Our Favorite Olympic Athletes (2 of 4)_ The Flying Dutchman, et al

Here is a look at some of our favorite male athletes from countries besides the United States (we profiled Americans yesterday):

1.) Usain Bolt, 25, Jamaica, track and field (sprinter)_ As everyone except a yack herder in Mongolia knows that Bolt won gold in the men's 100-meter in a blazing 9. 63 seconds.

2) Tony Estanguet, 34, France, canoeing (pictured top)_ This athlete won gold in single canoeing in 97.06 seconds; we think this might be the most dangerous sport in the Olympics with pole vault being a close second; table tennis is arguably the safest sport.

3) Jordan Jovtchev, 39, Bulgaria, men's gymnastics_ Though he didn't win a medal at the 2012 London Olympics, Jovtchev, who once lived in Oklahoma, came back for a record sixth Olympics in men's gymnastics. He competed on rings where he finished seventh in an an event won by Arthur Zanetti of Brazil. Jovtchev has previously won a total of four silver and bronze medals at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.
Jovtchev was also the flag-bearer for Bulgaria, which has surprisingly not medaled yet.

4) Riza Kayaalp, 22, Turkey, Greco-roman wrestling (pictured center)_ Kayaalp is so far the only Turkish athlete to medal in London; he won a bronze in the 120-kg class of his sport, an event that was won by Mijan Lopez of Cuba.

5) Andy Murray, 25, Great Britain, tennis_ Murray, who is the fourth-ranked men's tennis player in the world, defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland in straight sets to the delight of the home crowd on Saturday.

6) Epke Zonderland, 26, The Netherland/Hollan, men's gymnastics_ Zonderland won gold on the horizontal bar event yesterday. The Flying Dutchman beat out the likes of Zou Kai (China) and Jonathan Horton (USA) for the gold.

http://www.usainbolt.com

http://www.tonyestanguet.com

http://www.andymurray.com

http://www.dailyhurriyet.com

http://www.insidegymnastics.com

Our Favorite Olympic Athletes (so far)_One of Four

We start our look at our favorite Olympic athletes so far with a brief profile of six American male athletes and what they have accomplished at the 2012 London Olympics. Not all of these participants are medal winners, but they did leave a lasting impression on the summer games.

We will provide the athlete's name, sport, age, city of birth and/or residency, and the college or university they attended. The numbers are not in terms of preference as these athletes are listed in alphabetical order.

1. Kevin Durant, basketball, 23, Washington DC, University of Texas_ Durant who plays in the NBA for the Oklahoma City Thunder was instrumental in helping Team America beat Argentina 126-97 in a game that was very close until the third quarter when Durant scored 17 points of the team's 42 points in that period. Durant finished with 42 points; the team faces Australia in the quarterfinals.

2. Daryl Homer, fencing (sabre), 21, New York, St. John's University, (pictured top)_ Homer did not medal at the 2012 London Olympics as he finished in a respectable sixth place during his first Olympics. But, he is the first African-American to compete in fencing, a sport typically dominated by France, Italy and Hungary. Homer lost to Ranes Dumitrescu of Romania, who won a team silver in the sabre division. Aron Szilagyi of Hungary won the individual event that Homer competed in.

3. Jonathan Horton, gymnastics, 26, Houston, Texas, University of Oklahoma (pictured middle)_ Horton has so far (we are deliberately unaware of the current gymnastics results from London since they will not air until at least seven hours from now in the United States) not medaled at the Olympics, but he did win silver on the horizontal bar and a team bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Nevertheless, he has once again been a vital leader on the men's gymnastics team. His teammate Darell Leyva, 20, won bronze in the all-around competition.

4. Cullen Jones, 28, Charlotte, NC, North Carolina State (pictured below)_ Jones has not put up the numbers that Michael Phelps has, but he has had a successful Olympics. Jones won gold in the 4x100 medley, as he did in 2008, and two silver medals.

5. Michael Phelps, 27, Baltimore, Maryland, University of Michigan (did not compete for school)_ Aside from NBA basketball players like LeBron James, few Olympic athletes are likely to become multimillionaires, but Phelps already is. In London, he won four gold medals and two silvers, for a career total of 18 gold medals and four silver medals, making him the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time.

6. Errol Spence, 22, Dallas, Texas_ Spence is the last remaining hope for the United States in boxing; today he has a crucial bout against Andrey Zamakovoy of Russia.

http://www.darylhomer.com

http://www.jonathan-horton.com

http://www.cullenjones.com

Monday Morning (USA Time) Olympic Tweets- West Virginia Wins Gold

Since we have spent a lot of time covering women's sports so far at the 2012 London Olympics, we have actually come to the realization that we have neglected our own gender!  Hence, we looked at some tweets in the 09:00-10:00 hour (New York time) which focused on men's athletics. Hopefully, American feminist rights advocate Gloria Steinem is satisfied so far!

