Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

A great time, too -- 43.40, fifth-fastest of all time.

 

Hall looked like his form was completely broken down the stretch and then just passed everyone.

 

American Kenneth Rooks just about pulled off a Dave (EDIT: Wottle) 2.0 in the men's steeplechase. Came out of seemingly nowhere on the bell lap, pulled out to a huge lead and held on for a silver, losing only to the defending gold medalist, with the heavily favored Kenyans stunned.

 

Went to school in the Walla Walla, Wash., area. Great race for him — and a tough fall late in the race by one of the favorites. Ouch!

 

Wottle. He was a big name for a few days.

 

That was a really bad one. The other runners were having to step over and around him, because he wasn't getting up.

 

Sarah Hildebrandt gets gold at 50 kg in women's wrestling and the American ladies are 2 for 2 in gold medal matches so far.

Dom Parrish has a decent chance to get a bronze tomorrow and get the women to 3 for 3 in medals.

 

Wottle's deal was a lot different because the 800 is a much shorter race. You'll see a lot of good distance runners trail the pack through much of the race before making a move -- Sifan Hassan comes to mind right away. And my memory is terrible, but I think Rooks did the same thing in his heat the other day.

 

Thanks. I knew it looked wrong. Fixed.

 

It kind of bothered me that the broadcast glossed over that. Once the race was over, it was barely mentioned, and we never got a sense of how he was doing.

And even if you just want to talk about the race, that was a major factor. For one, that wasn't just anyone who fell -- it was the world record holder. So that's a giant impact. Then it slowed everyone even with and behind him in the final stretch, when the leaders are at their top speed so you're losing more ground than earlier.

 

The Olympic athletes I know, mostly in track and swimming, love the communal aspect of the village. They may not be worrying about it on the day of or the day before they compete, but the rest of the time they're there they want to experience as much as they can.