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-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 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-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 Olympics Watch-Great Day For USA Women's Olympic Sports Teams

Saturday was the first official day of competition of the 2012 London Games and to paraphrase an old Ice Cube rap song, today was a good day for the USA's women's Olympic sports teams. 

The USA women's basketball team started on the road to a fifth consecutive gold medal by getting Group A pool play started in the Basketball Arena with an 81-56 win over a scrappy Croatia team that has been zooming up the FIBA basketball rankings lately.

Croatia trailed 11-4 after the first quarter but sloppy USA play, early shooting woes and turnovers kept Croatia close.  Croatia started lighting it up from three point range in the second quarter after attempting and failing to score inside and were rewarded with a shockingly brief second quarter lead and visions of a ginormous upset dancing in their heads until Diana Taurasi launched back to back threes of her own that gave Team USA a narrow 31-28 halftime lead.

Team USA went to work expanding that narrow lead to a six point cushion by the end of the third quarter thanks to Angel McCoughtry coming off the bench to provide an offense and defensive spark.

A 16-0 fourth quarter run secured their 34th consecutive win in Olympic b-ball play since the 1996 Atlanta Games.   Next up is Angola, and you can bet Team USA will be ready for that game.

While the USA roundballers were getting their Olympic pool play wakeup call,  the Team USA soccer players were in Glasgow, Scotland's Hampden Park playing in a rough and tumble match with a scrappy Colombia that featured 30 fouls and goals from Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd.

Wambach's goal in the 74th minute was her 140th career international one and her sixth in Olympic play to pass Mia Hamm and Tiffeny Milbrett on the USA all time Olympic goal scoring list.

The had fought 3-0 win guaranteed that Team USA would make it to the quarterfinals, and they can capture Group G with a win or draw against North Korea at Old Trafford in Manchester, England on July 31.

The world number one ranked USA women's indoor volleyball team is attempting to win our first ever Olympic gold medal.  

They got their Olympic tournament started at Earl's Court in a positive manner with a 3-1 Group B win over South Korea and a dominating performance by Destinee Hooker.  

Team USA took the first two sets by 25-19 and 25-17 scores before the South Koreans clawed their way back into the match by taking the third set 25-20.  Team USA regrouped and with the score at 15-14 in that fourth set went on a 7-1 run to take a 22-15 lead to put them on the way to clinching the set and eventually a hard fought 25-21 win  


Their next Group B match will be on July 30 against number two world ranked Brazil.  Like Team USA, Brazil is considered a gold medal favorite and have been traditionally strong in the sport.   Brazil held the FIVB number one world ranking for four years until the USA took it over at the end of 2011.

After the July 30th volleyball tussle with Brazil Team USA has matches remaining with China, Serbia and Turkey and must finish in the top four teams in their group to move on to the medal round.

But Saturday was a great step in the right direction for the USA women volleyballers and the other USA women's team sports that have gold medal dreams.
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2012 Olympics Watch-The Games Open

After the spectacular opening ceremony Beijing pulled off four years ago, the world was watching to see what London would do when it was their turn to host the Games for a record third time. 

Well, it was spectacular.  It weaved in elements of British history, culture and iconic images from Mary Poppins to James Bond and Queen Elizabeth II.  

And yeah Beijing, you didn't have JK Rowling, Sir Paul McCartney, the Beatles or Soul 2 Soul's 'Back 2 Life' as part of the music track.

Did I mention the image of the Queen and James Bond skydiving from a helicopter over the stadium?

The torch lighting even had London homeboy David Beckham involved. 
He drove a speedboat up the Thames to his old neighborhood where the Olympic Park now stands

Yeah London, you definitely get two thumbs up for that opening ceremony and the interesting way you lit the torch.   Now it's time to settle in and watch the competition over the next two weeks.

And The Last FIBA Olympic Mens B-Ball Qualifiers Are...

Russia, Lithuania and Nigeria.

Nope, that isn't a typo.   The Nigerian men qualified for the Olympics while Angola, the perennial Afrobasket champions and African continent Olympic representatives will be watching the London Games tournament at home on television..

In our last episode of 'As The Olympic Basketball Bounces' the Men's FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament in Caracas was in the quarterfinal stage.  

