The 2020 Olympic Finalist Cities

With the 2016 Summer Olympics set to take place in Brazil, the world is about to find out thirty days from now which mayor of what international city will be handed the Antwerp Olympic flag during the closing ceremonies of the Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 21, 2016.. 

The International Olympic Committee will hold its 125th Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on September 7.   One of the items on the agenda in addition to electing the new president of the IOC will be to decide which of three candidate cities will get to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.   

The three finalist cities vying to snag the bid are Tokyo, Madrid, and Istanbul.  They delivered their final presentations to the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 3-4 and will get one final chance to sway the delegates their way at that September 7 meeting in Argentina.

The three host committees along with their national leaders will be nervously watching on that date as the assembled IOC delegates vote to see which candidate city gets an absolute majority of votes and will be signing the coveted 'Host City Contract'  to organize and stage the Games. 

The frontrunner to host the 2020 Games is considered to be Tokyo.  

This is Tokyo's fifth Olympic bid overall and its second consecutive one after being eliminated in the second round of bidding for the 2012 Games.  If this one is successful it would become the fourth city to host the Summer Olympic Games twice. 

Tokyo won the right to host the 1940 Summer Games that were cancelled by World War II.  It bid for the 1960 Games but was eliminated on the first ballot but successfully won the right to host the 1964 Olympic Games, becoming the first Asian city to do so.

The 1972 and 1998 Winter Games were hosted in Sapporo and Nagano in addition to those 1964 Summer Games, so Japan has been there done that when it comes to Olympic hosting experience.   It also hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2006 FIBA men's World Basketball Championships, the 2011 Gymnastics World Championships and the 2019 Rugby World Cup. 

Tokyo also scored highly on the IOC Evaluation Committee reviews and there is enough of a time separation since the Asian-Pacific region last hosted a summer games  (Beijing 2008) to make it a front running candidate along with sentiment in the wake of the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami to bring the Games there.  It is also regarded as a safe and secure city in comparison to its finalist rivals.

The fact the $4.8 billion budgeted for the Games is sitting in the bank along with a compact Olympic venue plan in which the competition venues are within 8km of the Olympic village with the exception of the football prelims are other pluses in their favor.

Soft public support for the Tokyo bid is one negative that people are throwing at it although that support has continued to rise since the London Games concluded.   73% of Tokyo residents and 86% of Japan now support the bid and it has the backing of Tokyo's mayor and the Japanese government.

Controversy erupted when Tokyo 2020 Chairman Naoki Inose made a shady comment interpreted to be about Istanbul's bid when he was quoted as saying, “Well, compare the two countries where they have yet to build infrastructure, very sophisticated facilities. So from time to time, like Brazil, I think it’s good to have a venue for the first time. But Islamic countries, the only thing they share in common is Allah and they are fighting with each other and they have classes.”

Criticizing another candidate city's bid is against IOC rules and Tokyo 2020 quickly went into damage control mode.  In addition to Tokyo 2020's statement reiterating they "have the utmost respect for all candidate cities and have always taken pride in bidding in a spirit based on the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship,” Inose apologized for the comment a few days later.   

How much that comment will affect the IOC votes Tokyo gets in Buenos Aires has yet to be determined since as Chicago painfully found out, ranking very highly on the site evaluations and being considered the frontrunner doesn't necessarily guarantee you'll get the Games, especially in a body as political as the IOC.  

Madrid is attempting its third consecutive bid (and fourth overall) to host the Games.   It lost to Munich in the final round of voting to host the 1972 Games, was knocked out of the third round of voting for the 2012 Games that London eventually beat out Paris for in the final round and lost to Rio de Janeiro in the final round of voting for the 2016 Games.

So Madrid feels it's due.  Madrid like Tokyo also has a compact venue plan with the exception being the sailing events held in Seville and football prelims would be held in various Spanish cities. The bid has national (84%) and citywide (75%) support.   Barcelona hosted the 1992 Games, and Spain will host the upcoming 2014 FIBA World Cup of Basketball with Madrid being one of the host venue cities.   Madrid's Mayor Ana Botella and the Spanish government also support bringing the games here.     

The negatives affecting the bid is Madrid will have to build six new venues and two temporary ones out of the 36 needed.  They will have to upgrade other ones in the midst of a Spanish economic crisis. 

Since London already hosted the 2012 Games, the IOC usually likes some time separation before it returns to a continent..  Only eight years will have elapsed between the time of the 2012 Games and the 2020 ones, but people supporting Madrid's Olympic bid can point out there was only eight years separation between the 1976 Montreal Games and the 1984 LA ones on the North American continent. 

Istanbul is the third candidate city finalist.   It has yet to host a Games but has made four previous bids.  It was one of five candidate cities vying for the 2000 Games but was eliminated in the first round of voting.   It failed to become a candidate city for the 2004 and 2012 Games, and finished fourth in both rounds of balloting for the 2008 Games that were held in Beijing.

Istanbul's bid is proposing to host the Games from Friday, August 7 to Sunday, August 23, 2020.  It is playing up the fact the city is on the Asian and European continents, is new Olympic territory and if selected would be the first time the Games would be hosted in a predominately Muslim nation. 

