Hollywood Trash

We've Pulled Ahead of the Chinese with a Total of 82 Medals

8/9/2012




The United States won 11 medals yesterday, which puts us ahead on the overall medal count as of 8am this morning.  We now lead the Chinese by five, and the British have fallen behind the Russians by the three.  Here are the latest standings:

#1.)  The United States with 82 medals . . . 34 Gold, 23 Silver, and 25 Bronze.

#2.)  China with 77 medals . . . 36 Gold, 22 Silver, and 19 Bronze.

#3.)  Russia with 53 medals . . . 11 Gold, 19 Silver, and 23 Bronze.

#4.)  Great Britain with 50 medals . . . 23 Gold, 13 Silver, and 14 Bronze.

#5.)  Germany with 34 medals . . . 9 Gold, 15 Silver, and 10 Bronze.

 

 

 

 

Misty and Kerri Won Their Third Straight Beach Volleyball Gold, and We Won Seven Medals in Track and Field Yesterday

Our Olympians won 11 medals in seven different events yesterday.  But the big news is that we won gold in beach volleyball for the THIRD STRAIGHT Olympics.   This year's Beach Volleyball final had two American teams playing against each other for the first time ever.  So we were guaranteed to win both Gold and Silver.  While you get a chant of U.S.A., U.S.A. started, here are our medal winners:

#1.)  Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings defeated April Ross and Jen Kessy with a score of 21-16 in both sets to win the Gold.

(Misty and Kerri won their first gold in the 2004 Athens games.  They then became the first beach volleyball team to win back-to-back Olympic gold at the 2008 Beijing games, and now have another first with this three-peat.)

#2.)  Runner Allyson Felix won Gold in the Women's 200-meter dash and her teammate Carmelita Jeter won the Bronze.  They'll both be running again in today's 4x100-meter relay.

#3.)  Brittney Reese won the Gold and her teammate Janay DeLoach won the Bronze in the Women's Long Jump.  It was the only event for both of them.

#4.)  Aries Merritt won Gold and Jason Richardson won Silver in the Men's 110-meter Hurdles.  It was the only event for both of them.

#5.)  Lashinda Demus won Silver in the Women's 400-meter Hurdles.  (--That gave the U.S. SEVEN medals in track and field for the day.)

#6.)  Clarissa Chun won Bronze in Women's Wrestling, 106-pound weight class.  (--Wrestling gives TWO bronze medals . . . to each of the two semifinal losers, instead of having a bronze-medal match.  So do Judo and Boxing.)

#7.) Marlen Esparza earned a Bronze in the Women's Flyweight Boxing semifinals yesterday.  They'll award it after today's gold medal match.

 

 

 

So Far, 15.5% of Gold Medal Winners Have Cried, 44.2% Have Sung Their National Anthem, and 15.5% Have Bitten or Kissed Their Medal

The "Wall Street Journal" analyzed all the gold medal winners at the Olympics so far, and broke down exactly how they handled themselves on the medal stand.  Here's what they found . . .

There have been 129 gold medal winners, 72 men and 57 women.  A total of 15.5% have cried on the medal stand.  That includes 8.3% of the men and 24.6% of the women.

Of the countries with a significant number of medal wins, the Chinese winners cry the least, at only 7%.  17% of American winners cry, which is slightly above average.  37.5% of British athletes have cried.

A total of 44.2% sang along with their country's national anthem.  That includes 51.4% of men and 35.1% of women.

The Chinese are most likely to sing along, at 92%.  61% of British athletes sang along . . . and only 44% of American athletes sang along.

And finally, 15.5% of winners KISSED or BIT their gold medal.  23.6% of men and 5.3% of women went for the bite or kiss.

(Wall Street Journal)

 

 

 

 

Here Are the 10 Athletes With the Most Clicks on NBC's Olympics Website

NBC has profiles of the Olympic athletes on their Olympics website NBCOlympics.com.  And as of Monday, more than 1.1 billion people have looked at them. 

All of the 10 most-clicked athletes won a gold medal this year, and they combined to win 20.  Here's the Top 10:     

#1.)  Gabby Douglas, Gymnastics:  18.27 million clicks.  (She has 11 million more clicks than anyone else.)

#2.)  Michael Phelps, Swimming:  7.04 million.

#3.)  McKayla Maroney, Gymnastics:  6.04 million.

#4.)  Jordyn Wieber, Gymnastics:  5.94 million.

#5.)  Aly Raisman, Gymnastics:  3.01 million.  (FOUR of the top five are women's gymnasts.)

#6.)  Misty May-Treanor, Beach Volleyball:  2.45 million.

#7.)  Missy Franklin, Swimming:  2.36 million.

#8.)  Usain Bolt, Track:  2.33 million.  (He's the only non-American.)

#9.)  Ryan Lochte, Swimming:  2.27 million 

#10.)  Serena Williams, Tennis:  1.83 million.

(TVFilmNews.com)

 

 

 

 

If the U.S. Soccer Team Wins Gold Today, They'll Split a $1.5 Million Bonus, Here's What Gold Medalists in Other Countries Get

The U.S. Women's Soccer team plays Japan for the gold medal today.  But they'll also be playing for a whole lot of CASH.    Sunil Gulati is the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation.  And he announced yesterday that if Team U.S.A. wins, they'll split a bonus of $1.5 million.    There are 18 players on the roster, but Sunil said he expects them to share the money with their trainers, and reserve players who didn't make the Olympic team.  