Greece suffered their first loss in the tournament at the worst possible time to Nigeria 80-79 while the Russians rolled over Angola 80-65.  In the other bracket Lithuania beat Puerto Rico 76-72 and the Dominican republic rolled over Macedonia 86-76 to get to the semis

In the semifinal action that took place on July 7 the winners of those games would get two of the Olympic slots while the loses would play the next day for the final London Olympic berth.

Russia finished the tournament unbeaten with a 4-0 record and clinched one of the Olympic spots with a 85-77 victory over Nigeria.  Their Lithuanian next door neighbors rolled over the Dominican Republic 109-83 to claim the second Olympic berth. 

That left Nigeria and the Dominican Republic to battle it out for the final Olympic spot on July 8.  Nigeria dribbled their way to an 88-73 win to punch their ticket to London.

After the three final Olympic qualifying teams were determined, a draw was held to see which groups the qualifying tourney teams would play in when the men's Olympic basketball tournament prelims start on July 29.

Lithuania and Nigeria ended up in Group A with the USA, Argentina, France, and Tunisia  while Russia ended up in Group B with Australia, Brazil, China, Spain and Great Britain. 

Should be fun to watch... .  

2012 Willams Watch-Williams Power!

My fave tennis playing siblings continue their so far wildly successful tennis business trip to the All England Club by knocking off the number one doubles seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 in their doubles semifinal match..

Huber and Raymond flipped the script on my girls and took the first set in 33 minutes as Venus and Serena struggled with calibrating their serves.  But once they got it done, Little and Big Sis won seven straight games to take the second set and built a 3-0 lead in the third set before cruising to victory and their ninth Wimbledon Ladies doubles final.

They will play against the sixth seeded Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka  in the Ladies doubles finals and attempt to win their sixth 'Williams'-don doubles crown.

2012 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tourney In Quarters

The 2012 FIBA Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament being contested in Caracas, Venezuela is in the knockout stage. 

The twelve teams that started the tournament been whittled down to the eight teams still left with a chance to grab the last three spots for the London Games men's basketball tournament..

To the chagrin of the local fans Venezuela wasn't one of them.    They were in the closely contested Group B in which all three teams finished group play with 1-1 records, but Lithuania and Nigeria advanced thanks to +12 and +4 point differentials. 

The same thing happened in Group D with Macedonia and Angola advancing after the tiebreakers were applied.

In today's quarterfinals Group A winner Greece will face Group B runner up Nigeria and Group C winner Russia will take on Group D runner up Angola.   In the other bracket Group B winner Lithuania will face Group A runner up Puerto Rico and Group D winner Macedonia will face Group C runner up Dominican Republic      

Winners move on to the semifinals on July 7, and the winners of those semifinal games get the first two London Olympic tournament spots.  The semifinal losers will play July 8 for the final Olympic spot 

2012 Williams Watch-Doubles Double Duty

The 4th of July was an off day for the Ladies Singles semifinalists, but not for the hardest working woman at 'Williams'-don  

In order to get ready for the upcoming Olympics tennis tournament that will also be played at the All England Club in a few short weeks, my favorite tennis playing siblings were entered in the doubles tournament for the first time since they were upset in the Wimbledon doubles quarterfinals while seeking a doubles title threepeat. in 2010.

Since then both have struggles with injuries and health issues that knocked them off their lofty status of being the world's number one ranked doubles team. 

The unseeded sisters started their quest for their 13th doubles Grand Slam title by knocking off the tandem of Vesna Dolonc of Serbia and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.   That got them to their second round matchup with the fourth seeded Russian duo of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova in which they won in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 9-7.

Their third round matchup was yesterday with Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the USA and Sania Mirza of India and beat them in straights set 6-4, 6-3

They are now in the Ladies doubles quarterfinals, on track for their first 'Williams'-don doubles title since 2009 and will face the tenth seeded American duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and  Abigail Spears.

Winner will face the number one seeded doubles team of Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the semis..

2012 Williams Watch-Serena To 'Williams'-don Quarterfinals

If she's going to win her first Grand Slam title in two years, this may be her big opportunity to get it despite her father's concerns she's expending too much energy in the last two rounds. . 

