Olympic Musings: Vol. 2

Missy Franklin is unreal. 17 years old and her program includes swimming potentially 15 races. She's looked poised and composed, graceful in both defeat and victory. She has a personality, and will quickly become the face of international swimming. At such a young age, it's hard to envision a limit to her capabilities. It's tough to look years down the road, but you'd have to imagine that she has the opportunity to become the female Phelps.

Speaking of Michael Phelps, he just became unstoppable. Like the locomotive in Back to the Future III, he just needed to throw on the special burners to get himself going. He looked flat in some of his early events, but now seems to be coming on strong, and considering how much he's swam, he looks fresher than some of the others who have had pretty full programs. He's still coming in just a little short to the wall on the back end of his 100m Fly, but he's finishing very strong and he had an amazing 200 IM (where he won gold ahead of Ryan Lochte) this evening. In fairness to Lochte, he had just swam 30 minutes prior in the 200m Back final, getting 3rd, so he had to have been a little tired. But I bet if Phelps re-swam his earlier events now, he'd crush them.

American gymnast Gabby Douglas is one of the stars of these Games, and is easily the most marketable athlete in the Olympics. She's going places, that's for sure. Great win tonight ahead of the two Russians and her own teammate, who were simply leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the field.

On gold medal count, the US has now pulled even with China at 18, and leads the total medal count at 37 to 34. And we haven't even started track and field, where our prospects are much greater than that of China's.

It's been a real challenge these past few days as I literally can't even tough the Internet for anything other than work purposes, so I've been quiet on the blog. I only have a small window late at night when I've caught up on all the action, and it keeps me up super late. But it's worth it. Tomorrow I'll try and get something up real quick before track starts.

NBC Tells Us Who Wins...Before They Air It

In perhaps one of the biggest gaffes in NBC history - yes, worse than any of their hordes of failed attempts at successful sitcoms and dramas - was when they told us who won a gold medal...before they aired the race!

During Monday's primetime telecast, NBC ran a promo for today (Tuesday's) Today Show, encouraging viewers to watch as Missy Franklin gets to celebrate her first gold medal with her family.

Wait...what?! Franklin had only won a bronze, as part of a relay the other night, and her individual event final was coming up in a few minutes. This couldn't be right. Why would NBC - who is holding us captive by deciding which events to show in primetime coverage - blow up THEIR OWN SPOT?

Well, whoever was responsible for that one better get a stern talking to, because they absolutely fudged that up. It was a terrific end to my 3rd day of complete media blackout. The backlash on Twitter was swift, with most people in awe of what they had just seen.

Trey Wingo, who is a commentator on that other POS "sports" news network, commented:

NBC just ran a promo of what happens to Missy Franklin after she wins a gold medal.. BEFORE they showed her winning the gold medal.
— trey wingo (@wingoz) July 31, 2012

While Twitter use @rmcgrath732, who is really smart and funny, had this to say:

Thanks, @nbc, for blowing up YOUR OWN SPOT and announcing the result of Missy Franklin's 100m back gold medal BEFORE you showed it
— Ryan McGrath (@rmcgrath732) July 31, 2012

Justin Bieber probably didn't watch it, but nevertheless commented on it:

heard @franklinmissy is a fan of mine. now im a fan of hers too. CONGRATS on winning GOLD! #muchlove
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) July 31, 2012

Anyway, congratulations to the youngster, Franklin, who did win her 100m Back final in epic fashion, coming from down at least half a body length to dive for the wall and get the win!