It was voted the number one city in Europe by the international travel magazine Travel & Leisure for its 2013 'World's Best Awards', and recently completed the Marmaray Rail Tunnel underneath the Bosporus strait that will open in October as part of a major expansion of Istanbul Metro's rail system.    

It does have high level international sport hosting experience.  Istanbul hosted the knockout phase and the final of the 2010 FIBA men's World Basketball Championships with Turkey set to play host next year to the FIBA women's World Basketball Championships.   It has also hosted the 2001 EuroBasket final and the 1992and 2012 Euroleague finals in addition to having a bid in for the 2002 Euro 2020 football tournament.

The Istanbul bid also have the support of the Turkish governement and the city of Istanbul. 

But the protest in Taksim Square that beamed photos around the world of Turkish police violently beating down peaceful protestors, anti-trans violence, getting called out by IAAF president Lamine Diack about doping issues and a negative IOC Evaluation Committee report have started to impact the momentum that was building toward Istanbul winning the 2020 Games bid. 

All three candidate cities cities have bids with strengths and weaknesses and we really won't know until September 7 which city wins the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

Not Feeling The Sochi Olympic Boycott Proposal

In the wake of the draconian anti-LGBT laws that Russia has implemented resulting in persecution for our TBLG cousins living there, their allies and are now being extended to visitors to the country, loud calls have started to emerge for a boycott of the approaching 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi this February.

I have mixed emotions about the idea, but if you pin me down and ask me to make a definitive stance on it, I'd have to say nyet to it. 

While I'm appalled and pissed off about the anti-TBLG crap going on in Russia, I also have the advantage, unlike some of the younglings calling for an Olympic boycott now of seeing what happened the last time somebody suggested we stay home for political or human rights reasons and the effectiveness of it.

In December 1979 the then Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and as one of the responses to the invasion besides a grain embargo, President Carter proposed a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympic Games scheduled to take place in Moscow that summer from July 19-August 3 if the Soviets didn't withdraw their troops from the country by February 20. 

They didn't and the Carter Administration began the diplomatic work of making the Olympic boycott a reality. 

Eventually 60 nations joined that boycott, some reluctantly.  While it resulted in the smallest Olympics in the last several decades with only 80 nations participating in the Moscow Games, it triggered a retaliatory Soviet bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. 

The Soviet Union also didn't remove their combat units from Afghanistan for another nine years.

The only people the Moscow Olympic boycott hurt were the athletes who spent years training for it and never got another opportunity to compete in an Olympic cycle. 

Those who were younger like 1984 swimming triple gold medalist Tracy Caulkins got their shot in a subsequent Olympiad at the Olympic glory that eluded them in 1980.    But that wasn't the case for many of the folks who were at their competitive peak in 1980 and were knocked off the 1984 team by younger competitors or the 1980 Moscow Games were their last Olympiad after having competed in 1972 or 1976.  They were left with nagging 'what-if' scenarios that have dogged them for much of their lives.

The 1980 Moscow Olympics went on as scheduled without them and the boycott did not remove one Soviet combat unit from Afghan soil.

So with the Winter Olympics coming to Sochi, why repeat the mistake?  It's interesting to note that these boycotts are always proposed by people who have never spent one day in their lives training to be the person standing at the top step of an Olympic platform, getting the gold medal and hearing their national anthem played as they watch their flag rise. 

They propose them because it's not their lifelong dream that's being dashed.

The proposed Sochi Olympic boycott is not going to get Russian President Vladimir Putin or their legislature to repeal the anti-LGBT law.   But you can continue to point out for the world to see what the Russian government is doing to their own people.
 
You can call for people to not attend the Sochi Games, not watch it on television, buy Sochi Olympic themed merchandise and give the athletes the choice of deciding whether or not they will compete there instead of having the decision forced upon them by their governments. 

Olympic boycotts simply do not work as political tools, only hurt the athletes and historically haven't  accomplished the political policy goal they are trying to achieve.
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What's Wrong With USA Olympic Boxing?

While reading my Facebook comments the other night checked out one from my homegirl Arianna Inurritegui Lint noting how much she loves boxing in the wake of the Marquez-Pacquiao fight and Marquez knocking him the hell out.

That got me thinking about the recently conducted Summer Olympic Games and US boxing in general.

I wondered what's happened to the US in the sport and stumbled across this interesting Bleacher Report article from August 1 discussing the topic. 

One of the things I have been disappointed about when I've watched the Summer Olympics over the last decade and a half is the boxing team.  I've probably been spoiled by watching the dominating performances of the 1976 and 1984 US Olympic boxing teams and the knowledge that our great heavyweight champs such as Floyd Patterson (1952), Muhammad Ali (1960), Joe Frazier (1964) and George Foreman (1968) were Olympic champions.  Oscar De La Hoya (1992), David Reid (1996) and Andre Ward (2004) were also golden boys before winning titles in the professional ranks as well. 

The 2012 London Games was one which will live in US Olympic infamy because the men produced ZERO medals.  It was the women that upheld the proud USA boxing tradition.

Women's boxing was added to the Olympic competition program this year, and they produced the only US boxing medals of the London Games thanks to 17 year old Claressa Shields golden win and my fellow Houstonian Marlen Esparza winning a bronze medal in her weight class.

