Olympic Report

Michael Phelps

It is now official that Michael Phelps is the most successful Olympian in history. Yesterday Phelps earned 2 more gold medals to push his career total to 11 golds surpassing Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz, Paavo Nurmi, and Larysa Latynina.

"I'm almost at a loss for words," Phelps said. "Growing up I always wanted to be an Olympian. Now to be the most decorated Olympian of all time, it just sounds weird saying. It started setting in a little bit after the butterfly. I was just trying to focus on my next race, but I just kept thinking, `Wow, greatest Olympian of all time.' It's a pretty cool title. I'm definitely honored."

Not only has Phelps dominated these races by winning gold but he has also broken a world record in every race as well. Yesterday as part of the 800m US Freestyle Relay team Phelps beat the old world record by just over 5 seconds, which is an eternity in swimming. Phelps is now over the halfway point on his quest to earn 8 gold medals in a single Olympics (the current record is 7 by Mark Spitz). Phelps attempted to do this four years ago but came up short only winning 6 gold and 2 bronze.

Phelps has just 3 races left and they are all events that he won gold at in 2004 while in Athens so things look good for the American. The events are 200 individual medley, 100 fly and 400 medley relay.

Faking

It was recently discovered that China used digital technology to enhance the fireworks display from the opening ceremonies. CGI was used to add more fireworks for televisions and make the ceremony seem more impressive than it really was. This is probably the dumbest thing to do ever as it makes your country look so bad that you are so desperate to look impressive that you basically lie to everyone around the world. Not a good way to start off the games there in China.

To add to the whole mess it was also reported that the little girl who sang the Chinese national anthem wasn't actually singing. The girl who actually sang the song was deemed not cute enough for television and so she was replaced by a better looking girl who was then forced to lip sync. This fake singer went on numerous talk shows afterwards and went along with the whole thing until everyone found out she wasn't any good. China was are you doing? This is worse than Brittany Spears and Ashley Simpson combined.

ID Please

I don't care what anybody says those female Chinese gymnasts are not more than 10 years old. Li Shanshan (16) is 4-foot-9, 79 pounds. Yang Yilin (15) is 4-foot-11, 77 pounds. He Kexin (16) is 4-foot-8, 73 pounds. Jiang Yuyuan (16) is 4-foot-7, 71 pounds. But the prize goes to Deng Linlin (16), who's listed at 4-foot-6 and a strapping 68 pounds. No 16 year old in the world is 68 pounds. Who does China think that they are fooling with this stuff? Its sad that a country is this desperate to win that they lie to the whole world and cheat to try and come out ahead.

Canada

Canada still does not have 1 medal to its name. To make matters worse 17 Canadian records have been broken in the pool so far these Olympics and yet there are 0 medals to show for it. That means that these athletes have swam faster than any other Canadian ever has and it still isn't good enough.

Here is a Day 6 recap of how Canada did:

ARCHERY
Jason Lyon, advanced to the round of 16. The other two Canadians were eliminated after first-round losses.

BASEBALL
Men - Scott Thorman hit a three-run home run and Mike Saunders added a solo homer as Canada opened its preliminary round with a 10-0 rout of host China.

CANOE/KAYAK
Women's singles kayak - Sarah Boudens, Pembroke failed to advance after placing 19th in qualifying.

CYCLING
Men's individual time trial - Svein Tuft placed seventh in the 47.3-kilometre event; Ryder Hesjedal was 16th.

Women's individual time trial - Alexandra Wrubleski completed the 23.5-kilometre course in 39 minutes 15.42 seconds to finish 24th.

DIVING
Men's synchronized three-metre springboard - Alexandre Despatie and Arturo Miranda placed fifth in the competition with a score of 409.29.

FENCING
Men's individual foil - Joshua McGuire went to overtime in his opening match to defeat Tomer Or, Israel (11-10), then was eliminated with a loss in the round of 16 to Salvatore Sanzo of Italy (15-3).

ROWING
Women's eights - Canada earned a berth in the final by winning their repechage race.

SHOOTING
Women's 25-metre sport pistol - 41. Avianna Chao scored 558.0 points to finish 41st in qualifying and did not advance.

SHOOTING
Women's 25-metre sport pistol - 41. Avianna Chao scored 558.0 points to finish 41st in qualifying and did not advance.

SOFTBALL
Melanie Matthews and Jennifer Yee each drove in three runs as Canada improved to 2-0 after a 9-2 win over the Netherlands.

SWIMMING
Men's 100 freestyle - Brent Hayden finished sixth in his semifinal and did not advance.

Men's 200 backstroke - Keith Beavers and Tobias Oriwol both earned semifinal berths after finishing 15th and 16th repectively in qualifying.
Men's 200 breaststroke - Mike Brown clinched a berth in the final after winning his semifinal (2:08.84).

Men's 200 individual medley - Keith Beavers tied for eighth in qualifying and will race in the semifinals; Brian Johns was 18th did not advance.

Men's 4x200 freestyle relay - Canada set a Canadian record but finished fifth in the final.

Women's 200 butterfly - Audrey Lacroix placed sixth in her semifinal and did not advance.

Women's 200 individual medley - Julia Wilkinson placed seventh in the final.

Hopefully Canada can get a few medals out of our rowing team and maybe women's softball as well but with countries like Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan beating us things are starting to get ugly.