China, US medal competition heats up
Wednesday, 13th August 2008 ~ Chris ~ Link ~ Comments (2)
As of 10:00 pm Beijing time, China was leading the gold medal count with 17, seven more than the US. Team USA was leading in terms of total medals, with 29 compared to China's 27. South Korea was in a distant third with six gold medals and 13 total medals.
China wins first-ever gold in men's fencing
25-year-old Zhong Man (仲满) defeated Nicolas Lopez of France 15-9 late Tuesday, becoming the first Chinese man to win Olympic fencing gold. Romanian Mihai Cavaliu took home the bronze.
Zhong's unexpected gold was the first gold in fencing in 24 years for China. Luan Jujie, who competed for Canada earlier in this Olympics, won China's first fencing gold in the 1984 Los Angeles games, becoming a national hero.
Chinese weightlifters win fifth, sixth gold medals
Hubei native Liao Hui (廖辉) won the men's weightlifting 69 kilogram division on Tuesday night, giving China its fifth gold medal in five weightlifting events. Liao lifted 348 kilograms – 10 more than silver medalist Vencelas Dabaya-Tientcheu of France. Armenian Tigran Martirosyan won the bronze.
On Wednesday, Liao's teammate Liu Hongchun (刘春红) stole the show in the women's 69 kilogram category, setting records in the snatch (128 kilograms), clean and jerk (158 kilograms) and total lift (286 kilograms).
The Shandong native and defending Olympic champion beat former snatch and clean and jerk record holder, Russian Oxana Slivenko, who earned silver lifting a total of 255 kilograms. Ukrainian Natalya Davydova lifted a total of 250 kilograms to win the bronze.
Chinese women gymnasts beat US team for gold
Going into the final floor event in women's gymnastics team competition on Wednesday, China led Team USA by a slim margin of 143.10 to 142.09. With everything on the line, the Chinese team put in three solid performances while Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin and Alicia Sacramone all stepped out of bounds, giving China an opportunity to run away with the gold, which it did.
For Chinese gymnasts Cheng Fei (程菲), Deng Linlin (邓琳琳), He Kexin (何可欣), Jiang Yuyuan (江钰源), Li Shanshan (李珊珊) and Yang Yilin (杨伊琳), the win avenged the stinging loss of the world team gymnastics championship to the US last year.
The competition was marred not only by lackluster performances by the Americans in the floor event, but also by accusations that the Chinese were fielding an illegally young team and of sloppy officiating.
Olympic rules state that gymnasts must be 16 or turning 16 in the same year of the games in which they compete. China's Deng, He, Li and Yang are all officially listed as being 16. US women's team director Martha Karolyi claimed that she could see a missing tooth in one of the girls' mouths, suggesting that her permanent teeth had yet to come in.
Karolyi also expressed suspicion about a two-minute delay before Alicia Sacramone's beam performance, during which Sacramone fell off the beam. Asked whether she thought the delay was a ploy to throw off Sacramone's concentration, Karolyi responded, "Well, it could be."
China's continues diving dominance
China won its fourth gold medal in synchronized diving competition this Olympics on Wednesday, this time in the men's synchronized 3 meter springboard. Divers Wang Feng (王峰) and Qin Kai (秦凯) edged out Russia's Dmitry Sautin and Yuriy Kunakov 469.08 points to 421.98. Illya Kvasha and Oleksiy Prygorov won bronze medals with a total of 415.05 points.
Shooter ties Olympic record
China won a gold medal for the third time during the Beijing games on Wednesday, with Chen Ying (陈颖) coming from behind to defeat Mongolia's Gundegmaa Otryad. Chen's final score of 590 points tied the existing Olympic record. Former Mongolian shooter Dorjsuren Munkhbayar, now competing for the German team, took bronze.
