London Olympics Live Blog: Epic Women's Soccer Semi-Final
Welcome to Week 2 of the XXX Olympiad! We hope no one in London has a case of the Mondays because there are medals to be won and everyone needs to stay sharp if they want to take home the hardware. Keep checking this page all day long for news and results.
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Here's the U.S. TV schedule here, the full hour-by-hour event schedule, and you can watch it all live online at NBCOlympics.com. Don't forget to catch up on all of the The Atlantic Wire's previous Olympics coverage, as well.
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All times listed are Eastern
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5:17p.m.: RESULTS: After 123 minutes of play, the USA women's soccer tam beats Canada 4 to 3. Alex Morgan made the final goal after two periods of extra play passed. USA will play Japan for the gold.
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The final goal:
Another angle:
4:57p.m.: The USA vs. Canada women's soccer match is epic. We're now going into our second extra time period. Score is tied 3 to 3.
4:50p.m.: USA's Jenn Suhr wins gold in pole vault.
4:06p.m. RESULTS: The Dominican Republic's Felix Sanchez won gold in the men's 400-meter hurdles with a time of 47.63. America's Michael Tinsley won silver and Puerto Rico's Javier Culson won bronze.
After Sanchez won the race, he pulled what looked like a photo of his family from behind his number, then knelt on the ground and kissed it.
Here's a close-up of the photo:
(Photo via Reuters.)
3:10p.m.: A goal finally slips past Hope Solo. Canada is leading the U.S. 1 to 0 in the semi-final. The winner advances to the gold medal game.
2:40p.m.: One of the more interesting parts of track and field is watching the throwing styles in the women's shot put. Here's American Michelle Carter:
Here's China's Li Ling:
Russia's Irina Terasova:
2:35p.m.: Update on the race walker who tested positive for doping: Alex Schwazer has been removed from the Italian Olympic team. What he tested positive for has not been made public yet. Schwazer, 27, was the 2008 Olympic champion in the 50-kilometer walk.
2:04p.m.: One of the best things about Olympic athletes being on Twitter is that we get to see them swoon over each other as fans. Here's wrestler Jordan Burroughs excited to meet Gabrielle Douglas:
1:55p.m.: And here's a great pin by Kazakhstan's Almat Kebispayev of Bulgaria's Ivo Serafimov Angelov in the 60-kilogram Greco-Roman wrestling competition. The guys are competing for bronze.
1:40p.m.: Watch France's Melonin Noumonvi resist being flipped to his back to be pinned by Croatia's Nenad Zugaj in the 84-kilogram Greco-Roman wrestling finals. Noumonvi won that period.
They're competing for the bronze medal.
1:15p.m.: Race walker Alex Schwazer fails a drug test. The Italian is booted from the Olympics, Reuters reports. Schwazer in 2010:
(Photo via Reuters.)
12:29 p.m.: The NYTimes.com has an excellent graphic feature comparing Usain Bolt to all the 100m sprinters in Olympic History.
12:24 p.m.: That last Gold gives Great Britain its 17th Gold Medal of these Games. It had 19 during the entire Beijing Olympics in 2008.
11:59 a.m.: RESULTS: So in the span of about ten minutes: Fehaid Aldeehani of Kuwait won his shoot out for hte Bronze Medal in Men's trap. Giovanni Cernogoraz of Croatia outlasted and Massimo Fabbrizi of Italy for the Gold in the same event, and Peter Charles, needing a penalty free run at the equestrian course to give Great Britain the Gold, delivers and the home crowd goes wild. (The horse helped too. Saudi Arabia takes the Bronze in that, by the way.
11:40 a.m.: Crazy sequence of events right now as the Men's Trap shooting goes down to a shootout for both Gold and Bronze. At the same time, the Team Jumping event at the equestriaan course also goes to a jumpoff for Gold, between Great Britain and the Netherlands.
11:12 a.m.: RESULT: Yang Hak Seon of South Korea take the Men's Vault final, beating Denis Ablyazin of Russia (Silver) and Igor Radivilov of Ukraine. Tomorrow is the final day of the Artistic Gymnastics events.
