Wednesday at the Olympic Games: Danell Leyva and John Orozco try to shake off the team meltdown and win the all-around, and … it’s a really busy day. Especially around 10 a.m. until noon.
WHAT HAPPENED TUESDAY
Funny how a mood can change quickly. Everything seemed so glum for the U.S. swimmers when Michael Phelps botched the finish in the 200-meter butterfly. But then Allison Schmitt came out smiled for her gold medal presentation, Ryan Lochte opened the 4×200 relay with a redeeming dart through the pool, and Phelps celebrated his record 19th Olympic medal. Caitlin Leverenz also got bronze in the 200 IM.
No such drama in gymnastics. The U.S. women were simply awesome. Forget Jordyn Wieber‘s disappointment in the all-around — she’s a gold medalist now, and all five members of the team delivered.
Speaking of Americans who couldn’t miss, Vincent Hancock made all 25 skeet explode to slam the door on any challengers as he defended his Olympic title. And the U.S. men’s hoopsters woke up in the second half to stretch their lead over Tunisia to 47. Venus Williams, the Bryan brothers and Raymond/Huber all advanced, though Andy Roddick ran into Novak Djokovic.
Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won a controversial beach volleyball match, but they’ll all make the next round, anyway. Less fortunate with the officials was judo’s Travis Stevens, who had a couple of upsets and battled German favorite Ole Bischof to a bloody stalemate (seriously, dude, buy some nail clippers) before the judges went with Bischof. A heartbroken Stevens had nothing left for his bronze-medal bout.
Finally, four U.S. teams took important wins. The only runaway was in men’s volleyball, where the USA straight-setted Germany. The men’s water polo team held off Romania. Abby Wambach scored and the U.S. defense held tight in a 1-0 women’s soccer win over North Korea. And the U.S. field hockey team, which upset Argentina in the Pan Am Games, did it again with a 1-0 decision.
And the Duke Olympics continue! Rebecca Smith scored for New Zealand as the Football Ferns advanced past Cameroon for a quarterfinal date with the USA.
MEDAL PROJECTION UPDATE
You’d think weightlifting would be more predictable than judo. Most weightlifters don’t even attempt enough weight to medal. In judo, medal favorites can lose in early rounds to marauding Americans. But I did pretty well with judo today and not well at all with weightlifting. I also went 0-for-3 in men’s skeet — I inexplicably left out Vincent Hancock, and I didn’t have Qatar picked to medal at all.
It wasn’t a great day for Britain, though I wasn’t very confident in the events in which they came up short — canoeing, diving and individual eventing. They can make up it on Wednesday. They’d better.
Underprojected: China (6), North Korea (3), Canada (3), four tied at 2
Overprojected: Britain (5), Turkey (4), Australia (2), Netherlands (2), Brazil (2), Germany (2)
Don’t forget the full medal projections.
WEDNESDAY’S VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS
times ET; *-medal event
Everything’s available online. NBC, MSNBC and NBC Sports Network may occasionally hop around to other events. Names are U.S. athletes unless otherwise mentioned.
4:00 a.m.: Archery, men’s and women’s round of 64 and 32. Yeah, I got this wrong yesterday and combined the Tuesday and Wednesday listings. Hope no one was expecting to see Khatuna Lorig at 7:15.
- 7:15: Khatuna Lorig, round of 64 vs. Bhutan’s Sherab Zam
- 7:41: Lorig (if she won earlier)
4:00: Fencing, men’s epee round of 32 and 16.
- 4:30: Seth Kelsey
- 5:00: Soren Thompson
- 6:15: Round of 16 starts
4:00: NBC Sports Network signs on with Spain-Australia men’s field hockey
4:30: Rowing, semifinals and finals
- 5:10: Women’s pair final. USA’s Sara Hendershot/Sarah Zelenka. Picks: NZL-GBR-AUS
- 5:20: Women’s quadruple sculls final. USA has qualified. Picks: GER-UKR-USA
- 5:30: Men’s eight final. USA has qualified. Picks: GER-GBR-AUS
5:00: Swimming, qualifying heats. Honestly, I haven’t been listing these for several days because I assume no one’s getting up this early to watch the U.S. swimmers yawn their way to the semifinals.
