If you missed Usain’s incredible 100m sprint, here’s the video. Even though it’s taken from the BBC feed, it probably won’t be online for long because NBC is being run by a bunch of morons. Enjoy the swag while you can.
I’m in the middle of a real busy weekend, but I had to take a second to post about Usain Bolt’s electrifying (yes pun) performance in the men’s 100m sprint yesterday. It wasn’t even that he broke his own world record (from 9.72 down to 9.69), but it was how effortlessly he ran all throughout the competition. He won every qualifying heat so easily that he actually let up with 30 meters left each time. When the final came, everyone anticipated that he’d finally have to run the full race at top speed.
[Charlie Murphy] wrong…WRONG. [/Charlie Murphy]
From the start of the race, it was clear that Bolt was surpremely confident. He bounced around and struck poses before getting in the blocks. While everyone else wore hi-tech singlets, hoping to shave every possible split second off their time, Usain rocked some shorts and a normal little tank top. Oh, and his left shoe was untied:
(are you kidding me?)
After a decent start and first 40 meters, Bolt turned it on and absolutely blew out his competition. So much so that he let up again, this time throwing his arms out and beating his chest in celebration, a good 20 meters before the finish line:
As the 7 other fastest people on the planet strained towards the line, Bolt glided past it and continued on into his victory lap. In between talking with his family and grabbing a Jamaican flag to show off to the world, he danced and broke out the classic ‘airplane’ move:
Again, it wasn’t just that he ran 100 meters faster than any human in history. It’s that he did it so easily and so relaxed, almost as if it was a mere formality. Apparently, it was. Truly, a display for the ages and one worthy of instant inauguration to the Swag Hall of Fame.
Looking at the pictures doesn’t do it justice, but thanks to NBC’s draconian restrictions on archived video from the Games, you’ll have to watch it on their site here. If you’re outside the US, NBC hates you and you’ll have to find it on your local Olympics carrier instead. Their coverage has been pretty good (aside from Bob Costas repeatedly mispronouncing Beijing), but the lack of archived video is killing me. In any case, find a way to watch the race and look out for Bolt running his real specialty in the 200m. This dude is unreal.
Also, some guy named Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal over the weekend. Yeah…that was kind of cool too. The Olympics are incredible!
For time. Complete all reps of each exercise before moving to the next.
100 pull ups
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 air squats
Broke my last time of 19:54 with a PR of 18:46. Chyea. All about improvement people! Shout to Foundation.
Move over Pau Gasol, the 2008 Federation Cup Spanish Tennis team now has their own racist controversy. Gawker posted up this picture, apparently hosted on the official Spanish Tennis Federation’s site right here. I assume that link will be taken down shortly, but perhaps they’ll leave it up and try to defend this one too.
“Some of my best friends in Toronto are from China” – Jose Calderon (actual quote)
Oh, well in thaaaaaaaat case.
(Yang Peiyi on the left, Lin Miaoke on the right. Both look adorable to me.)
I’m really enjoying the competition so far, but stories like this and the racist Spanish basketball advertisement are starting to take away from the Olympic spirit. Granted, there are also the tiiiiiiny issues of human rights abuse, pollution, and censorship that the Chinese government has failed to address, but is that really surprising? Not so much. This, however, is.
China’s made no secret that the 2008 games are their welcoming party to the table of world superpowers. To that end, they’ve controlled every last aspect of the presentation, crafting the exact image they want to project to the world. This happens everywhere – currently evident in Vancouver’s ongoing efforts to force their homeless outside of the city in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics – but it’s almost always troublesome. In this situation, the Chinese deemed a 7 year old singer named Yang Peiyi “not suitable” to perform at the opening ceremonies, even though they wanted to use her voice in a key part of the festivities. Apparently she wasn’t cute enough to represent the country on the world stage. So what to do? Simple, they found 9 year old Lin Miaoke to lip sync the song. Miaoke has since gone on to become an international celebrity, while the controversy over the decision just broke in the press. You can read the full story here.
At the moment, both girls and their families seem to be ok with the whole situation. That’s good, and I hope they continue to feel that way, but it doesn’t fix the larger problem here. The fact that a country would blatantly attack the self-esteem of one girl, and consequently, a whole generation, is appalling. China has all the tools to be a world leader, but there are certain areas where they’re failing miserably.
On Sunday, the Guardian reported on the image above, which features the Spanish men’s national basketball team in an advertisement for the Beijing Olympics. The dragon in the center circle? Clumsy, but admissable. The fingers pulling back the skin around their eyes in an attempt to mimic asian features? Yeaaaaaah, I’m going to go ahead and hit you with the:
You’d think that the European country closest to Africa (separated by only 8 miles at the Strait of Gibraltar) might be the most racially tolerant member of the E.U., but unfortunately, you’d be dead wrong. Spain has a long history of racism, and in recent years, it’s repeatedly reared its ugly head in their sporting events. From the abuse Lewis Hamilton received earlier this year, to Luis Aragones’ moronic comments about Thierry Henry, it seems like a new incident pops up every few months. We also can’t forget about when Samuel Eto’o almost left the pitch a few years back:
And now the Spanish basketball team, one of the best squads in the world, has again demonstrated the ignorance and racism that appears so prevalent in their culture. It’s shocking enough that this actually made it’s way into an officially sanctioned advertisement (apparently involving the female team in the same pose on the opposite page), but how could players who’ve spent time here in the NBA agree to this? You’re telling me Pau and Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Jose Calderon, and Jorge Garbajosa didn’t know any better? Wow.
I don’t want to sound too high and mighty, because we clearly have lots of race issues here (cough, cough, cough), but it’s time for Spain to get a grip on this. If they’re going continue campaigning for Madrid to host the 2016 or 2020 Olympics, they have to get serious about this problem.
5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.
Doesn’t get much simpler than that. I finished with 18 full rounds + 5 pull ups + 10 push ups + 10 squats. In other words, 5 squats short of 19. Damn. Shoulda pushed myself harder in the last minute. I think that’s a decent performance though, since I’ve only done 10 minute versions of “Cindy” before.
If you want to start doing crossfit slowly, find a bar and do this workout for 10 minutes. That’s what I did my first day. Or come check out one of the free “Rainstorm” workouts over at Foundation Crossfit every Saturday at noon. Y’all are talking a big game, but I’ve yet to see you come through…
If you missed the historic men’s 4×100 freestyle relay in the Olympics yesterday, you missed one of the best races ever. It was so dope, I actually had to post about swimming on TAOD. That’s unheard of.
Our oldest swimmer on the team, Jason Lezak, anchored the race and somehow erased almost a full body length deficit in the final 50 meters. On his very last stroke, he edged out France’s Alain Bernard at the wall and kept Michael Phelps’ dream of 8 gold medals alive. At the same time, he ethered the trash talking Bernard, who earlier said the heavily favored French team would “smash” the Americans. Ouch.
Since NBC’s being a bit egomaniacal about its Olympics coverage, I can’t embed the video. You can, however, watch the race in all its glory right here.
Other observations from the first 3 days of the Olympics:
Last night’s show and interview with Wyclef coming soon, but for now…*Outro*
Fireworks light the sky over the National Aquatic Center (L) and the National Stadium.
The Big Picture posted some incredible shots from the Olympics Opening Ceremony, which is set to air here on the west coast in about an hour. I can’t wait to see it live, but in the meantime, check the amazing pictures right here.
*tear*
Saw this on the Laced Up blog (what up fellas?) and had to post it. Too many classic memories in there. I mean, come on…how many times do you see someone get dunked on and dap the dude who did it (3:58)? I can’t believe they’re gone.