Olympics Days 15 & 16

The relays are finished and the final team sports medal games are wrapping up, leaving only the Closing Ceremonies. I am sorry the Games have ended, but I have to say they have been spectacular and I have enjoyed them as much as any Olympics I can ever remember.

I did stay up late enough on Saturday night to catch the only coverage of Mountain Bike. Very grueling, but fun to watch.

Medal count update: I enjoyed watching France and Iceland battle in the championship match of team handball. Iceland came away with silver, their first ever team handball medal and the only medal of the 2008 Games for Iceland. In fact, it was only the fourth medal ever for Iceland in either summer or winter Games. Congrats!I have heard several comments about Canada not doing well in medals, with announcers excusing this because it was really more of a winter sports country. I decided to do a little digging. Canada earned 18 medals (3G, 9S, 6B) this year. That is more than Mexico, Israel, Portugal, Chile, Colombia, Belgium, India, Egypt, South Africa, and Venezuela... COMBINED. And these relatively large and wealthy countries all have some pretty nice summer weather! The 18 medals tied Spain for 14th among all countries and were more than traditional powers Netherlands (16), Brazil (15), Jamaica (11), and Argentina (6). A salute to our neighbor to the North on a fine performance this Olympics.

Commercials: I am so tired of many of the commercials. George isn't, he watches tivo. I did like a few, especially the GE bringing medical technology to rural China one where the male suitor accidentally breaks his foot trying to get the attention of the young women who turns out to be his doctor/med tech.

Hot 11 update: Speaking of Canada, canoeist Adam van Koeverden had a disappointing Games picking up only one silver, but should make the ladies' eleven lists. Final weekend athletes under consideration for my list include Ukranian Rythmic Gymnast Anna Bessanova (Bronze), US 10k runner Kara Gaucher (Bronze), and canoeists Katalin Kovacs of Hungary (Gold & Silver) and Italian Josefa Idem (Silver).

I will publish my final Hot 11 in a separate post after the Games have concluded. Enjoy the Closing Ceremonies.