Images: china.org.cn
Tags: Chen Ying, Cheng Fei, Deng Linlin, He Kexin, Jiang Yuyuan, Li Shanshan, Liao Hui, Liu Hongchun, Luan Jujie, Olympics, Yang Yilin, Zhong Man
A day at the Olympics: Tennis, water polo and beach volleyball
Wednesday, 13th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
The Olympics is a couple dozen world-class sporting events rolled into one. Here's my report on a day spent soaking up as much of it as possible.8:30 a.m. I run into an old water polo teammate on the Line 10 subway. She has an extra ticket for the afternoon session, which she gives to me. This might be my only chance to see water polo, one of my favorite sports.
9:50 a.m. Get off the subway at the supposed Line 8 transfer point. We follow signs for Line 8 that actually lead us to a security line to get into the Olympic Green—does Line 8 actually exist?
We get in the security line and a volunteer who noticed our tickets pulls us out to tell us that we need to take a bus to get to the tennis.
10:10 a.m. We arrive at the tennis venue, after a ride past the Water Cube and Bird's Nest. I noticed some sponsors' tents, looking a little empty. I've heard that sponsors are a little miffed that only ticket holders are allowed into the Olympic Green (a huge area containing eight venues). They were hoping for more foot traffic.
Zheng Jie in the second round of women's tennis singles
10:30 a.m. Peng Shuai's match with Alize Cornet of France begins at Center Court. Peng is not playing great, and loses 6-2, 6-2. But luckily our tickets give us access to all of the venue's courts, so more tennis awaits.
1:00 p.m. We move from Center Court to No. 1 Court, where Zheng Jie is playing Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain. It's the best tennis match that I have ever seen live, with beautiful shots from both players, great effort to chase down balls and at least one deuce in almost every set. The crowd is enthusiastic, maybe a little too much so. Despite regular requests from officials, they never really get the message that tennis culture calls for quiet while each point is being played. With a great boost from the home crowd, the under-rated Zheng wins in three sets that take more than three hours to play.
4:00 p.m. I head to the Olympic bus depot hoping to find an easy shuttle ride to the water polo venue. None of the volunteers seem to know how to get there, so I make my best guess and hop on the bus line 5. It gets me there slowly, and I still have a pretty good walk from the bus to Ying Tung Natatorium.
4:40 p.m. I arrive at the water polo in time to see the second half of play between two of the world's best men's teams, Serbia and Croatia. Croatia wins, 11-8.
China men's water polo lost to Germany, 6-5
5:00 p.m. I watch a surprisingly good Chinese men's team play Germany in the last water polo game of the afternoon. Water polo is new to China, but its teams are improving fast. China's goalie plays great, but the team seems exhausted in the last quarter. China loses, 6-5.
6:45 p.m. I arrive, via subway and taxi, at the beach volleyball venue in Chaoyang Park. It's beautiful from the outside and rockin' on the inside. In addition to the great athleticism on display, the crowd is going nuts over the blaring party music and the bikini-clad dancers who entertain twice for every match played. Beers for 5 RMB do their part to add to the party atmosphere. We get to see a total of six matches, lasting until midnight and including the Chinese duo of Zhang Xi (张希) and Xue Chen (薛晨), who defeat their German opponents.
10:30 I have my second random collision with a friend who doesn't live in China. Charley Walters, a friend from college, has flown in from Los Angeles to watch the games. He has been to the last five Olympics and is blogging about his trip at Olympics or Bust. Just how much of a party is the beach volleyball tournament? Check out his video below.
12:00 a.m. I go home exhausted after three events in three venues, with four competitions featuring Chinese athletes.
Tags: beach volleyball, Beijing Olympics, tennis, water polo, Xue Chen, Zhang Xi, Zheng Jie, 张希, 薛晨
Michael Phelps' marketing in Chinese
Wednesday, 13th August 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)
Swimmer Michael Phelps is doing his best to make sure that Chinese fans have access to information about him. He had his personal Web site, Michaelphelps.com, built in just two languages—English and simplified Chinese.Phelps, four gold medals into his attempt to win an unprecedented 8 Olympic swimming titles in Beijing, is a hot topic in China right now and it looks like his efforts to keep it that way extend beyond the pool. Smart man.
Tags: Beijing Olympics, marketing, Michael Phelps, olympics, swimming