The draw is setting up perfectly for Serena Williams as many of the big names like Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, Li Na and Sam Stosur have already fallen victim to the upset bug  

Sixth seeded Serena survived an upset bid by China's Jie Zheng thanks to unleashing a Wimbledon record 23 aces onslaught to advance in a 2 hour and 28 minute three set marathon match and entered the fourth round of the 2012 Wimbledon Ladies Singles tournament against Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova

It took her three sets on Court 2, but she survived 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals  .   

Once again Little Sis got off to a blazing start as she took only 26 minutes to complete the first set.   But in Shvedova she was facing a tall player that can hit just as hard as she could and she sent that message in the second set that took 34 minutes to play and even the match.   

Serena fought back in the closely contested deciding set that took 54 minutes to play and earned Little Sis a quarterfinal Centre Court matchup with defending Wimbledon champion and fourth seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic.

Should be fun to watch at 9 AM CDT.  

Gabby Douglas Makes US Olympic Gymnastics Team

While I was flipping through the cable channels last night discovered there were two African-American gymnasts competing for spots on the US Olympic Gymnastics team.  One of them was 16 year old Gabrielle Douglas of Virginia Beach, VA  and the other was Elizabeth Price of Coopersburg, PA.  

I ended up watching the rest of the trials from the point I stumbled upon it because Gabrielle was leading the Olympic trails competition with two rotations to go over Jordyn Wieber, the current world champion.  

Douglas has been compared in gymnastics circles to Olympian Dominique Dawes, who was the first African American to not only make a US Olympics gymnastic team but won an individual gymnastics gold medal in floor exercise and a team gold as part of the 'Magnificent Seven' at the 1996 Atlanta Games. 

Douglas won gold at last year's Pan Am Games and hopes to make history by repeat the feat in London.   She eventually won one of the two automatic spots on the team by holding on to her lead over Wieber.   Elizabeth Price made the team as a replacement athlete as well.

It also gives me a heads up on another event and athlete I'll be keeping my eyes on when the London Games get started on July 27. 

Canadian Women B-Ballers Headed To London!

It's next stop London for the Canadian women's basketball team.

Two days after being upset by Croatia in the quarterfinals, they had to do it the hard way and on Canada Day no less, but for the first time since 2000 the Canadian women's basketball team will be taking part in the women's Olympic basketball tournament.

They knocked off Argentina 58-41 yesterday to get to today's final.  Courtney Pilypaitis scored 21 points and handed out six assists in the 71-63 win over Japan to clinch the final berth available in the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Ankara, Turkey.

The Canadians shot 48% for the game and lit it up from three point range, knocking down 9 of 19 attempts from behind the arc.

They get to savor their win for a few days and contemplate what life will be like in the Olympic Village before preparing for tough Group B Olympic competition that will include games with 2008 silver medalists Australia, Brazil, 2008 bronze medalists Russia,  2010 FIBA Women's World Championship runner-up Czech Republic and host nation Great Britain.   

Canada Women B-Ballers Still Alive For Olympic Berth

It's probably not the way they envisioned spending Canada Day, but they will be glad to take the court tomorrow with a final chance to dribble their way into the London Olympic women's basketball tournament. 

After a tough quarterfinal 59-56 loss to Croatia that dropped them into the win or go home knockout semifinal games today, Canada defeated Argentina 58-41 today to reach the final game at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament being contested in Ankara, Turkey.

Their opponent will be Japan, who knocked off their fellow FIBA Asian Zone rival Korea 79-51 to advance to tomorrow's pressure packed game for the final Olympic women's basketball berth.

Good luck ladies and don't sleep on Japan.   If you do your next chance to play basketball on the Olympic stage won't occur until 2016 in Rio.

2012 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tourney In Quarterfinals

The 2012 FIBA Women's World Olympic Qualifying Tournament tipped off in Ankara, Turkey June 25 with our FIBA number 11 ranked Canadian neighbors being amongst the femme roundball teams trying to dribble their way into the London Olympic basketball tournament that starts a few weeks from now

Out of the 12 nations that started their quest for the five remaining spots to go to London only eight remain after they survived group play.  The host nation Turkey won Group A and will play Group B runner up and FIBA number 12 ranked Argentina. Group B winner and FIBA number 4 ranked Czech Republic will play Group A runner up and FIBA number 15 ranked Japan.  

