Forget that dandy elf Legolas of the Lord of the Rings, when it comes to archery these ladies [Park Sung-hyun, Yun Ok-hee and Joo Hyun-jung] are the real thing. Their precision in the archery range won them South Korea’s third gold medal in the Beijing Olympic Games. They beat the host team so maybe them American “bring their own baon/bread” athletes should thank these girls because if they didn’t win China will have seven gold medals by now.

Expect the Koreans to win more golds in the archery range.

Related:
Olympics Medal Results: Park Taehwan Makes it Two Golds For South Korea
Choi Minho Scores One Gold For South Korea

At 5’1″, weightlifter Long Qingquan may be short but he is, no doubt about it, very strong. I’m sure he is stronger than you. Can you lift 162 kilograms? Can you? Can you? Nah. Just as I thought.

It is also likely that this kid is younger than you; he’s only 17 years old, in case you are wondering. That means he can still improve not only in the weightlifting department but in the height department as well.

Long bagged China’s sixth gold medal in the Olympic Games beating our Olympian to Watch, Vietnam’s Hoang Anh Tuan who won the silver medal and Indonesia’s Eko Yuli Irawan who settled for the bronze. Looks like them Asians are doing a good job in weightlifting, no?

By the way, it’s still quiet on the western front. For those of you keeping score, it’s six gold medals for China and two gold medals for the United States.

Related:
Xian Dongmei Makes it Five Golds for China
Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia Make it Four Golds for China
Olympic Results: Guo Wenjun Makes it Three Golds for China
Pang Wei Makes it Two Golds for China
Chen Xiexia Scores One Gold for China

[Read more →]

Judoka Xian Dongmei wins the fifth gold for China. It seems like Chinese athletes are not buckling under the tremendous hometown pressure. Good for them. I hope my favorite, Liu Xiang, will pass the test as well.

Meanwhile, it’s still all quiet on the western front. They have two gold medals so far after two days of Olympic competition. Should the Americans start worrying now? Well, it’s too early to tell.

Going back to Xian Dongmei, we should include her in our Dara Mama Club or the elite group of older women athletes or working moms who are participating in the Olympics. Xian is 32 years old [kind of old for sports in general] and is a proud mom to her 18 month old daughter.

A quote from Xian on being a working mom/athlete [via xinhuanet]:

“It is very common for judokas from other countries to continue their career with families, but in China I am probably the only mama judoka for the moment” Xian said.

[Read more →]

There’s really no stopping the Chinese in Olympic diving, no? As expected, the synchronized diving team of Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia won China’s first Olympic medal for the sport. Expect Chinese divers to win more golds after this.

Our tally for the China vs. United States gold medal race so far: China = four vs. United States = two. [Note: The photo below is a file photo and is not from the Beijing Olympics.]
Photo credit: Al Bello via CBC and sportsphoto via beijing2008.

Related:
Olympic Results: Guo Wenjun Makes it Three Golds for China
Pang Wei Makes it Two Golds for China
Chen Xiexia Scores One Gold for China

Pretty maids all in a row. Here’s the Dutch swimming quartet who won the first gold medal for the Netherlands: Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Femke Heemskerk and Marleen Veldhuis.

I must say congratulations to the four of you even though you beat the team led by this blog’s most googled athlete, i.e., Dara Torres of the United States. Go Netherlands! Go Dara!

Photo source: beijing2008