Assuming they split it equally and give the trainers and reserves a full share, each player will get $50,000.  That's on top of the $25,000 bonus the U.S. Olympic Committee gives any athlete that wins gold.  Yes, they'd have to pay taxes on their bonus.  And they get a smaller bonus if they win the silver, but Sunil didn't say how much it was.

$75,000 sounds like a lot, and it is.  But it's a BARGAIN compared to how much other countries pay their gold medal winners.

Italy pays the most, each of their gold medalists gets $182,400. 

Russia comes in second, each gold medalist gets $135,000.   

France pays $65,200 

Japan pays $35,900

China pays $31,400 

Canada and Germany pay around $20,000.

Host country Great Britain has 22 gold medalists, but they're not paying their athletes ANY bonus.

(Yahoo!)



 
 
 
 
 

Sri Lanka Sent Seven Athletes to the Olympics . . . But No Coaches?

Sri Lanka has seven athletes at the London Olympics.  (Sri Lanka is an island just south of India.)    They sent a hurdler, two swimmers, two marathon runners, a shooter, and a badminton player.  As of yesterday, they hadn't won ANY medals.  Five are done competing and didn't make the finals in any event.  But maybe that's because they didn't send along any COACHES. 

One of the marathon runners has a coach who lives in England, so he's already there.  But the rest of the team is coach-less.  Which is weird, because Sri Lanka sent 10 Olympic officials along with the team.  That includes the president of Sri Lanka's badminton association, and one of the athlete's sponsors.  But again, no coaches. 

It's created a major controversy in Sri Lanka.  The head of their Olympic committee said he doesn't think it's important for athletes to have their coach in London, because they've already finished their training.  But Sri Lanka's sports minister said their Olympic committee is WRONG.  "A coach should be with the player up until the final moment."  

Mangala Samarakoon was eliminated from the shooting competition in the first round.  His coach is also his father, and Mangala said he would have performed better if his coach came with him. 

(BBC)



 

 

An Olympic Gold Medal Winner Admits He's Most Excited About How It's Going To Help Him Get Women

FINALLY, we've got an Olympic athlete who's honest about the REAL reason he's excited about winning his medal. 

On Monday, 26-year-old Scott Brash won a gold medal in equestrian for Great Britain.  And in an interview with the BBC, he admitted he's most excited about the gold because, "I really hope this win improves my pulling power with women, if I'm honest.  That's about it." 

He wouldn't say whether the medal helped him get lucky the night he won, but he DID say,  "I had too good a celebration and a sore head the next day."

(Daily Mail)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Why Does Everyone Suddenly Hate Lolo Jones?

Coming into the Olympics, virginal hurdler LOLO JONES was one of the darlings of Team USA.  But somewhere along the way, the world seemed to turn on her.  The "New York Times" wrote a total hatchet piece on her, basically calling her an ATTENTION WHORE and comparing her to tennis minx ANNA KOURNIKOVA, the implication being that she SUCKS at her sport, but she gets all the attention because she's HOT.

Then, when Lolo failed to medal in her event, the hits came even harder.  Lolo's own teammates ripped into her on national TV.  Australian Sally Pearson won the event.  She was followed by two Americans:  DAWN HARPER and KELLIE WELLS.

Dawn and Kellie were interviewed by NBC after the race, and the CLAWS came out.  Dawn was upset that Lolo got so much attention, even though she felt SHE had a good story coming into the games, too.  Then Kellie added, "I think that, on the podium tonight, the three girls that earned their spot and they got their medals and they worked hard and did what they needed to do, prevailed.  And that's all that really needs to be said."

Dawn liked that comment, because she pretended to smack the table, and said, "BOOM!  Just like that."  (--Here's video.) 

 

As far as we know, Lolo hasn't responded to Dawn and Kellie.  But in an interview with the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie, she spoke about the "New York Times" article.  Lolo actually got choked up as she said, "The fact that it was from U.S. media.  I mean, like, they should be supporting our U.S. Olympic athletes and instead they just ripped me shreds, and I just thought that that was crazy because I worked six days a week every day for four years, for a 12-second race.  And the fact that they just tore me apart, it was just heartbreaking." 

She added that she's NOT the Anna Kournikova of her sport, because she's actually the American indoor record holder and has two world indoor titles.  She added, "Just because I don't boast about these things, I don't think I should be ripped apart by media, when I'm already so broken-hearted as it is."

(Here's video.)

 

 

 

Olympic Extras

#1.)  RYAN LOCHTE says he's been pitched a few different reality shows, although he won't say what they are.  He DID say, though, that he might be interested in "Dancing With the Stars".  And he'd even be willing to go up against MICHAEL PHELPS.  Meanwhile, Phelps said he wouldn't rule out doing "Dancing With the Stars" either.

#2.)  According to a new poll, 78% of viewers think RYAN SEACREST is doing a good job at the Olympics.  Although DAN PATRICK and BOB COSTAS both scored in the 90s.  According to that same poll, Americans' favorite Olympic moments were:  Michael Phelps becoming the most decorated Olympian ever, Gabby Douglas winning gold in women's all-around gymnastics, and the women's gymnastics team winning gold for the first time since 1996.

#3.)  GABBY DOUGLAS' mother is responding to the silly controversy over her daughter's hair.  One of her excuses is that Gabby lives with a host family and trains in Iowa, where there aren't any black salons.  (???)  (Read more here.)  Meanwhile, Gabby did one of those "25 Things You Don't Know About Me" articles for "Us Weekly".  You can see it here.