I've noted that since the 1988 Games and the implementation of a computerized scoring system to prevent people from getting victimized by questionable judging decisions has the consequence of encouraging what Teddy Atlas calls a 'fencing with gloves' style counterintuitive to the way Americans are taught to box, the teams haven't been as good.  

Maybe that's part of a drop off in talent, or what I suspect is the fallout from talented boxers like Roy Jones, Jr and Michael Carbajal in Seoul and Floyd Mayweather, Jr had happen in Atlanta in terms of being screwed by international boxing officials during those Olympic tournaments..    

There's less incentive for a talented US boxer to bust their behinds and slog through the amateur and international ranks for a chance at a Olympic gold medal if they are going to get screwed out of it by shady officiating.

Boxing has traditionally been seen as a way out of the 'hoods and barrios, and I believe another problem with US boxing besides the disorganization at the top  and the closing of many of those neighborhood gyms that trained kids is there's not as much emphasis on the Golden Gloves youth tournaments that develop our amateur boxers and potential Olympic champions.  

During the 70's and 80's I couldn't turn on the TV locally in Houston without seeing a public service commercial for the Progressive Amateur Boxing Association with its tagline of 'A kid can't open a knife or fire a gun with boxing gloves on'.   PABA boxers were highly competitive in local and Texas Golden Gloves competition which added to its appeal.  

And speaking of TV, yanking regular boxing matches off of network TV so that greedy boxing promoters could put them on pay-per- view cable also wasn't a wise move either.  You draw talent and interest to your sport by televising it, not restricting the number of people that can see it.  It's a contributing factor in why boxing is less relevant now and you have upstarts like MMA (mixed martial arts) and UFC bouts drawing huge ratings, growing international popularity and possible future Olympic medal status.
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That breakdown in the US boxing developmental system is combined with some of our better athletes in the 'hoods focusing on other sports such as football and basketball and the rise of the Cubans as international boxing powers.

Granted, the USA with 49 gold medals and 110 medals all time is far and away the all-time Olympic competition medal leader but the Cubans with 34 golds and 67 total medals are number two, have a proud tradition of their own with three time Olympic champions Teofilo Stevenson (1972, 1976, 1980) and Felix Savon (1992, 1996, 2000) and probably would have caught the USA in total medals by now had Cuba not boycotted the 1984 and 1988 games.  

But there is some serious soul searching, self examination and reorganization that needs to happen at USA Boxing if our once proud program is going to get back to the business of putting our young men and now women in the best possible position of competing for and winning international championships and Olympic medals.

40th Anniversary Of The Munich Olympic Massacre

If you younglings are wondering why security is a major issue at every Olympic Games and what the moment of silence kerfluffle was about in the runup to the recently concluded London Games, it's because of what happened during the XX Olympic Games in Munich 40 years ago today.

On this date 11 members of the Israeli Olympic delegation and a German policeman died during a failed attempt to end the hostage standoff and rescue nine athletes being held in two helicopters at the NATO Fürstenfeldbruck airbase.  Five of the eight PLO terrorists also died during the failed rescue mission with three survivors being captured..

When Munich won the Olympic bid on April 26, 1966 to host the Games over Madrid, Montreal and Detroit concerns were expressed over the facts this would be the first Summer Olympics held in Germany since the 1936 Berlin Games and Munich was where the Nazi Party was founded and headquartered.

The (West) Germans were extremely sensitive to that history and when the Games opened on August 26, 1972 they wanted to make certain they took every opportunity to present an optimistic, happy, non-militaristic and democratic Germany to the world. 

But there were stormy political clouds intruding on that sunny picture the Germans planned to present to the world.  The IOC denied a request by the Palestine Liberation Organization for it to send a Palestinian team to the Olympic Games, and in response chatter started that retaliation would take place during the Games. There were rumblings and intelligence warnings before the Munich Games started that were unfortunately ignored that some kind of terrorist attack would take place as late as September 2. 

The Israeli Olympic delegation was understandably nervous in the runup to the Munich Games, had asked to have their own security team present, a request that for some reason was denied.   They were concerned during the Games about the lack of armed security guards patrolling the fences surrounding the Olympic Village and lax security procedures to enter and exit it once the Games started on August 26. 

In the early morning hours of September 5 eight members of the PLO terrorist group Black September scaled the two meter (six foot) fence surrounding the Olympic Village dressed in track suits, made it to the apartment building at 31 Connollystrasse housing the Israeli Olympic team, broke in, killed Youssef Romano and Moshe Weinberg, two members of the team that tried to resist the apartment invasion and took the remaining nine members hostage.  Fortunately the female members of the Israeli team were housed in a separate section of the Olympic Village, and the team members participating in the sailing events were 400 km away in Kiel.

It triggered an almost 18 hour standoff between the Black September terrorists and German authorities in which the PLO terrorists demanded the release of over 200 of their comrades in Israeli jails, Germany release the notorious Red Army Faction founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof and be given safe passage out of the country in exchange for the Israeli hostages.

Later that evening the terrorists and their hostages were helicoptered to Fürstenfeldbruck airbase  to ostensibly be transported by air to Egypt but in reality were flying into a planned German ambush that went horribly wrong.

