Not saying that my Leith friends lack culture or understand the finer points of equestrian achievement but one has just posted on F'book "See Germany won the gold medal for horse dancing, doubt the horse is even German"
Women's Football with a couple of nasty quotes from American goalkeeper Hope Solo: "United States goalkeeper Hope Solo says her side were knocked out by a "bunch of cowards" after losing to Sweden on penalties in the Olympic quarter-final. It is the first time the defending champions have failed to reach the semi-finals of a major tournament. The game finished 1-1, before the USA's Christen Press missed a vital fifth effort in the shootout allowing Lisa Dahlkvist to win it for the Swedes. "The best team did not win today," said Solo, who has won more than 200 caps." Hope Solo, the antichrist of Olympic sport. Americans can be sore losers occasionally. Good to see Michael Phelps swim straight over to give the young Singapore lad a pat on the back after the latter's shock win in the Men's 100m Butterfly Final. That's more like it! Singapore's first ever Gold, fantastic ! Vis-à-vis Hope Solo, here's an interesting article from Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post 12/08/2016: RIO DE JANEIRO — It’s called composure, and Hope Solo’s never been overburdened with a lot of that, or grace either. The U.S. women’s soccer team had their temperaments tested by a savvy, conservative Sweden in the Olympic quarterfinals and lost. Solo has spent years undermining their collective equilibrium, and this one’s on her. She’s a chronically rattled and rattling soul, the American goalkeeper. Let’s face it: For every shiny marketing moment and big victory she’s been a part of, she’s given the U.S. a nasty unwanted drama. The victories usually smoothed over her behavior. Not this time. This time she went pure loser and lout. After giving up the winning penalty kick to Sweden, Solo called her opponents "a bunch of cowards" for their conservative game plan. Now, who is the real coward here? Solo gave up three regulation goals in the past two games, between a draw with Colombia and this loss. She tried to ice Lisa Dahlkvist on the final kick by changing her gloves, and then couldn’t lay a hand on the ball. And she couldn’t take responsibility for any of it; she could only lash out. "What she did was an act of panic," Sweden’s goalie Hedvig Lindahl said later, giving a little of it back to Solo. Sweden’s calculatedly frustrating game plan worked because the designer of that plan, Pia Sundhage, knew exactly whom she was dealing with, having coached the U.S. from 2008 to 2012. Told of Solo’s remarks in the postgame mixed zone, Sundhage said, "I don’t give a crap. I’m going to Rio, and she’s going home." Solo’s sore, hot-head remarks were personally aimed at Sundhage, who has made it clear just how much she had to put up with in Solo as the U.S. coach. There was always some trouble following Solo, stemming either from her irradiated blot-out-the-sun ego, or her temper. Just before Sundhage’s arrival, Solo divided the 2007 World Cup team with a public tantrum over a benching. The 2012 Olympic gold medal came with an ugly public feud with Brandi Chastain and a positive drug test. After Chastain, now a commentator, mildly criticized the U.S. defense on air, Solo publicly told Chastain to "get more educated," and added that "the game has changed from a decade ago," and that it was too "bad 4 our fans that have 2 push mute." Whatever the disagreement, Chastain played in 192 international games and scored the glorious penalty kick that won the 1999 World Cup, and she didn’t deserve that kind of snottiness from Solo, a player who profited heavily on the success of the program’s underpaid pioneers. Sundhage declined to discipline Solo for that incident. Instead, she tried to talk calmly to her. "We had a conversation: If you look at the women’s national team, what do you want [people] to see? What do you want them to hear?" the coach related to reporters. "And that’s where we do have a choice, as players, coaches, staff, the way we respond to certain things." Lesson unlearned."
Too good to be true? Dunno Sth. It's clearly possible that the win might be the result of some underhanded stuff, but as we can't know for sure, we have to take the win for what it is. If we want to go down the path of pointing the finger of suspicion at great performances, then we cheapen the value of the achievement. To cast a cloud over Ayala's win invites discussion centering around the efforts of other greats like Mo Farah. Where does it end? And it can't be forgotten that every now and then a new Frankel comes along.
Not surprised that the "Shot Put" found her out. She just seems a little too tiny for chucking the cannon ball?
Mahe Drysdale wins the single skills gold, but Damien Martin has exactly the same time and dead heats. The judges reverse their initial decision and give Martin the silver! What an awful decision!! What about the spirit of the Games?? Watch this race and judge for yourself.
With all the recent findings and allegations I think every athlete can be held in some suspicion now. Like you said though, innocent until proven guilty
The man known as the "Lightning Bolt" brings down a roar from the crowd as he moves onto the track. His team are talking him up, and the man himself has stated that he'll run a world record over the 200m. And the crowd goes off as he's announced behind the blocks.
Can Super Saturday happen again for TeamGB?? 2 golds in the bag already - athletics and swimming still to go! Womens team pursuit gold in a new world record For tomorrow already a guaranteed gold and 2 silvers Gosh those cyclists go at some rate on the track http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/37070169
