Hollywood Trash

We Won Seven Medals Yesterday, And We Trail China By Three, Plus More Olympic News

8/8/2012




All told, we increased our medal count by seven yesterday.  Here are our winners:

#1.)  Dawn Harper won Silver and Kellie Wells won Bronze in the Women's 100-meter Hurdles.  Australia came in 1st, while we took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.  Lolo Jones came in fourth.  We all expected her to medal, but she didn't have the juice.  (Lolo was the favorite to win in the 2008 games, but she lost a commanding lead after stumbling over the ninth hurdle.  Dawn and that Australian chick took first and second place in Beijing, with Lolo in fourth.)

#2.)  Aly Raisman (seen here) won two medals yesterday.  She came in first to win the Gold in the Gymnastics Floor Exercise, and she won Bronze on the Balance Beam.  The judges originally named Romanian Catalina Ponor as the bronze medalist in the balance beam event, but Aly's coach ran up to file a formal enquiry, and succeeded in getting the results CHANGED.  Catalina later lost to Aly on the Floor Exercise too.  Aly won Gold and Cat walks away with Silver.

#3.)  Cyclist Sarah Hammer won Silver in something called the Women's Omnium.  (It's kind of like a decathlon or Individual Medley of cycling.  They have six different types of races ranging in length from 250-meters to 20 kilometers.)

#4.)  Erik Kynard won Silver in the Men's High Jump.

#5.)  Runner Leo Manzano won Silver in the Men's 1,500-meter race.

 

 

We Trail China By Three, and 64% of Countries Still Haven't Medaled

The seven medals we picked up yesterday weren't enough to catch the Chinese.  While we won seven, they earned another nine to solidify a three medal lead.  The British and the Russians have been jockeying for third place.  As of this morning, they were tied with a total of 48 medals, but the Brits had a dozen more gold to put them back in third again.  Here's the overall medal count:

#1.)  China with 74 medals . . . 34 Gold, 21 Silver, and 19 Bronze.

#2.)  The United States with 71 medals . . . 30 Gold, 19 Silver, and 22 Bronze.

#3.)  Great Britain with 48 medals . . . 22 Gold, 13 Silver, and 13 Bronze.

#4.)  Russia with 48 medals . . . 10 Gold, 18 Silver, and 20 Bronze.

#5.)  Germany with 32 medals . . . 7 Gold, 15 Silver, and 10 Bronze.

There are now "only" 131 countries without any medals, which is 64% of the 204 countries attending.  Get the latest updates at nbcolympics.com/medals.

 

 

 

 

A Russian High Jumper Takes Off His Shirt, Loses It . . . And Wins the Gold Medal In a T-Shirt

Ivan Ukhov is a high jumper from Russia.  Before this Olympics, he was best known for a video where he showed up to a high jump meet DRUNK, and failed miserably.  And now he's got a new moment of infamy, but also GLORY.

Ukhov was competing in the high jump yesterday, and in the middle of the event, he took off his shirt, and it got LOST.  So he had to grab a baggy t-shirt that was lying around and compete in that.  He put it on, and WON THE GOLD.

(Deadspin) 

Here's a video of him winning in his t-shirt.

 

 

 

 

 

A British Pole Vaulter Didn't Win a Medal, but Her Boyfriend Proposed to Her After the Competition Anyway


20-year-old Holly Bleasdale is a British pole vaulter, and was considered one of the favorites to win a medal.    She's vaulted as high as 15 feet, 11-and-three-quarter inches.  But on Monday, she didn't come within a FOOT of that.  She failed three times at 14 feet, 11 inches.    American Jennifer Suhr won the gold by vaulting 15 feet, seven inches. 

That means that Holly's all-time best WOULD have won her the gold, but she finished sixth.  That kind of threw a wrench into her boyfriend's plans.  Paul Bradshaw had planned on making it the BEST night of Holly's life.  First she'd win a medal, THEN he'd ask her to marry him.  Instead, Holly left the stadium in tears, but Paul popped the question anyway, and she said YES.  (We're not sure when or where it happened, but it sounds like he waited until a few hours after the event.)