A firefight ensued with Anton Fliegerbauer, one of the undermanned German police team members snipers conducting the rescue operation being shot and killed in the control tower along with five of the eight Black September terrorists. 

When the remaining terrorists saw armored cars being deployed they realized their chances of holding out were over.  They shot four of the Israeli hostages on one of the helicopters and then detonated a grenade that resulted in their incineration.   The five remaining Israeli hostages on the second helicopter were then machine-gunned by another terrorist.



In the wake of the attack and amongst mounting international pressure to do so, the IOC suspended Olympic competition for 24 hours and a memorial service was held September 6 in the Olympic stadium for the slain athletes.  The three captured surviving terrorists were later released by the German government October 29 in response to demands by terrorists who hijacked Lufthansa Flight 615.  

Two of the released Munich Massacre terrorists were later allegedly assassinated by Israeli Mossad agents and Jamal Al-Gashey, the surviving Munich Black September attacker is alleged to be still in hiding somewhere in Syria or an unnamed North African nation.

In addition to the Munich Olympic Massacre leading to heightened security at every subsequent Olympic Games, the failed rescue mission led to a German government reassessment of their anti-terrorism policies and forming the elite GSG-9 unit in response to the multiple failures of September 5.  

The Israelis in addition to the Mossad unleashed an anti-terrorism campaign called Operation Act of God with the goal of assassinating individuals in the PLO either directly or indirectly involved with the 1972 Munich Massacre.   

September 5, 1972 still remains 40 years later one of the most horrific days ever for the modern Olympic movement.  I agree with many people including the widows of those 11 Israeli athletes there should have been a moment of silence at the London Games opening ceremony.

Andre Spitzer, Kehat Shorr, Youssef Gutfreund, Amitzur Shapira, Yakov Springer, David Berger, Ze'ev Friedman, Mark Slavin and Eliezer Halfin, those of us who remember what happened on that horrific September 5 day, the world shall never forget you.  

Youssef Romano and Moshe Weinberg, we'll never forget your heroism in sacrificing your lives and giving enough of a warning to your teammates that it allowed several members of your delegation to escape. 

German police officer Anton Fliegerbauer also gave his life in order to rescue the Israeli Olympians.

And shame on you IOC for not taking the time during these just concluded games to remember the September 5 attack and all the people who died in it.

2012 Olympic Watch-See You In Rio

After 17 days of exhilarating competition filled with highs, lows, drama, controversy and upsets, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London came to a close last night as the torch was extinguished and the Antwerp Olympic flag was passed on to the mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

There were probably some eye rolls occurring all over Chicago when that part of the closing ceremony happened. 

Team USA won 104 total medals, 46 of them gold in what I'm calling the 'Title IX Olympics'.   27 of the 46 golds earned by the United States were courtesy of female athletes on a 2012 USA Olympic team that had for the first time more female than male athletes.   Our female team athletes did quite well in winning a fifth consecutive gold in basketball, the first ever in water polo, and repeating in soccer (stop hatin' Renee).

There was an upset in the volleyball final as our number one ranked women had to settle for silver and the field hockey team didn't get out of pool play.  

This was also the first Olympic Games ever in which all the competing nations entered had at least one female athlete as part of their delegations.

We Olympic junkies will now have to wait until August 5, 2016 for the opening ceremonies of the 31st Olympiad of the modern era.   And thank God for American viewers Rio is only one hour ahead of the eastern time zone and NBC won't have any excuse to not broadcast more events live.

We hope.

Goodbye, London.  You did a wonderful job hosting the Games for the third time.  The torch has been passed to you now Rio.  Looking forward to seeing how y'all handle it in 2016  

2012 Olympics Watch-The Drive For Five Is Golden!

The USA women's ballers used a devastating 19-0 third period run to blow the gold medal game wide open and cruise to a comfortable 86-50 win over France and their fifth straight gold medal since 1996..

It was also their 41st consecutive win in Olympic competition dating back to the bronze medal game of the 1992 Barcelona Games, with the last time the USA lost on the women's side being to the Unified Team AKA Russia in the semifinals.

While I'm happy to see the sustained excellence of the USA women, I worry that the IOC will yank the sport out of the Olympic program for the same reason they pulled softball because we're dominating it. 

Hey world, all I have to say on that is ramp up your level of play like we've had to do in the sports you dominate.  .    

2012 Olympic Watch-Semenya Gets 800m Silver

I was eagerly watching along with the rest of the world the women's Olympic 800m final race to see if now 21 year old Caster Semenya's drama would end with a golden result. 

Alas it didn't.

She was dead last for 600m of the race and waited a little too long to start her finishing kick and ended up with the silver medal behind Russia's Mariya Savinova in a time of 1:57:23.   Defending Olympic champ Pamela Jelimo of Kenya faded badly down the strtch and finished fourth.

The tactics she use in this race has led to speculation by BBC commentator Colin Jackson that she's holding back in order to not win races in dominating fashion, and avoid a repeat of the international drama that sidelined her for 10 months after the 2009 world championship victory.   .

Atlanta Olympian Michael Johnson disagreed with Jackson's theory on Semenya's motivation.


