Category — Bejing Olympics 2008

So here it is after one week of competition.

So far it has been a pretty good olympics. Many of the compeititions have been exciting to watch to be sure especially on the swimming though from the coverage on NBC, it was more like the Michael Phelps show. Question is what NBC is going to do for coverage now that the swimming meets are over? There are no other individual stars like Phelps on the Olympic team especially for the track and event fields which should dominate coverage for the final week. Do expect, though, a heavy emphasis on the US men’s basketball team and its crew of NBA stars, aka the Redeem Team.

As for the Canadian, it was the typical slow start as many of the events to date are not Canadian specialities like archery and table tennis. That will change with more track & field and boat events as the week progresses. So far, the expected medalists have come through with a surprise or two. Ryan Cochrane bronze in the men’s 1500m swim was the validation that the swim team needed to keep the program going forward. The team posted many personal and national bests and the future looks promising for the future games. The rowing events, as usual, were a Canadian strength with a silver in the men’s pair, bronzes in the women’s pair and men’s lightweight four but topping them all was the gold in the prestige event, the men’s eight.

Still the highlight for the Canadian team was the gold medal won by Carol Huynh in the 48kg women’s wrestling. It is quite an accomplishment for her and the Canadian wrestling team as it also placed two other women in bronze medal matches winning one.

There were disappointments like the Canadian women’s soccer team falling in the quarterfinals, the diving team coming just a bit short but there will a next time for many of them

Still more opportunities in the days ahead for Canada to improve its medal standings. Perhaps, the people who were so despondent about seeing only 0 medals for the first several days of the games can lighten up a bit.

The television coverage has been pretty good for the most part even if it seems to be inordinately focused on swimming and beach volleyball on the primetime show. The other NBC networks seem to be picking up the load pretty good from what I have seen of it.

What has been a life saver for me was the video feeds of many of the ‘minor’ sports. That allowed me to see Huynh’s gold medal match and some of the rowing events. Given that television broadcast of much the other events happens during work hours, I take what I can despite that the on video has no spoke commentary just text.

I still have issues with the web sites. Still laggards on many of the results and not well organised or intuitive but I manage to make the most of it.

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I am a Olympics junkie. For the past twenty years or so, I have been an interested devotee of the games and for most of the events no obscure it may be.

It has been quite a change from how I track the games events and results from 1988 to 2008. Back then, I was reliant upon whatever the CBC/CTV or the American networks carried on their braodcast which usually was just snippets of clips and focus on whatever the stars were for the event. If I was lucky, I could read about other events and see the stats for the events in the paper even if I knew the results well ahead of time.

Over the years, as computers and the Internet became more prevalent in our lives, I found it was easier to catch up with the results. In the late 90’s, the websites associated with the Olympic games or the network sites would have some stories posted along with the results. Not in real-time but usually ahead of what was printed in the paper the next day.

By this time, the games were seen as rating gold especially for NBC, and we start seeing more around the clock coverage allowing the viewers to see more sports even if was just the gold medal final.

By the 2000 Olympics, I had become throughly immersed in the Olympics as the games progressed checking on the results with a relentless spirt. With faster Internet speeds, seeing video whether live or even just highlight clips became a useful tool.

Now, in 2008, what do I have access to?
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Not a great day for Canada on Monday’s actions at the Beijing Olympics. Another day without any medals along with some performances that were less than sub par in some cases, others better than expected but still short.

Many sports had medal events which Canada was not expected to do well like the lightweight weightlifting events. After a promising start in the pool, Canada fell a bit short in the qualifying heats for Tuesday’s events. On the other hand, the men’s 4×100, freestyle relay team gave a performance that shattered the Canadian record but still only ended up 6th which is an indication on far the rest of the world has advanced in the sport.

There were hopes on some performances that could have broken through like Anna Rice in women’s singles badminton who fell in the round of 16. Hopes too that Luan Jujie would find her winning form in the women’s foil but she drew the fourth best play in the world and she was out. There was some disappointments like Brent Hayden in the men’s 200m freestyle in swimming. He made a choice to conserve his energy for the later freestyle so he scratched himself from the semifinal. Whether he could have competed well enough for the medal event we will never know.

The biggest disappointment of them all though was the unexpected early departure of Daniel Nestor and his doubles team from men’s tennis. Being one of the highest ranked doubles player in the world, one would have expected him to go further into the competition. Now he going home.

Still it was not all bad. The men’s eight in rowing advanced directly to the finals. David Ford moved onto the finals in slalom kayaking.

Canada was expected to win some medals at these Olympics and as of yet, the events which Canadians were expected to vie for medals have yet to begin so there is no need to panic just yet but still it is difficult seeing countries like India getting medals while Canada is down at the bottom of the standings with countries like Cameroon and Fiji.

I wonder, though, that through my profiles if I am jinxing the team a bit. So just to appease fate a bit. I think I will hold off for a day or two on further profiles to see if Canada’s luck can change.

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Sport: Fencing
Age: 50
Hometown: Edmonton Alberta

Medal Potential: Unlikely- Women’s Foil

Luan Jujie is a renown fencer though not so in Canada. In 1984 at the Los Angeles Olympic Games, she won Gold for China, its first fencing medal ever. For that feat, she is considered to be one of the top 50 athlete of the past 50 years in China.

She never duplicated that great success and in time she emigrated to Canada and started a fencing school in Edmonton Alberta. Becoming a Canadian citizen, she represented Canada at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney though she never got past the first round.

So she now returns to the land of her birth with a higher profile in China than any other of her fellow Canadians and accordingly be given much respect and honor there. Yet, it is not expected that she win a medal in her event. Rather, it is more of a recognition in Canada of what she has done for the sport of fencing in Canada. As a sport in Canada, fencing has never received much support or visibility but in recent years, there has been a determined effort by devotees of the sport to provide the training resources for up and coming fencers. Jujie school in Edmonton helps support that effort.