Canada was in Group D with FIBA number 8 ranked France and Mali and got their tournament off to a rousing start June 25 by crushing Mali 89-23.  

The next day against France they brought their bricklayers union cards and got off to a slow start that resulted in a 57-46 loss and a 1-1 record in Group D play.  

Despite the loss they were still in great shape to qualify for the quarterfinals because of the blowout win over FIBA number 19 ranked Mali.   The only way they would be knocked out of the tournament is if Mali upset France and beat them by a 65 point margin in doing so. 

Umm no. France routed Mali 88-37 on June 27 to win the group with Canada finishing as the runner up.  France will play Group C runner up and FIBA number 9 ranked Korea for one of the Olympic spots.

The Canadians will play Croatia, the group C winner that has jumped 23 spots in the FIBA rankings to number 31 with a spot in the Olympics going to the winner and the loser moving on to play June 30 the loser of the Turkey-Argentina game.   The losers in the Czech Republic-Japan and France-Korea games would also battle it out on June 30 in the semis.

The winners of the June 30 semifinals would play July 1 for the final Olympic berth.  

I would think the Canadian women's b-ballers would rather handle their business today and be celebrating on Canada Day a trip to London rather than playing a nerve racking two additional must win games tomorrow and on Canada Day to get the final Olympic berth.

Who Is Woman Enough to Participate in the Olympics?

Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings

We have all become accustomed to the drug testing athletes must undergo to ensure that their performance has not been enhanced. Female athletes however are subjected to a new form of gender based policing based in the idea that someone have a natural biological advantage because of things like hormonal imbalances. 

There are some who believe that this amounts to an unfair advantage ever as it encourages gender policing that is harmful emotionally to girls and women.

Caster Semenya, the South African runner who was so fast and muscular that many suspected she was a man, exploded onto the front pages three years ago. She was considered an outlier, a one-time anomaly.

But similar cases are emerging all over the world, and Semenya, who was banned from competition for 11 months while authorities investigated her sex, is back, vying for gold.

Semenya and other women like her face a complex question: Does a female athlete whose body naturally produces unusually high levels of male hormones, allowing them to put on more muscle mass and recover faster, have an “unfair” advantage?

In a move critics call “policing femininity,” recent rule changes by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the governing body of track and field, state that for a woman to compete, her testosterone must not exceed the male threshold.

If it does, she must have surgery or receive hormone therapy prescribed by an expert IAAF medical panel and submit to regular monitoring. So far, at least a handful of athletes — the figure is confidential — have been prescribed treatment, but their numbers could increase. Last month, the International Olympic Committee began the approval process to adopt similar rules for the Games. [source]

Essentially, these tests and probes are meant to define what constitutes woman.  Even if a woman has always identified as female and lived her life as a woman,  simply a complaint to the IAAF is enough to force her to endure a battery of tests and treatment that she may not want or need, to be deemed suitably female enough to be able to compete.  This is beyond intrusive and amounts to cissexist gender policing.


The moment we begin to define gender strictly through biology, we limit the definition of what it is to be 'woman'.  It has also not escaped my notice that this is something that is only happening to female athletes.  No one is looking at men for supposed feminine characteristics largely because anything considered female is not socially understood to benefit men.  We know for instance that women have a lower center of gravity and this could come in handy in sports like gymnastics or even diving, but no one is on a mission to ensure that men are suitably masculine enough to perform.

This policy comes down to policing gender and more importantly, policing womanhood. This standard that has been created will effect all women.  We already live in an extremely cissexist world and trans women are subjected to all manner of abuse daily.  Subjecting female athletes to this test suggests that there is only one true standard for womanhood and failing to meet that marks one as "other."  It encourages people to question someone's gender even when they are clearly identified as female and will give rise to more cissexism.

Woman is a broad category and any attempt to narrow it is an assault on all women.  No one should have to be subjected to invasive testing and medication that they don't need for their bodies to function naturally to run in a race, dive or participate in any sport.  This testing is divisive and any athlete who agrees with this testing to me is only worried about taking home a medal at any cost.