I think they play both anthems when there is a tie for gold.
With the tie for silver they had one gold and one bronze. The flags were on top of each other, not sure what order.
Brian
It was US then Canada. Not sure why. If anything, Canada should have been on top for all sorts of reasons–alphabetical, geographical, etc.
I am thrilled China is getting their ass handed to them by the U.S. With three times the population, they are still losing big-time. OTOH, Great Britain is doing exceptionally well at #3 when you adjust for population. It is even better that Mother Russia is a complete failure.
All their best athletes were on the dope and banned from the Olympics.
They always were. You pay your money, you take your chances. U.S. athletes have to do it the hard way now especially after high-profile scandals like Lance Armstrong. I would bet everything I own that Simone Biles and Aly Resiman never did any sort of doping. Michael Phelps didn’t either at least during this Olympics. He is just a freak of nature that can swim better than anyone in the world. I bet I could take him in a spelling bee or any other intellectual test but the man can swim as fast as Forrest Gump can run. Sometimes, single, exceptional skills are all you need.
Maybe it was alphabetical by the medalists’ names…
Oh come on, that’s just too obvious.
I just saw the end of Australia vs. Brazil. Was it just me, or was the Brazilian keeper totally cheating off the line during the penalty kicks?
She was utterly blatant on the first couple of kicks and then toned it down, but even on the winning save she was a step or two off of her line for sure.
That’s what it looked like to me, too. What’s the procedure in that case; does it not get called if the kick is good, does the ref warn the keeper?
No. When there is a tie for gold or silver, there is no bronze given. As Eyebrows notes, the next swimmer after the three silvers is the fifth-best finisher. No medals for coming in fifth.
They flip a coin, USA won. That’s also why USA anthem was played first.
Since there’s tie for gold, there’s no bronze. Same with the tie for silver. I guess they try not to let too many people on the podium.
She is awesome. It’s just great watching her swim.
Of course, any non-American winning by that sort of margin, and the internet would currently be overflowing with snide remarks implying steroid use. I’m not interested in making any accusations about individuals, but Shagnasty, if you think that the Lance Armstrong scandal means that no-one on the US team has ever doped, i’ve got some swampland in Florida that you would definitely be interested in.
In other news, the Aussie women lost a heartbreaker to Brazil in the quarter-final of the women’s soccer, getting beaten on a penalty shootout that went to eight shots per team. I think that Brazil played better than Australia for a lot of the game, but the Aussies defended incredibly well, and goalkeeper Williams made a couple of great saves.
The Brazilian keeper was definitely moving well off the line before the kicks, especially early in the shootout, but i’ve seen other keepers do similar stuff. I’m also not sure how much of an advantage it gives; sure, it cuts down the angle a little bit, but it also reduces your reaction time even further.
The Australian Gorry should have done much better when she had a chance to win the game on Shot #5. Her shot was chest high, and almost straight at the keeper.
Nope. If there’s a tie for gold, they eliminate the silver and award the bronze. Otherwise you would be giving a silver medal to the third-placed athlete.
They do eliminate the bronze if there’s a tie for silver.
Ah, of course. I knew that once, but had it wrong here as well.
If there were a three-or-more-way tie for gold, there would be no other medals given.
There were an incredible number of shots like that from both sides. I honestly wonder if a keeper could have profitably waited to see the shot and reacted to it because some many of them we damn near down the middle of the net.
So I’m watching Katie Ledeky smash the world record in the 800m Freestyle and I notice that when the swimmers get close to the wall, these guys ring these bells in their faces. What is that bell signaling?
Last two lengths of the pool, i.e., the final 100m of the race.
For long races like the 800 and 1500m, where you’re swimming 16 or 30 laps of the pool, it is possible (although, for olympic athletes, probably quite unlikely) that you can lose track of how many laps are left. Hence the bell.
They have a similar thing in track, for the final lap of races like the 1500m, 3000m, etc.
Although if Ledecky accidentally swam another two lengths she still might have won.
Depending on the venue and sport, your ticket might be for something like “Pool play, Group B, day 3”, which could be several matches. So if you’re a big supporter of the US Water Polo team, maybe you don’t care about the early morning match between Slovenia and Hungary. Particularly if you partied too hard the night before.
And if you’re a fan of the US Women’s Soccer team, maybe you’re trying to sell off your hot ticket to the gold medal game…
(and I just bet some NBC execs are trying to figure out how to shuffle their coverage now that this gold medal game will be a lot less popular to US viewers now)