"Why would she prepare and come here and not want to win? She showed in 2009 she was a fighter. I am not buying that. I don't see that in Semenya," Johnson said.

I'm not buying that either.   But damn, Semenya is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't win big.  

What I was happy to hear is that Semenya's coach is now the great Olympian Maria Mutola of Mozambique, who faced her own gender drama back in the day as well.

And yes, there's Rio four years from now.     

2012 Olympics Watch-40.82!

For American track fans, winning the 4x100 and 4x400 relays in an Olympics or World Championships is like winning the gold medal in basketball.

It's expected due to the long and distinguished history in these events on both the men's and women's sides..   

The USA women prior to 2000 had won the 4x100 relay nine of the 16 times the event had been held with the last win being in the 1996 Atlanta Games.

During the Sydney Games a relay team featuring gold medal winner Marion Jones had to settle for bronze because of a sloppy second exchange between Torri Edwards and Nanceen Perry.

In Athens in 2004, they bungled the second exchange again and failed to finish because Lauryn Williams started too early and Jones passed her the baton beyond the legal zone. 

And in Beijing the buzzard's luck for the women's 4x100 relay team continued.  They didn't even make the final because they failed to finish in their qualifying heat.

Track fans in the States were getting restless with the miscues and the gold medal drought in one of the events we consider a signature one for our Olympic track teams of either gender. 

The drought ended in resounding fashion last night.   Not only did the USA quartet of Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight and Carmelita Jeter win gold, they beat their Jamaican rivals in a resounding world record setting time of 40.82 seconds.

They took out the 41.37 record set in 1985 by East Germany and also took out the East German 1988 Olympic record in the process.


Great job ladies.   Now how about an encore in Rio?

2012 Olympics Watch-Semenya To 800m Finals

I've been keeping up with the saga of Caster Semenya of South Africa over the years, and hoped that all the gender drama they took her through after her surprise world championship in 2009 would be avenged by an Olympic gold medal in London.

She's on the verge of making that happen.   She won her 800m semifinal heat in a time of 1:57:67 to put her in Saturday's final that will include defending Beijing gold medalist Pamela Jelimo of Kenya, who won her semifinal as well.
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"I'm very happy to get through to the finals," Semenya said. "It was very hard, but I tried my best. I just have to go to my bed."

It was wonderful to see her carry the South African flag during the opening ceremonies.  I hope she gets to top that honor by standing on the top step of the victory platform receiving a gold medal tomorrow.

Good luck Caster!

2012 Olympics Watch-This Time It's For The Gold Medal

The last time Japan and Team USA clashed with a title on the line it was during the the 2011 Women's World Cup final in Frankfurt, Germany.   Japan was recovering from the March earthquake and  tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of the country, and the Nadeshiko Japan rode that wave of international goodwill and determined play to go on a World Cup run that ended with a stunning penalty kick shootout win over Team USA and the FIFA world title..   

It's a year later, and the stage is now a sold out Wembley Stadium and the Olympic Final.   Once again it's Japan and Team USA battling for women's soccer supremacy, and once again the USA comes into the match with the history on their side.   They have won four out of the five Olympic titles since women's soccer became part of the Olympic program in 1996 and are working on a gold medal threepeat .

They also have bitter memories of that loss in Germany and want to atone for it.

"It's definitely redemption," said Carli Lloyd. But it's also opportunity to show that we're the No. 1 team in the world. This game is going to be different. We're a different team. Japan's a different team, and we're ready to bring it."

FIFA world champion Japan wants to make more history and prove their penalty kick shootout win over  the FIFA women's world number one ranked team USA wasn't a one hit wonder.

We'll find out at 1 PM CDT which team takes home the gold.  (Stop hatin', Canada)
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2012 Olympics Watch-USA Advances To Gold Medal Match In Controversial Semifinal

The USA has pretty much owned the international soccer border war with Canada throughout our time playing the beautiful game on the women's side.  

But the 500th match for Team USA is guaranteed to be a memorable one for many reasons on both sides of the border.

The USA entered today's semifinal match at Old Trafford with history and momentum on their side.  They had never failed to reach an Olympic final since women's soccer was added to Games sports calendar in 1996, and the Americans hadn't lost to Canada since 2001.   They were unbeaten in this 2012 Olympic tournament and Hope Solo had posted three shutouts since the opening 4-2 comeback win over France.  
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But the lure of Thursday's gold medal match at Wembley Stadium added additional fuel to the desire for the Canadians to end their 11 year losing streak to Team USA.

Christine Sinclair put the Canadian team on her back and carried them for the initial 90 minutes.  She had a hat trick in this one after failing to score in the last six contests against Team USA with goals in the 22nd, 67th and 78th minutes, but Team USA has a refuse to lose mentality.  

Every time she scored, the USA answered it with two from Megan Rapinoe in the 54th and 70th minute and a controversial penalty kick goal from Abby Wambach in the 80th minute..

Referee Christina Pedersen had warned McLeod for time wasting earlier in the match and finally penalized her with a whistle for unsportsmanlike conduct, giving the USA an indirect free-kick a couple yards inside the penalty area. Tobin Heath tapped the free kick to the right and Carli Lloyd took a right-footed shot that hit Nault’s arm. Pederson did not hesitate to point to the spot.  Wambach calmly placed the penalty kick to the left side of the net past the diving McLeod for her 143rd international goal and a 3-3 tie..

