Summer Olympics 2012: Day 11 Update

As I've said before, this is a HUGE week for the USA.  In the word's of Mike Jameson, we pretty much held serve yesterday as far as medals go.  And our team sports dominated.  The women's beach volleyball will be an all-USA gold medal match, so we are guaranteed a gold and silver there - which I don't think were projected.  And knocking off China is always a plus.

Day 11

Well Gymnastics were center stage in the early morning.  Once again Gabby USA’s Golden Girl choked…  She did come through with 2 gold’s for the USA but you got to step up and dominate now, and not be “tired”.  Good news is after somewhat of a debacle(will be entertaining to watch tonight) Raisman won the Bronze for the USA which makes up for us losing a projected medal in Men’s Parallel bars.  Unfortunately China held serve in both of those events winning 2 medals including both gold’s.  The good news is Raisman stepped up again(guess she wasn’t “tired”) and won GOLD in the floor.  Even Better China lost 2 in that event that they were supposed to win. 

In Diving China was projected to get 2 medals and they held serve and got 2. 

We won a medal as expected in Cycling but China picked up an unexpected one as well. 

Big day for Women’s Team Sports.  USA Women’s Basketball Team(The real dream team of this Olympics if there is such a thing) won easily.  HUGE win in the Semi-finals of Water Polo for the USA, which will guarantee them a medal.  In Women’s volleyball the team dominated the DR to move on. 

Maybe the biggest win today was in Beach Volleyball where our Women’s team knocked off a team from China in the semi-finals.  The other Women’s Team is playing later but I wanted to get this out before I left work for the day. 

In Track and Field USA High Jump favorite Jesse Williams got knocked out early.. This was a pretty big choke job and I’m sure you will see his sulking routine tonight on NBC.  However his teammate Kynard(with the best socks of the Olympics, RG3 would be jealous) came through with a medal so it didn’t cost us a +/-.

In the Women’s 110 hurdles we were projected to get 1 medal and got 2 in a great race and we almost knocked of the defending champ from Australia(who finally got a gold medal) .. Great race and we finished 2,3 and LoLo Jones finished 4. 

Finally just minutes ago in the 1500, the USA pulled a great upset and got the silver.  We darn near almost got the bronze too but Morocco the 1500 power nudged our guy at the very end.  

Remember it might seem like a bad day because China won so many more medals.  But remember this is why I do it.  China was expected to get 10 and they only got 9.  They could have really been in trouble if they didn’t get that many today.  We were only expected to get 4 and got 6.  Couple that with some team wins and it was a GREAT day for the U-S-A! 

Day 12

Women’s Beach Volleyball finals and we are guaranteed at least 1 and hopefully 2 medals.  We weren’t projected to medal(ranked #4 and #5 coming in) here and China was, so if we win and China loses the Bronze medal game could be a 3 medal swing. 

China will get a medal in Table Tennis which concludes tomorrow(thank god) however Judo starts and China is projected to pick a medal up there. 

There are only  4 Track and Field events tomorrow but we are projected to pick up 7 MEDALS!!!! Not much margin for error here. 

Finally freestyle wrestling starts tomorrow and we have 2 women that are ranked #5 and #8, so maybe we can steal a medal there. 

In Team sports a couple of big matchups in Men’s Volleyball and Water Polo.  And we have 2 Women boxers in the semi-finals including one against China. 

Wednesday projections China 4 medals, USA 7. 

Coming Soon

I made some changes and cleaned up the boxing a little.  If the USA or China were eliminated and were supposed to win a medal I reflected that in the +/- rating.  This gave the USA an additional -1 and China an additional -2.  Once again this is to reflect a more accurate indication on where we are at right now.  I am working on a viewer’s guide for this weekend which will list every medal event left and what impact it has.   

2012 Olympics US Snapshot Day 11
Country	Overall	Gold	Silver	Bronze	+/-	Prediction	MJ Projections
USA	70	30	19	21	+10	88	98
China	73	34	21	18	-1	94	93
Team Sports
M-Basketball	R8 August 8th -vs- Australia
W-Basketball	R4 August 9th -vs- Australia
M-Volleyball	R8 August 8th -vs- Italy
W-Volleyball	R4 August 9th -vs- Italy/Korea
M-Water Polo	R8 August 8th -vs- Croatia
W-Water Polo	Championship August 9th -vs- Spain
W-Soccer	Championship August 9th -vs- Japan
Beach Volleyball
W-Trenor/Walsh	Championship August 8th -vs-
W-Kessy/Ross	R4 August 7th -vs- Brazil
Boxing
W-Fly Esparaza	R4 August 8th -vs- CHINA
W Middle Sheilds	R4 August 8th -vs- Kazakastan
M Welter	R8 August 7th

My Two Cents:

Have I mentioned how glad I am that women's gymnastics are over?  I guess those events are pretty tough and having an "off day" basically means you do not win a medal.  But man....after Gabby Douglas' performance in the team events and the all-around, I really expected a better showing in the individuals.  I think she got 7th or 8th in all her individual events.  Disappointing.  Guess it's back to the gym for the next four years -  14 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Fun life. 

Let's see what is on tap for today.  As always, check out the daily Olympic Viewing Guide for a full breakdown of all the events today.  I will highlight the high-profile events below:

11:00am - Volleyball Men - USA v. Italy - Quarterfinals - NBC:  Once we get to the knock-out stage in the team sports, almost every USA team game is a must-watch.  This one is live on NBC.  Should be a cake-walk, but you never know in the Olympics. 

3:05pm - Field - Women's Long Jump - Computer:  American Brittney Reese is projected to win gold.  So we have that going for us, which is nice. 

3:45pm - Track - Women's 400M Hurdles Finals - Computer:  The two Americans competing had the 3rd and 4th best qualifying times.  Maybe we can sneak 2 medals here?

4:00pm - Beach Volleyball - Women:  USA v. USA - Computer:  I'd argue that a USA v. USA match kinda takes the drama out of the event.  So unless you are an avid Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh-Toomanylastnamesandhyphens fan, I wouldn't call this one a "must watch."  Spoiler Alert:  the USA wins gold AND silver medals!

4:15pm - Track - Men's 110M Hurdles Finals - Computer:  2 Americans with the best two qualifying times.  If there ever was a time for the USA to put all the "choaking" behind them, this is the event.  We could take silver/gold in the beach volleyball followed by silver/gold in this event.  Like I said, could be a huge medal day for the USA. 

5:15pm - Basketball - Men's USA v. Australia - Quarterfinals - NBC Sports Network:  Again, knock-out stage so it's compelling even if we win by 40....which we should. 

After today we should have a pretty good idea of where we stand in the fight against China!

USA USA USA!!!