Before we get to that, in Olympic news, Krisztian Berki (pictured bottom) won gold on the men's pommel horse yesterday, winning the fourth gold medal for Hungary. He won a tie-breaker over Louis Smith of the hosting nation Great Britain. Smith's teammate Max Whitlock took bronze.



Here are the tweets; some contain SPOILER ALERTS:

1) @WVUgymnastics "A Mountaineer takes gold!!!! Congrat Nicco Campriani on your Olympic-record win in 3 men's positions! You make all of WVU proud!" (Campriani, pictured top, who competes for Italy,won both gold and silver today in men's air rifle; he is indeed the first West Virginia alumni to win a gold medal at the Olympics).

2) @InsideGym: "Wondering if that will be the last time we see the amazing Jordan Jovtchev at the Olympics?" (This is in reference to the Bulgarian men's gymnast who was the flag-bearer for his country).

3) @PostSports: "VIDEO. Men's 100-meter sprinters say they weren't affected by a spray bottle from the stands Sunday night" (This is in reference to the bottle-throwing incident from a Dutch person in the stands as Usain Bolt of Jamaica was about to compete in the 100-meter race, which he won).

4) @DMoceanu (Dominque Moceanu): "Congratulations to @MakaylaMaroney on winning her silver medal on VT EF & @jake_dalton for making the FX EF. Way to represent #TeamUSA!"

5) @chicagotribune: "U.S. Judo player expelled from Olympics after testing positive for pot." (The athlete is Nicholas Delpopolo).

6) @SuzyKhimm (reporter Suzy Khimm): "The Olympics are the only place where journalistic objectivity goes out the window." (Hence, the reason why we have posted an image of Sam the Eagle, the mascot of the 1984 Olympics, pictured center, as opposed to Wenlock and Mandeville, the 2012 London Olympics mascot. Of course, we are being ironic as the jingoism in much of NBC's coverage seems over-the-top, having said that, Michael Phelps really did quite well in the pool).

http://www.olympicmuseum.de

http://www.wvusports.com

http://www.dominique-moceanu.com

http://www.dominiquedawes.com

http://www.insidegymnastics.com



7) @dominquedawes (Dominique Dawes): "Gabby is competing in the individual events finals on bars. Stay tuned."

7

Olympic Mosaic_ Thrill of Victory; Agony of Defeat

Since I am a human secularist and a Turkish-American, I thought it would delightfully ironic to post an entry dedicated to a Muslim athlete from Kuwait who wore a hijab while competing at the 2012 London Olympics as well as mention a major success in women's weight-lifting for Armenia, one of Turkey's main rivals.

For Turkey, it was a day of great athletic glory and tremendous agony at the same time; the explanation for that will follow.

Here is a run-down of some unique Olympic stories we have come across, alas since time is short, we will skip details we might otherwise try to go further into.

*-Turkey (4-1) has been an unexpected success at the 2012 London Olympics in women's basketball as the squad won over Croatia 70-65 today with 14 points from Quanitra Hollingsworth, who is an American who obtained Turkish citizenship to compete for Turkey's national team. Nevriye Yilmaz added nine rebounds and Birsel Vardarli (pictured top with her infant child) and Isil Alben added three assists. The only loss for Turkey came against the United States, which is the overwhelming favorite to win gold.

*-Turkey (2-3) was not able to come through in women's volleyball in spite of high expectations, given that the team ranked eighth in the world. The top-ranked United States team (5-0)  won in straight sets (25-27, 16-25, 19-25) with Destinee Hooker providing 17 spikes for the Americans. In defeat, Turkish star Nesilhan Darnel, the country's flag-bearer put forth a valiant effort; Turkey lead 13-7 in the first set before a major rally from the American side.

*-The 2012 London Olympics are the first ones in which female athletes from all 204 nations and territories are competing and that includes every Islamic country competing. One of those athletes is Maryam Arzouqi, 25 (pictured center), of Kuwait who learned about through a sports blog related to Muslim female athletes. Arzouqi who competes while wearing the hijab finished 44th in the 50-m rifle shoot, which was won by American Jamie Lynn Gray. The Kuwaiti college student also finished 28th in the 10-m rifle, an event that was won by Sylwia Bogacka of Poland.