The stage was then set for Alex Morgan's sheroics, but not after some nervous moments for both teams in overtime. 

In the 123rd minute with the game looking like it was headed for the first ever penalty kick shootout Morgan with seconds left in the third and final minute of stoppage time rose over defender Chelsea Stewart to meet a cross from Heather O’Reilly and loop her header over Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod's desperate outstretched arm to seal a historic victory.

“For some reason we like to make things dramatic. I’m really happy that Alex Morgan is on my team. This team doesn’t give up" said Abby Wambach.  "This is what we’re about. This is what we’ve been working for since the day we lost to Japan in the World Cup final. We know that it’s not going to be easy. We didn’t anticipate a game like this, but we’re willing to deal with whatever is thrown at us. I’m so thankful that people kept believing in us, that we kept believing in ourselves. We stuck with it until the end.”

Nope, it wasn't but Team USA is about to get what they came to London for, a shot at redemption versus the FIFA world champions.   On Thursday the US gets a chance to avenge the 2011 Women's World Cup final against Japan while a bitterly disappointed Canadian team moves on to play France for the bronze medal.   

2012 Olympics Watch-Williams Sisters Defend Olympic Doubles Title

If there was any doubt as to just how great the Williams sisters are and what their tennis legacy will be, they just added to it yesterday and silenced their Hater Tots chomping critics at the same time..

Venus and Serena won a 6-4, 6-4 straight set rematch of their recent Wimbledon doubles championship match yesterday against the Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka to become the first tennis players ever to win four gold medals.  

In addition to the unranked Williams sisters knocking off three ranked doubles teams and not dropping a set enroute to the 2012 London Olympic doubles crown to add to the wons they won in Sydney in 2000 and Beijing in 2008, they also extended their Olympic tennis doubles record to a spotless 15-0.

Don't hate.  They are all that.   Just imagine where their legacy in the sport would be if the my fave tennis playing siblings had been able to stay healthy.  .

And yes, they are thinking about going for the doubles golden threepeat in Rio in 2016.  Should be fun to watch if that happens.  

2012 Olympic Watch-Marlen Esparza Starts Boxing For Gold Today

I'm keeping up with my Houston area homeboys and homegirls who are involved in the London Games, and one of the people I'm most interested in seeing is 23 year old boxer Marlen Esparza from Pasadena.

She a trailblazer in her own right in terms of not only being part of the first ever USA women's Olympic boxing team, but being the first Latina athlete to have a Cover Girl endorsement.   She's also appearing in commercials for McDonald's, Coca-Cola and other brands.

She was not only interviewed for a recent Vogue magazine article, but was also one of the people featured in CNN's most recent episode of Latino In America. 

And yeah, did I mention that Marlen is all that in the boxing ring as well?   She's a five time national champion with a 69–2 record and has been ranked number one in her weight class since she was 16.  The 97% of her fights she has won is higher than the 93% winning percentage of Muhammad Ali (88-9) and Floyd Mayweather, Jr.(84–6) and the 89% Mike Tyson compiled with his 48–6 amateur record.

The birthday girl (July 29) is ready for the first ever women's Olympic boxing tournament to start.  She will compete in the 51kg flyweight classification and had to gain six pounds to do so. 

She did secure one of the tournament byes and went straight to the quarterfinal round.  She will await the winner of the match between Brazil's Erica Matos and Venezuela's Karlha Maglioccio and hopefully being a historic run to the first ever women's flyweight Olympic gold medal.

 

2012 Olympic Watch-USA vs Canada In Olympic Women's Soccer Knockout Semis

Back in January the USA and Canadian women's soccer teams met in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament that was held in Vancouver to determine who the two reps from our FIFA region would be for the London Olympics.   It was a match that had a disappointing ending for our northern neighbors as the USA beat Canada 4-0.

Fast forward to August and we are now deep into the Olympic women's soccer tournament knockout rounds.   Surprise surprise, Canada and the USA are facing each other on one side of the women's Olympic soccer semifinal bracket while FIFA world champ Japan takes on France in the other semifinal.

Canada knocked off the host nation Great Britain 2-0 in the quarters while Team USA was doing the same thing to New Zealand by the same 2-0 score.

The win over New Zealand kept their streak alive of playing in the semifinals of all the Olympic tournaments in which women's soccer has been contested.   Team USA women have also played in the semifinals of all six FIFA Women's World Cups.

The semifinal match will take place tomorrow at Old Trafford in Manchester, England starting at 1:45 PM CDT.   It will be the 500th international match that the USA women have played and just in case you're wondering, they have a 388-57-54 record.   

But back to tomorrow's game.   Since the opening 4-2 win against France, Hope Solo and Team USA have posted a 4-0 record and have posted three shutouts.   But we're facing our neighbors with a chance to go to the Olympic gold medal match on the line.     


And bragging rights between moi and a certain Canadian blogger are on the line as well.  

POTUS Weekly Address-Celebrating The Summer Olympics and Paralympics Athletes

President Obama salutes our Olympic and Paralympic athletes in this edition of his weekly address

Damn, Can A Gold Medal Winning Sistah Enjoy It?