Holly went on Twitter and said, "6th in the Olympics and Bradshaw proposes to me :) epic day!!!"

And Paul tweeted, "I have just proposed to Holly Bleasdale and she said yes!  Best day ever!"

(Yahoo!)

 

 

 

 

The U.S. Water Polo Coach Called an Illegal Timeout With One Second Left, And Almost Cost Them the Game

The U.S. beat Australia yesterday to earn a spot in tomorrow's gold medal game, no thanks to their coach.   The United States was winning nine to eight with ONE SECOND left, and for some reason, their coach, Adam Krikorian, decided to call a timeout.

There was just one problem:  You need to have possession of the ball to call a timeout in water polo, and the U.S. DIDN'T.  Adam knew the rule, but he thought the American goalie had the ball.  That meant that Australia got to take a penalty shot, and they scored to TIE the game.   (Sports heads call that a "Chris Webber moment".  He was the Michigan basketball player who called timeout at the end of the NCAA championship game when his team didn't have any left, costing them the game.)

Luckily we scored two goals in overtime to win 11 to nine, so it was all good.  Adam said, "It was a big mistake and it could have cost us the game.  It went through my mind that I might have blown it."

The U.S. has NEVER won gold in women's water polo.  They'll play Spain tomorrow, and Australia will play Hungary for the bronze. 

(Buzzfeed)








Seven Members of Team Cameroon Disappeared, Because They're Looking for Jobs in Europe

Now this is an unsuccessful Olympics:  Cameroon hasn't won any medals in London this year.   Even worse, they sent 37 athletes to the Olympics, but are only taking 30 home.    Seven members of Team Cameroon, five boxers, a swimmer, and a women's soccer player, have DISAPPEARED.     

Boxers Thomas Essomba, Christian Donfack Adjoufack, Abdon Mewoli, Blaise Yepmou Mendouo, and Serge Ambomo all went missing from the Olympic Village on Sunday, after being eliminated.

Swimmer Paul Ekane Edingue left a few days earlier, after he didn't advance in the 50-meter freestyle preliminary race.  And alternate for the women's soccer team, Drusille Ngako is also gone.

Officials aren't positive, but they THINK the seven athletes have decided to stay in Europe to look for jobs.  It's not the first time Cameroon has lost athletes when they travel.  They've had team members vanish at the British Commonwealth games, and the Francophonie games, which are like the Olympics for French-speaking countries.  Cameroon has a population of 20 million people, and 12 million of them are unemployed.  That's an unemployment rate of 60%. 

(Yahoo!)

 

 

 

Inventors Created a Machine That Automatically Pours a Shot When the U.S. Wins a Medal

These people HAVE to patent this and sell it before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia.  Because it's ingenious.  A team of inventors called SmartThings have created a machine that automatically pours a SHOT every time the U.S. wins a medal during the Olympics. 

It's connected to the Internet, so the INSTANT an American wins, a shot pours.  It doesn't have to wait for NBC's tape delay.  They have the machine rigged to pour Jack Daniels for a bronze, Jose Cuervo silver tequila for a silver, and Goldschlager for a gold.

(Gizmodo)

Here's a video of the machine in action.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In Past Olympics, Athletes Have Used Brandy, Poison, Cocaine, and Animal Testes as Performance-Enhancing Substances

We know about plenty of performance enhancers athletes use today, from steroids to doping.  But before any of those existed, some Olympians were still trying to get an extra edge, and they turned to some ridiculous options. 

In the ancient Olympics in Greece, athletes would CHEW RAW ANIMAL TESTES to try to get a hormone boost.  In the first modern Olympics in 1896, athletes injected themselves with stimulants, drank tonics, and did COCAINE.  And in the 1904 Olympics, Thomas Hicks won the gold in marathon running after ingesting RAW EGG, strychnine poison, and shots of BRANDY. 

The Olympics didn't get really serious about testing for banned substances until 1960, when a Danish cyclist named Knud Enemark Jensen died from amphetamines.

Athletes in London are being tested for more than 240 banned substances.

(Chicago Tribune)