10:40 a.m.: Yet another athlete has been kicked out of the Olympics for not trying hard enough. Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria had attempted to withdraw from the 800-meter competition to focus on the his his medal hunt in the 1,500. However, his team failed to withdraw him in time, so Olympic Officials forced him to run his preliminary heat. Not want to wear himself out or get injured, Makhloufi barely ran half a lap then just stopped running and wandered back to the invield. Unfortunately, he's now been banned from the Games entirely because he failed to give a "bona fide effort" in a race he never wanted to be in. Once this seems like the Olympics punishing someone for their failing to follow their own ridiculous rules. Why shouldn't an athlete be allowed to drop out of a race they don't want to be in, even in the middle of it? How does forced participation fit in with the "Olympic Spirit"?
10:25 a.m. RESULT: Aliya Mustfina of Russia wins Gold on Uneven Bars. He Kexin of China gets Silver and hometown favorite Elizabeth Tweddle of Great Britain gets her country another Bronze. All-Around champ Gabby Douglas missed one handstand and finished last.
9:50 a.m.: RESULT: Tom Slingsby of Australia finished ninth in the Men's Laser medal race, but still had a good enough overall score to capture the Gold. Cyprus wins its first medal of these games thanks to Pavlos Kontides' Silver and Rasmus Myrgren of Sweden takes the Bronze.
9:30 a.m.: RESULT: Big upset in the gymnastics world as Arthur Nabarrete Zanetti of Brazil shocks everyone his Gold Medal-winning performance on the Rings. Favorite Chen Yibing of China gets Silver and Matteo Morandi of Italy takes Bronze. Special shout out to Bulgaria's Iordan Iovtchev, who finished seventh but is also 39 years old and has been in six Olympic Games.
9:13: a.m.: RESULT: Niccolo Campriani of Italy wins Gold and sets a new Olympic record in Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions. (The positions are prone, standing, and kneeling.) Kim Jonghyun of South Korea wins Silver and Matthew Emmons of the United States wins Bronze. It was another tough result for Emmons who had Silver in his grasp, but turned in worst shot of the day on the final shot and slipped to third. In both 2004 and 2008, Emmons was in the Gold Medal spot before the final shot in this event, but botched them both and missed out medal. (Fortunately, he has another Gold in 50m Prone Rifle from 2004.)
8:53 a.m.: It exciting to discover on Day 10 that there are still things we didn't know about the Olympics. Like this page that shows which athletes have a birthday today: http://www.london2012.com/athletes/birthdays/
8:36 a.m.: RESULT: We have a winner in the Laser Radial race. Another Gold for China as Xu Lijia takes first place. Silver goes to Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands wins Silver and Evi van Acker of Belgium takes Bronze. Great Britain's Alison Young just misses out on the medals.
7:52 a.m.: The first medal event of the day is the Women's Laser Radial even in the Sailing category. For those who don't know what that means, here's a quick primer: Fleet races (where multiple boats race each other at the same time) are actually a series of ten races. Each boat gets points based on its finishing position in each race. First place gets one point, second gets two points, and so on. After 10 races, the worst race for each competitor is thrown out and the 10 racers with best total scores (in this case, the lowest scores) advance to the Medal Race, where points are worth double. The result of the medal race are added to the previous scores and the boat/team/sailor with the lowest overall score wins.
The Laser Radial is a small one-person dinghy, which is slightly smaller than the Laser boats used in the men's version of the event. It's also a very popular boat for recreational sailors. The name comes from the company, Laser Performance, that originally designed and built them.
7:37 a.m.: In one of those good news, bad news stories that we like a lot, some bozo threw a plastic bottle on the the track at the Olympic stadium just before the 100m final on Sunday night. Luckily, he happened to be sitting next to Edith Bosch of the Netherlands ... who just won the Bronze medal in Judo. Bosch smacked him around a bit (Google translation of her tweet: "I HAVE BEATEN HIM ....Unbelievable!") then he got arrested.
6:00 a.m.: RESULT: Australia beats Russia on a last-second three pointer by San Antonio Spur Patrick Mills to advance to the knockout round of the men's basketball tournament. Russia still wins Group B, but Great Britain and China (who play alter) have been eliminated.