This year’s Olympics will see one of the largest group of fencers Canada will ever send to the Olympics. No member of the team is expected to win a medal but it is a base from which future teams will be built all because of devoted teachers like Luan Jujie.

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Sport: Tennis
Age: 36
Hometown: Toronto Ontario

Medal Potential: Good- Men’s Doubles

Daniel Nestor is a rarity among the Canadian contingent at the Beijing Olympics. He has actually won an Olympic medal, Gold at the 2000 Sydney Games where he was doubled with Sebastien Lebrun. For several years, he has been among the top doubles player in the world. He won the 2008 Wimbledon doubles with Serbian Nenad Zimonjic giving him a career Grand Slam of all of the major tennis tournaments. His double pairing this year is currently ranked as number one.

Of course, the problem is that he needs a Canadian partner to actually play with and for this go around, he is paired with Frederic Niemeyer who is a decent singles player in his own right and has played with Nestor in several Davis Cup matches.

Nestor has the potential to win a medal in the event but that depends heavily on the seeding and draws. There are two potential road blocks in the Bryan brothers of the United States and the Serbian pair of Zimonjic and Novak Djokovic. Yet, it is such his skill and experience that he should be able to reach the semi-finals and possibly win his second Olympic medal.

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Sport: Swimming
Age: 24
Hometown: Mission BC

Medal Potential: Very Good - 200m Freestyle, 4×100 Freestyle Relay

The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was an ignominious one for the Canadian swimming team. No medals and an overall poor performance. This was a change for Olympics past as one of the surest bets for Canadian medals at the games was the swim team with the 1984 games being the pinnacle of Canadian success in the pool. Management problems and squabbles among coaches lead to a wholesale shakeup of the team exemplified by the return of Alex Baumann to bring a winning work ethic back to the team.

It may be too soon on how these changes will benefit the Canadian team now in Beijing but this year there is the possibility that medal hopes may be realised once more even if it is just one person.

Brent Hayden may be unfairly given the responsibility to bring back the glory of swim teams in the past but he has shown himself quite capable of handling that responsibility. At the World Aquatic Championships in 2007, he shared gold in the 100m freestyle, the first Canadian to win gold in years. Yet he is entering one of the most competitive fields in years. He is also recovering from a back injury from earlier in the year and even though he feels he has fully recovered, the field may not be so sympathetic.

But he is a driven soul, filled with a desire to excel and exceed all expectations for himself but as he did last year in the championships. However, as a member of the freestyle relay team, he perhaps has his best chance for a medal and indeed perhaps the only medal for Canada in the pool. But no matter what, how he and the rest of the team perform in Beijing, one hopes it is a beginning for much more success in the future especially in London in 2012.

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Well, I watched the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Games. I think that the artistic half of the ceremony is the finest I have ever seen and I have seen several over the decades. Beautiful, graceful, dignified , this celebration of a country’s history and aspirations goes well to introduce the new China to the world. The use of the massive LCD screen on the field to paint scenes was an inspired touch. The flying of the acrobats through the air, the steady drumbeat, the quiet moments made this immensely enjoyable.

The same can not be said for the March of Nations. We have too many countries in the world. Two hundred plus nations, thousands of athletes take time to fill a stadium. Well over two hours but I personally checked out around the half way mark to keep up with the events that were occurring live in China. I saw the Canadians entered in along with other minor countries. I popped in then and again to see if it was done. Around 11:30, China finally entered the stadium so I watched the oath ceremony and then the torch lighting. Then it was back to the computer to get the latest updates.

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As with every Olympics now, Sports Illustrated has come out with its selections for the medal winners for all of the Olympic Sports. As usual, many people take exception on why someone was not selected to win their event or even place or show. It is not that SI is considered to be the best predictor of the results. I think they may be hitting .600 or so but as fas I know, their picks carry a cachet that no other sporting media does.

So what does SI pick for Canada at the Beijing Olympics:

Canada enters the 2008 Olympic Games

Gold:

• Adam van Koeverden - Kayak singles 500 meters
• Canada -Men’s Eights

Silver:

• Thomas Hall - Canoe singles 1,000 meters
• Adam van Koeverden - Kayak singles 1,000 meters
• Marie-Helene Premont- Mountain bike
• Karine Sergerie -Taekwondo Women’s 67 kg (147.5 lbs.)

Bronze:

• Eric Lamaze - Individual jumping
• Canada - Team jumping
• Karen Cockburn - Trampoline
• Calder & Frandsen - Rowing Pairs without cox
• Canada -Rowing Women’s Eights
• Sébastien Michaud -Taekwondo Men’s 80 kg (176 lbs.)
• Ivett Gonda - Taekwondo Women’s 49 kg (108 lbs.)
• Carol Huynh - Women’s Freestyle Wrestling 48 kg (105.5 lbs.)
• Tonya Verbeek Women’s Freestyle Wrestling 55 kg (121 lbs.)

Fifteen medals: 2 Gold, 4 Silver, 9 Bronze. The distribution of medals looks a bit strange. Who knew that Canada is a powerhouse in Taekwondo and Women’s wrestling. Noticeable by their absence are medals in the swimming and diving events. While the Americans are expected to dominate the swimming events as is the Chinese for diving, I believe that Canada will sneak out of the pool with at least 2 medals perhaps as many as 4.

Canada may surprise in the women’s soccer event and I have a good feeling that Gary Reed will come through in the 800m race. But if history is any indication, what surprise medals Canada gets outside of these predicted results will be offset by those who fail to live up to their expectations. So with that in mind, I think the overall total and distribution of the medals will come close to the predicted results. Who receives what is still to be determined.

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