Gabrielle Douglas was a major part of the first USA women's gymnastics team Tuesday night effort to win the team competition gold for only the second time since the 'Magnificent Seven' pulled off that feat in Atlanta in 1996.  

Gabby then followed it up on Thursday by making more history.   She became the first African-American gymnast to win the all around title and the first American gymnast to win the team and all-around gold medals in the same Olympiad.

Serena Williams dominated the Olympic women's tennis singles competition field at 'Williams'-don so throughly she only dropped a total of 17 games and didn't lose a set.

In the gold medal match it took her a mere 63 minutes to win in dominating 6-0, 6-1 fashion over Russia's Maria Sharapova.

In the process Williams became the first tennis player ever to win golden slams in singles and doubles.

She and her big sister Venus go for a golden repeat title in Olympic women's doubles on Sunday against the Czech Republic's duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the gold medal match.in a few hours. 

But did whiteness and white supremacist addled people give these women or their proud African-American community a chance to celebrate their hard earned victories in peace?  

Hell naw.   Black female trailblazing athletes are always catching hell from somebody that has a problem with them on some level .

First came the snide comments from some quarters because reigning gymnastics world champ Jordyn Wieber failed to qualify for the all-around competition and her tears were beamed all over the world.   I'll admit I even felt sorry for Wieber for a moment until some of the online conversation and even the media started trying to minimize Gabby's contributions to that Fab Five's win.

Then I got pissed. 

That was rapidly followed by ignorant knee-grow Twitterverse peanut gallery obsessing about Gabby's hair which whiteness then picked up on.

It was folowed up on Thursday night by NBC's clueless running of a promo commercial for one of the fall shows it's heavily promoting called Animal Practice which featured a monkey doing ring gymnastics.

Cute commercial, only one major problem.   NBC ran it immediately after Bob Costas had just done a  segment commenting on Gabby's historic all around win that was tape delayed in the US to show in primetime.



What's the problem with that?  Plenty.  It may have been unintentional, but when Black people of both genders have been disrespectully compared to animals for over four centuries, that was a seriously problematic timing for that ad somebody in the production truck should have caught. 

Combine that with people already being pissed off about how far too much of NBC's televised coverage for the London games has been tape delayed.  

NBC apologized for it, but yeah, as much as I riff on Fox Noise for their racism and I'm about to do again, I have to call it out when questionable race related stuff happens even on networks I watch on the regular. 

Now moving on to Serena.  She celebrated in the aftermath of her microwave tennis win by doing the crip-walk dance before changing into her USA warmup suit and receiving her hard earned gold medal.

Cue all the Williams haters and the racist idiots at Fox Noise trying to stir some stuff up I've gots to call their  vanillacentric privileged hater tots chomping behinds on.



Fox Noise has been hatin' on Serena Williams for a while and took the opportunity to swipe at her again courtesy of a Reid Forgrave article posted on their website..

Seriously Reid Forgrave?  You conservafools are really trying to live up to your hatin' on Black folks reputation.

You GOP propagandists trying to claim that Serena's crip-walk dance celebration of her Olympic singles gold medal is 'embarrassing the USA in front of the UK and the world' is laughable.

Hell, even Gabby briefly danced the Dougie after her wins.

Let's be real for a moment. Your boy Mittbot caused far more embarrassment to the United States in front of the UK and the world on that travesty of a foreign trip last week to the UK, Israel and Poland than a few seconds of Serena happily dancing for a few seconds after celebrating her well deserved golden win ever will.   Serena's celebratory dance didn't inflame Middle East tensions, piss of the Palestinians, Prime Minister David Cameron, London mayor Boris Johnson, and cause multiple international incidents like Mitt Romney cluelessly did.

Y'all are just pissed off that the Williams sisters, despite injuries, the constant micro and macroaggresive racist drama y'all put them through continue to kick the butts of your eastern European tennis glamazons on the world tour on a regular basis and are unapologetically Black while doing so.

But damn, can a gold medal winning sistah enjoy it?

2012 Olympic Watch-Serena's Golden!

Just finished watching Little Sis blitz Russia's Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 in a little over an hour to capture the 2012 Olympic women's singles gold medal.  

Serena not only didn't drop a set in this golden run to the singles title at the All England Club, she only lost 17 games total while doing so. 

Serena also made a little history in the process.  Little Sis is the first female player ever to achieve the career Golden Slam in singles and doubles.

The Golden Slam is winning all four major tennis tournaments plus winning an Olympic singles gold medal.  To recap, Serena just picked up her singles gold in London, and is on track with Big Sis to possibly win doubles gold.   She and Big Sis won doubles gold in 2000 and 2008.

Speaking of the London Olympic doubles tournament, my fave tennis playing siblings will take on the Russian duo of  Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in the semifinals of the women's doubles tournament, with the winners challenging the Czech Republic's duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the gold-medal match.

They beat Hlavackova and Hradecka a few weeks ago for their 'Williams'-don doubles title, and the way Serena is playing right now I have no doubts should they get past the Russian duo they will do so again.

But you still have to platy the matches.