4:46 a.m.: MEDAL COUNT UPDATE: It remains a neck-and-neck race, but China continues to hold the lead over the United States with 30 Gold Medals and 61 total. The Americans have 28 Golds and 60 total medals. After a huge weekend by the home team, Great Britain has a solid grasp on third place with 16 Golds (37 total.) Fifty-six of the 205 nations have won at least one medal.
4:43 a.m.: MEDALS TO BE AWARDED TODAY: Here are today's 18 Medal Events in chronologcial order: All times are approximate: Women's Laser Radial (8:00 a.m.); Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (8:45 a.m.); Men's Rings (9:00 a.m.); Men's Laser (9:00 a.m.); Women's Uneven Bars (9:50 a.m.); Men's Vault (10:41 a.m.); Men's Trap (11:00 a.m.); Men's Sprint Cycling (12:43 p.m.); Greco-Roman Wrestling 60kg (1:46 p.m.); Men's 105kg Weightlifting (2:00 p.m.); Women's Pole Vault (2:00 p.m.); Equestrian Team Jumping (2:00 p.m.); Women's Shot Put (2:15 p.m.); Greco-Roman Wrestling 84kg (2:21 p.m.); Greco-Roman Wrestling 120kg (2:56 p.m.); Men's 400m Hurdles (3:45 p.m.); Women's 3,000m Steeplechase (4:05 p.m); Men's 400m (4:30 p.m.)
4:27 a.m.: MONDAY'S SCHEDULED EVENTS:
Athletics: Today's Events: Preliminaries of the Women's 100m and 400m hurdles; 1,500m; 200m; . Preliminaries of Men's Discus and 800m. FINALS of Women's Shot Put; Pole Vault; and 3,000m steeplechase. FINALS of Men's 400m and 400m hurdles. Morning session begins at 5:00 a.m.; Evening session (including finals) at 2:00 p.m.
Basketball: Men's Group Play. Notable games: USA-Argentina (5:15 p.m.); Spain-Brazil (3:00 p.m.)
Beach Volleyball: Men's Quarterfinals. (1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.)
Boxing: Quarterfinals for Men's Light, Middle and Super Heavy weights; Womens' Fly, Light and Middle weights (8:30 a.m. - all day.)
Canoe Sprint: Preliminaries and Semifinals of Men's Single Kayak, Double Kayak and Single Canoe; Womens' Kayak Four. (4:30 a.m. - 7:00 a.m.)
Cycling: Semifinals and FINALS in Men's Sprint; Quarterfinals in Women's Sprint; and Women's Omnium. (Races begins at 11:00 a.m.)
Diving: Men's 3m Springboard preliminaries. (2:00 p.m.)
Equestrian: Individual and Team Jumping qualifiers (9:00 a.m.)
Football: Women's Semifinals. France vs. Japan (12:00 p.m.) and U.S. vs. Canada (2:45 p.m.)
Gymnastics: Individual apparatus FINALS: Men's Rings (9:00 a.m.) Men's Vault (10:41 a.m.) and Women's Uneven Bars (9:50 a.m.)
Handball: Men's Group Play (All day.)
Field Hockey: Women's Group Play (All day.)
Sailing: MEDAL RACES in Women's Laser Radial (8:00 a.m.) and Men's Laser (9:00 a.m.). Also: races in Men's 470; Men's 49er; and Women's Elliott 6m. (Begins at 7:00 a.m.)
Shooting: Qualifiers (4:00 a.m.) and FINALS in Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (8:45 a.m. Final) and Men's Trap. (11:00 a.m. final)
Synchronized Swimming: Free routine qualification round in Women's Duets. (10:00 a.m.)
Table tennis: Team semifinals for Men and Women. (5:00 a.m.; 9:30 a.m.; and 2:00 p.m.)
Volleyball: Men's Group Play. (All day).
Water Polo: Men's Group Play. (All day)
Weightlifting: Men's 105kg (10:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.)
Wrestling: Men's 60kg; 84kg; and 120kg Greco-Roman tournaments. (GOLD MEDAL FINALS begin at 1:45 p.m.)
