?

Prediction: Greece 84 - China 72

Stompage

Sadly, it's not that a new video of the Oakland A's Elephant has arisen.

This past weekend (Friday included), our very own Boston Red Sox laid the smackdown (two words?) on the hapless Chicago White Sox. The BoSox swept the four-game series, scoring double digit runs in every contest (11-3, 10-1, 14-2, 11-1). ESPN tells me that it's the first time that has happened in a heckuva long time (Not really, St. Louis Browns in 1920 and 1922, Colorado Rockies in 1996.) After this series, the Red Sox are once again looking like the team to beat in the AL (Some people claim that they never lost that title). The White Sox, on the other hand... do not as they now have the second worst record in the majors, better only than the Devil Rays.

On a completely unrelated note, Team USA basketball cruised to an easy 113-76 victory over Brazil tonight. Prior to the tournament, many experts were pegging Brazil, complete with NBA'ers Nene and Leandrhino Barbosa as well as highly touted Spurs draftee Tiago Splitter on the roster, as the one team that could give Team USA a run for their money. Well, that's the end of that school of thought.

Team USA made it out of pool play with a 4-0 record with wins over Venezuela, the US Virgin Islands, Canada, and the aforementioned Brazil. Not only that, they did it in convincing fashion, winning by an average margin of 48.5 points. It looks like this team wants to put aside the disappointing showings in Athens and Japan and turn over a new leaf. I hope this continues, as these games are pretty entertaining, if nothing else.