*-Armenia had a very successful day in the United Kingdom as the former Soviet Republic won a silver medal in men's wrestling (Arsan Julfalakyan); in women's sports, Hripsime Khurshudyan (pictured below), who actually does not boast the longest name so far at the games (that distinction appears to belong to an Iranian wrestler) won a bronze medal in women's weight-lifting. Zhou Lulu (gold, China) and Tatiana Kashirina (silver, Russia) finished ahead of her.

http://www.muslimwomeninsports.blogspot.com

http://www.usavolleyball.org

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

http://www.armenianlife.com

Olympic Chat on Twitter- Losing in Soccer the Hard Way

We learned many things tonight on Twitter between the hours of 19:00-20:00 (New York time), some of which actually spoiled tonight's NBC coverage of the 2012 London Olympics tonight (we are the last people in the world to see the games here on the east coast, except for those who reside in Hawaii which is six hours behind the east coast).

We also encountered a fervent Greek nationalist who was boasting of how Greece has proven its vast athletic superiority over the whole world with two bronze medals, including one from Ilias Iliadis in men's judo (90-kg); this would have been fine with us except the flag-waving fanatic had to mention that it was two more than Turkey had won (no medals so far for my father's country).

Then, this person had to add that Turkey lost to the United States, my native country by a 89-58 margin in women's basketball. Turkey did prevail handily over China by an 82-55 margin in the team's next game, and Greece lost to Team America in the exact same sport by a 89-58 margin in Riga, Latvia, on July 3, 2009.

Of course, we have nothing against Greeks or Greek-Americans in general, but there are jingoists who unfortunately soil the Olympic spirit.

As for the tweets we read tonight, some interesting things were discussed; here are six of them:

1) @TheSun_Football: "BREAKING NEWS: Great Britain lose to South Korea 5-4 on penalties at Olympic football quarter-final stage (The image above is of English soccer legend Frank Lampard, but it is not from today's game)."

2) @Current:  "Sex, training and winning the gold: @jonnymoseley reflects of the life of an Olympian (this is actually in reference to Jonny Moseley, an American skier who fared well at the 1996 Nagano Winter Olympics)

3) @Olympic: "Total Gold Count: USA with 26, China with 25, GBR with 14."

4) @SpencerGeorgeM: "Just got really emotional watching the recap of how Jessica Ennis won the Gold. Huge congratulations to her. Once again proud to be British." (Ennis is pictured in the center).

5) Chet_Cannon: "You deserve a tardy slip @joejones. Wow @Aly_Raisman and the women gymnasts are incredible....GO USA!" (Aly Raisman is part of the Fab Five gold-medal winning USA women's gymnastics team; she is pictured below).

6) @HuffPostComedy: "If you're competing in the #Olympics you probably have no life."


http://www.jessicaennis.net

http://www.usagym.org/

http://www.haaretz.com

http://www.olympicair.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com

Turkey Loses to USA in Women's Basketball; Team Rebounds Against China

There were high hopes amongst those watching the game live at midnight in Istanbul that Team Turkey would pull off an amazing upset against the top-ranked American team with some of the best women's basketball players in the world.

But, it was not to be as Turkey fell to the United States by a 89-58 score with 18 points coming from Angel McCoughtry, who was a stand-out with the Louisville Cardinals in women's college basketball.

Today, it was a different story for Turkey, which also has a women's volleyball team that won over South Korea on Friday, at the 2012 London Olympics on the court.

Nevriye Yilmaz (pictured) scored 16 points and her unlikely teammate Quanitra Hollingsworth, an American who played for the VCU Rams in college and gained Turkish citizenship to join the team grabbed 11 rebounds, as Turkey defeated China 82-55 with a surprisingly large margin of victory.

Turkey (3-1) will next face Croatia (1-3) in a pivotal game on Sunday.

http://www.tbf.org.tr

Olympic Stories- Beth Tweedle of Great Britain

The age of 27 is a prime age for many athletes, including those who play basketball, baseball or soccer. But, that is not the case for women's gymnastics as American gymnast Alicia Sacramone, 24, and Nastia Liukin, 22, are likely finished with the sport after not qualifying for the U.S.A women's gymnastics team, which won gold at 2012 London Olympics.

Enter Beth Tweedle. The British/English gymnast reportedly wanted to hang in to compete at the Olympics in her home country. Tweedle is a three-time world champion on bars and the 2009 world champion on floor exercise. She is the most recognized British gymnast in her history, and one of the most famous female athletes in the entire United Kingdom.

Yesterday, NBC, which is televising the Olympics in the United States, focused solely on Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman, the two Americans vying for gold, which Douglas received as well as their two Russian competitors Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina, who won silver and bronze respectively.

NBC did not even show one event with Tweedle, who finished an impressive sixth in the all-around competition with a 170.495.

On Monday, Tweedle seemingly has a respectable shot at winning an individual apparatus medal on the bars, her specialty. And, according "The Daily Mail," an English newspaper, gymnastics icon Olga Korbut thinks Tweedle has an outstanding shot at winning gold on bars.

http://www.bethtweedle.com