At the London 2012 Olympic swimming finals yesterday evening, USA took 1 and 2 in the men’s 100 backstroke, Matt Grevers way ahead cloking a new Olympic Record of 52.16, Nick Thoman 2nd in 52.92 and Japan’s Ryosuke Irie 3rd in 52.97. Lithuania’s 15-year-old Ruta Meilutyte charged ahead and held on to a 1:05.47 gold medal in the women’s 100 breaststroke, Rebecca Soni (USA) 2nd in 1:05.55 and Satomi Suzuki (JPN) 3rd in 1:06.46. Missy Franklin beat Australia’s Emily Seebohm in the women’s 100 backstroke, 58.33 to 55.68 where Seebohm’s Olympic Record from the day before was and is 58.23. Yannick Agnel (FRA) blazed the men’s 200 freestyle to a 1:43.14 win, Tae-hwan Park (KOR) and Sun Yang (CHN) both taking silver in 1:44.93. Australia’s Bronte Barratt clocked 1:56.08 and best time in the women’s 200 freestyle semi-final, Takeshi Matsuda (JPN) 1:54.25 and fastest in the men’s 200 butterfly, while China’s youngster Shiwen Ye clocked a new Olympic Record of 2:08.39 in the women’s 200 IM.
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Swim parents turned away while LOCOG throw soldiers at the seats
Parents and friends of Swedish and Singaporean swimmers as well as a host of other countries have been refused access into the aquatics centre over the past two nights, missing seeing their loved ones compete, while other parents have had hours of angst trying to sort tickets at the last minute. Problem is that the Ticketmaster ticketing system used by Locog has not been able to update in time for each final – detailing which athletes are eligible to purchase the tickets. Read The Telegraph
Gunilla Lindberg, a senior International Olympic Committee member intimately familiar with the London preparations as she was also on the London Coordination Commission, said the issue was chaotic and distracting for many athletes.
“It is so confusing for everyone. Parents keep calling the athletes, no one knows where the tickets are and it is not very good preparation for the athletes to be so stressed about it,” she said.
Meanwhile, there were still hundreds of empty seats even on this third night of finals, the organizers talking about filling them with soldiers.
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CC photo #212: Group photo before the Tórshavn 400 Pier Swim
Brave sea swimmers ready for the “Ólavsøkusvimjingin 2012”, a 400 meter swim in about 7°C (45°F) warm sea water along the main pier of Tórshavn, Faroe Islands. Most of them members of the masters team of Tórshavn swim club.
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LOCOG’s empty seat scandal ‘solution’ is to call in the troops
Wow, soldiers have been drafted in to fill empty seats at the London 2012 Olympics after prime “Olympic family” seating at the aquatics centre, gymnastics arena and basketball venue again went unused on the second day of competition. Some of the troops, working at the Olympics to provide security, said they were scheduled to start shifts but instead were offered courtside seats at the basketball arena to watch the USA v France, the London organizing committee (LOCOG) refusing to rule out offering seats to G4S staff if the problem persists. Well, at least it beats being drafted for Afghanistan. Read The Guardian.
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Why do Olympians bite their medals?
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London 2012 day 3 prelims: Ye puts her foot down in the 200 too
At the London 2012 Olympic prelims today, China’s Shiwen Ye was head and shoulders above the rest of the field in the women’s 200 IM, looking to add that one to her 400 IM Olympic gold from Saturday. Federica Pellegrini led the field (narrowly) in the women’s 200 freestyle, and in the men’s 200 butterfly prelims, Austria’s Dinko Jukic lead in 1:54.79, Michael Phelps comfortably in 5th en route to that elusive 3rd Olympic gold medal.
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CC photo 211: A happy Magnus after winning the Tórshavn 400 Pier Swim
They call it “Ólavsøkusvimjingin”, the 400 meter swim along the main pier of Tórshavn, right after the traditional boat races on our national holiday Ólavsøka. Me and Bartal had planned to film it in a relay fashion, one guy filming while the other moved to a new position along the route. Turned out to be an intense run through spectators, rain and large puddles, following this guy Magnus while trying not to become a part of the swim ourselves. Winner time Magnus Jákupsson, 4:43.0, here receiving a special prize for all his accomplishments at the European Juniors and Danish Championships this summer. Video will be ready later.
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Apathetic ‘Olympic family’ ignite empty seat scandal at London 2012
The Olympic Games has its first scandal: hundreds of embarrasing empty seats at events which were officially sold out, including the swimming heats. Seats reserved for members of the ‘Olympic family’ – including internationals federations, national governing bodies, athletes, IOC officials and media representatives. There are swimmers competing whose parents couldn’t get in, shame on the IOC.
100’s of empty seats again in the Aquatic center. My parents would’ve given an arm and leg to get in yesterday as would the parents today.
— Barry Murphy (@Barry_J_Murphy) July 29, 2012
Read for instance The Week, The Telegraph, The Chicago Tribune, The Huffington Post, Reuters