You know that song you get stuck in your head after watching the American gymnasts at the Olympics? You can blame Phillip Phillips for that one. His hit “Home” is apparently the theme of the Fab Five. I didn’t hear him when he was on – and won – American Idol this year, but this song is definitely catchy. What do you think?
2012 summer olympics
Broken records
It’s been a long week, so today let’s reflect on almost one week of Olympic splendor (marred only briefly by some badminton players intentionally throwing a game and rightfully getting thrown out…). For your Thursday enjoyment, I bring you two articles about all those Olympic records we’ve seen shattered this week.
See how current competitors stand up against past ones, in terms of record-breaking times and expectations here.
Ever wondered why some Olympic records get broken and other’s don’t? Find out here.
Hope you have a gold-medal push into the end of the week!
Swimmers that make you look twice
… and not because they’re amazingly fit (in the American and British sense of the word), but because of the ridiculous faces some of them make while diving. My favorites:
Though the men make some pretty awesome faces too – there’s a larger, glorious collection here. Hope you’re enjoying the games – slow-motion and everything!
The girls’ team
** Spoiler alert, but only if you’re living in a bubble and don’t know the results from Sunday’s swimming competition yet.**
Did you know:
- Women’s soccer has only been an Olympics sport since 1996 (ridiculous).
- Women’s floor exercises in gymnastics are longer than men’s (70-90 seconds as opposed to 60-70 seconds) and use music, while men do not.
- Dana Vollmer broke the 100M fly world record and scored the gold for Team USA this weekend.
- This is the first year that all participating nations have women competing.
- It’s also the first year that Team USA has more women than men competing.
- Women are boxing for the first time in London, though they had a demonstration competition in 1904. (Who dropped the ball in the meantime, ladies??) With this advance, there are no remaining summer sports where women can’t compete.
- In 1900, Charlotte Chattie Cooper was the first woman to win an Olympic title when she defeated her French counterpart in the women’s singles final (tennis).
- After female athletes collapsed during track competitions in 1928 and were criticized for being “unfeminine” and “undignified”, they were banned from racing further than 200M, a ruling that stood at the Olympic level for 32 years.
- In beach volleyball, women are required to wear two-piece uniforms, and there’s a maximum size for the bikini bottom. (Yes, really.)
What amazing women have you been watching this week? And what great ladies will you be cheering for as the Olympics continue?
That’s the name of the game
** Spoiler alert, if you have no clue what’s going on in women’s gymnastics.**
For those of you who are upset about Jordyn Wieber not making it into the gymnastics all-around, I suggest you go read Gold by Chris Cleave. It’s an amazing Olympic novel about a pair of track cyclists who race for their livelihoods when their sport changes to allow only one woman per country to race at the London Olympiad. Not only does it boast some awesome characters and a riveting plot (and, unlike his book Little Bee, I can read it without wanting to be sick), but it paints a new picture of Olympic competition – and what happens even before medals are awarded.
Because the fact of the matter is, these are sports we’re talking about. They’re not always fair or objective, and there are made to be winners and losers – sometimes even on the same team. Yes, Jordyn is the world champion – but that might just mean that on the day of the world championship, she did better than anyone else. And yesterday wasn’t her day – Aly and Gabby simply outperformed her. It could happen to anyone. Whether or not it’s fair to limit each country to 2 max participants in the all-around is another issue, but Jordyn knew that going into it, and probably wouldn’t have cared about the fairness as long as she was one of the two. It’s not like allowing the top 3 – as in previous years – is inherently more fair.
What do you think? Was Jordyn scored unfairly? Do these rules make any sense? Is it weird that a competition to promote unity and conversation among nations is so focused on winners and losers? Weigh in below!
Sally and the City 