<p>To get a medal, Lochte needed to swim in either the prelim or final. The problem was Jones - he choked.</p>
<p>I admit that my Ds and I were in the balcony at church, refreshing the twitter feed while our ladies were competing in gymnastics. We were so happy with their performance until we found out the Jordan didn’t make the AA. Don’t get me wrong…I am a big Raisman fan. But to be 4th best out of all those girls and not be able to compete…how devistating.</p>
<p>Does anyone remember when the rule was made (only 2 per country can compete in the AA)? I have this distant memory of Romania winning 1, 2 and 3 in the AA and then the rule changing. I keep telling myself that if Russia or China earned all three medals in the AA, we’d all be upset.</p>
<p>So they all compete again as the number one qualifier (out of 8 teams that who qualified) for the team competition. Then Ally and Gabby will compete in the AA. Jordan made the event final in floor, Ally made the event finals in floor and beam, Gabby on beam and bars and Mikala on vault.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the television coverage will be tonight, but if they show Jordan’s reaction when she dropped down to no. 3, half the mothers in the world will be in tears.</p>
<p>“I don’t understand why NBC had John McEnroe interviewing Ryan Lochte, but hasn’t used him on tennis. And why not use Mary Carillo for tennis as well?”</p>
<p>JMac has a pretty big ego and probably didn’t want to be relegated to working on lowly Bravo. He is doing the Men’s final.</p>
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<p>I totally agree, but that’s what the men who run the networks think about us.</p>
<p>“Lochte swam the slowest leg of the final three Americans and was barely ahead of Adrian’s opening time even with the benefit of a relay start.”</p>
<p>?</p>
<p>The first swimmer’s time includes a reaction time of .6-.8 seconds due to starting from a completely still position (any movement on the block is a DQ). The other swimmers can have a running start, provided that they do not leave the block prior to their teammates touching the wall during the exchange (there are touchpad sensors on the pool walls and on the blocks), which means the reaction time could be as small as 0.01 without a DQ.</p>
<p>[USA</a> Swimming - Reaction Times across the World](<a href=“http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=1&itemid=4205&mid=8712]USA”>http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=1&itemid=4205&mid=8712)</p>
<p>[USA</a> Swimming - Take your Mark. Go!](<a href=“http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=2175&itemid=3993&mid=11657]USA”>http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=2175&itemid=3993&mid=11657)</p>
<p>I dont usually bother with the opening or closing ceremonies. The exception was Beijing because I wanted to see who would carry the Olympic flag as a weathervane of Chinese politics.</p>
<p>Sports not usually covered by our media should be front and centre in the games. Baseball, soccer, tennis and the like I can see any day of the week, and I dont see why we need to see them in the Olympics, except perhaps to pad the standing of the most favoured nations?</p>
<p>Swimming and track are my favourites. While I do enjoy swimming a lot, I dont understand why it necessary to compete on different strokes. Why not just give them a distance and let the competitors swim the distance any way they choose? We dont see competition for running backward, nor running on our hands, do we?</p>
<p>My prediction is that the US will win the most gold medals this time around. The Chinese are faltering in gymnastics and weightlifting, and I doubt their improvements in the pool can make up the difference. Cannot see them win more than 35 gold medals in London.</p>
<p>Ok, I agree the problem was Lochte.</p>
<p>From FINA site:</p>
<p>Adrian 47.89
Phelps 47.15
Jones 47.60
Lochte 47.74</p>
<p>Cullen Jones swam a 47.6. – he did not choke! Phelps 47.1 and Adrian’s flat start 47.8 were the two best splits to be sure.
Matt Grevers was coming of the 100 backstroke semis so Troy opted for Lochte.
Yannick Agnel swam a 46.74 to Ryan Lochte’s 47.74.
47.74 is a pretty good time for lochte who hasn’t been training sprint freestyle - the French won this one; Yannick swam the 200 free just like Lochte and went 46.74. </p>
<p>The USA was predicted for a bronze medal and perhaps out of the running, so they actually outperformed expectations in winning the silver.</p>
<p>The favorites, the Australians CHOKED; their superstars James Magnussen (48.03) and James Roberts (48.09) underperformed and they weren’t on the podium.</p>
<p>I was in Spain right after they won the Euro Cup, and all the talk was “best team <em>evah</em>!!!”</p>
<p>So it was interesting to see them get a come-uppance.</p>
<p>IIRC though, the men can only have two players over the age of 23 on the Olympic team, so this team was completely different than the one that won the Euro Cup. That team had only one player young enough to play on the Olympic team.</p>
<p>Here are the splits of the top 4 teams:</p>
<p>France
Leveaux 48.13
Gilot 47.67
Lefert 47.39
Agnel 46.84</p>
<p>US
Adrian 47.89
Phelps 47.15
Jones 47.60
Lochte 47.74</p>
<p>Russia
Grechin 48.57
Lobinstev 47.39
Morozov 47.85
Izotov 47.60</p>
<p>Austrailia
Magnussen 48.03
Targett 47.83
Sullivan 47.68
Roberts 48.09</p>
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<p>My D was in China during May, and said that she couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing Olympic qualifying events, mostly gymnastics and table tennis. She said that the gymnasts struggled, but I assumed those might be local or regional events, and that China would send their usual gymnastics juggernaut to London. But it seems that she really was seeing the state of Chinese gymastics at the moment.</p>
<p>My tv is on the fritz tv guy cant come until tuesday. these home theater systems…so my info is from here as I am one of those women who needs the commentary to connect the dots. two past graduates of my D’s HS are sailing for Bermuda, one carried in the flag, they were all excited!!!</p>
<p>^^How cool!!</p>
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<p>Two per country was instituted in 2001. In 2000 three Romanians won medals in the women’s AA (although the winner’s result was nullified because of a positive doping result. No one really takes it seriously and the gymnast promoted to gold gave her medal to the winner).</p>
<p>They will show Jordyn’s reaction. We will also get to see an interview with her and Andrea Joyce that took place shortly after she found out she didn’t qualify. ugh.</p>
<p>Wow, the Jamaican girl in the 100 br swimoff took almost a second off her semi time! Holy cow, almost everyone in the final is faster than 1:07. :eek:</p>
<p>There are two Australian sisters swimming 50 free - how cool is that?!</p>
<p>I am very happy for the young women that won the Silver for the US in synchronized diving. They were marvelous and I like their personalities.</p>
<p>How heart breaking for Jordan. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem right that the best Olympians don’t get to advance.</p>
<p>top 2 go?..what a dumb, dumb rule…So someone can be 3rd best gymnist in qualifying, but not in top 24 and compete for all around best in the world? Who is the genius that thought this would be a good idea.</p>
<p>The competitors know the rules going in, geeps.</p>