Congrats Serena.  If anyone doubted (or hated on the fact) that you are one of the greatest tennis players of all time, they don't have much of an argument any more.

TransGriot Update:  Serena and Venus are in tomorrow's doubles final after beating Kirilenko and Petrova in straight sets 7-5, 6-4.

2012 Olympic Watch-London Blowout

Team USA's mens b-ballers are 2-0 in Group A play and despite a comfortable 98-71 win over France and a 110-63 win over Tunisia, there were two things I had been worried about with this team.

I'd been concerned about the slow starts of the starting five players, who were being majorly outscored by the bench brigade 180-10 and the abysmal three point shooting so far. 

The new FIBA 3-point line is a foot shorter than the NBA distance and I was wondering if that was impacting them  After yesterday's record setting 156-73 game against Nigeria that tore up the Olympic basketball record books, I'm not worrying about their three point shooting abilities for the rest of this tournament.  

Their winning margin of 83 points beat Team USA's previous Olympic best of 72 points against Thailand set during a 101-29 win in 1956.   Kobe Bryant got an initial 13-0 scoring run started with a three ball on the opening possession of the game as the USA lit up a Nigerian team that started the game packing the paint with a record setting 29-46 barrage from 3 point range (63 percent) and shot 71 percent for the game.

Team USA scored 49 points in the first quarter, had 78 by halftime, passed the 100 point mark midway in the third quarter and after Andre Igoudala hit another (ho hum) three pointer with 4:37 left in the game to give them a 139-68 lead, they surpassed the previous Olympic record 138 points Brazil scored in a 1988 game with Egypt. 

The 78 first half points broke the old Olympic record of 72 scored by that same 1988 Oscar Schmidt led Brazilian team against China. 
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Oh yeah, considering FIBA basketball quarters are only 10 minutes long, unlike the 12 minute ones you get in the NBA, the numbers are eye popping to say the least. 

Carmelo Anthony's 37 points in 14 minutes of work thanks to 10-12 three point shooting broke the 31 point US Olympic record set by Stephon Marbury against Spain in 2004. 

The 2012 Team USA even one-upped the 1992 Dream Team. The 83-point margin of victory eclipsed the 79 point spread that the Dream Teamers put on Cuba when they beat them 136-57.

But playtime is over for Team USA with games against Lithuania on Saturday and Manu Ginobili-led Argentina waiting for them on the schedule.   

2012 Olympic Watch-Gabby's History Making Golden Moment

When the 'Magnificent Seven' were on their way to winning the women's team gymnastics gold medal during the 1996 Atlanta Games, one of the members of that gold medal winning squad was Dominique Dawes who four years later at Sydney won bronze.

Dawes became the first African-American gymnast to win a Summer Games gold medal and in the process became a role model and an inspiration to a generation of African-American girls who dreamed of gymnastics glory similar to what she'd experienced.

One of the girls she inspired to dream and reach for Olympic greatness was one from Virgina Beach,.VA named Gabrielle Douglas.

In order to pursue that dream, she moved away from home at age 14 to train in West Des Moines, IA under 2008 Olympic silver medalist Shawn Johnson's coach Liang Chow.   She came close to quitting during one low point in her journey that her sister Arielle talked her out of doing.

It's a good thing she did.  Two years later Gabby's Olympic gymnastics dreams have become a reality during this one magical week in London.  

One part of that dream came true in her leading the 2012 gold medal winning USA women's gymnastics team that will forever be known as the 'Fab Five' that won the team title Tuesday by a remarkable five point margin. 

The Fab Five lived up to the pre-Olympic hype and beat the Sports Illustrated cover jinx as well as their competition with a 183.596 score while Russia finished second with a 178.503.

Gabby then proceeded to handle her all around competition business Thursday at the North Greenwich Arena.   She beat out her Russian competitors Victoria Komova and her teammate Aliya Mustafina who took the silver and bronze medals.

www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/03/2928618/gabby-douglas-wins-gymnastics.html#storylink=cpy

With the golden win Gabby made history.   She became not only the first African-American gymnast to win the Olympic all around gold medal, she became the first American gymnast ever to win both the team and all around gold medals in the same Olympic games.     .

Her name joins Mary Lou Retton (1984), Carly Patterson (2004) and Nastia Liukin (2008) as USA Olympic all around champions.
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And somewhere in this nation of ours a little African-American girl watched this event like she did back in 1996 and is now thinking about replicating what Gabby Douglas did today at a future Olympic games.

I sure hope so.

 

2012 Olympic Watch-USA Women's Vollyballers Beat China

The number one world ranked USA women's volleyball team has embarked on a mission in which no USA women's Olympic volleyball team has gone before:  Getting to the top step of the medal podium.

Team USA clinched a spot in the quarterfinals after beating number 3 world ranked China in Group B play in straight sets 26-24, 25-16, 31-29. in a battle of Group B unbeaten teams.

Destinee Hooker did much of the damage scoring 22 points wit Megan Hodge added 18 points to help them go to 3-0 in pool play with matches remaining against 0-3 Serbia on August 3 and 1-2 Turkey on August 5.

If Team USA wins their remaining two matches, they would finish at the top of the group and would face the number 4 team from Group A in their opening knockout quarterfinal match..