7:00: Sailing, six classes
7:00, Bravo: Tennis, plenty
- 7:00: Serena Williams vs. Vera Zvonareva, third round
- tba: Venus Williams vs. Angelique Kerber, third round
- tba: John Isner vs. Janko Tisarevic, third round
- tba: Huber/Raymond vs. Russia, quarterfinals
- tba: Williams/Williams vs. Italy, quarterfinals (Errani has to face Venus again? Brutal)
- tba: Huber/Bob Bryan vs. Germany, first round
- tba: Raymond/Mike Bryan vs. Italy, first round
7:30, NBC SN: Cycling, women’s time trial. Picks: GBR-GER-CAN
8:10: Fencing, women’s epee round of 32 and 16. (MSNBC signs on at 9 and starts here)
- 8:10: Mariel Zagunis (defending champion/opening ceremony flag bearer)
- 8:30: Dagmara Wozniak
- 9:45: Round of 16 starts
8:30: Boxing, men’s bantamweight round of 16. Joseph Diaz Jr. vs. Cuba’s Lazaro Alvarez Estrada
9:00: Judo, women’s 70kg and men’s 90kg, repechage and medals
- Women’s 70kg: FRA-NED-HUN-JPN
- Men’s 90kg: GRE-JPN-RUS-CUB
9:15, NBC (starting at 10): Cycling, men’s time trial. Little shaky on the gold medal pick, given Fabian Cancellara’s injury. Picks: SUI-GBR-GER
9:30: Boxing, men’s heavyweight round of 16. Michael Hunter II
9:30, NBCSN: Soccer (men’s), Brazil vs. New Zealand
10:00: Diving, men’s synchronized springboard. Picks: CHN-RUS-MEX
10:00: Archery, men’s round of 64 and 32. Again — I got this wrong yesterday. This is actually correct.
- 10:13: Brady Ellison
- 10:52: Ellison (if he won earlier)
- 11:31: Jake Kaminski
- 12:10: Kaminski, ibid
10:15: Canoe slalom, men’s single kayak (K-1). Picks: SLO-ITA-FRA
10:30: Boxing, men’s super heavyweight round of 16. Dominic Breazeale
10:30: Shooting, women’s 25m pistol final. Picks: CHN-CZE-ESP
10:30: Table tennis, women’s singles final. China’s Ding Ning vs. China’s Li Xiaoxia. Feeling good about my picks. Picks: CHN-CHN-KOR
10:30: Weightlifting, women’s 69kg final. Picks: RUS-ROU-BLR
11:30, NBC: Beach volleyball, men’s pool play. Gibb/Rosenthal. They lost their first match, so they might need this one.
11:30: Gymnastics, men’s all-around. Not at all confident in my gold medal pick’s form. Picks: JPN-GER-GBR
1:20, NBC: Water polo, U.S. women vs. Spain
1:45, MSNBC: Fencing, men’s epee and women’s sabre, semis and medal bouts
- Men’s epee: EST-ITA-SUI
- Women’s sabre: USA-RUS-UKR
2:00: Weightlifting, men’s 77kg final. Picks: KOR-CHN-ARM
2:30: Swimming, several finals and semifinals.
- Men’s 200 breaststroke: JPN-HUN-JPN
- Women’s 200 fly: CHN-GBR-CHN
- Women’s 4×200 free: AUS-USA-CHN
- Men’s 100 free: AUS-BRA-CAN
2:45, NBC SN: Soccer (men’s), Great Britain vs. Uruguay
3:00, NBC: Volleyball, U.S. women vs. China
5:15, NBC SN: Basketball, U.S. women vs. Turkey
6:00, MSNBC?: Beach volleyball, women’s pool play. May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings once again in the late-night slot. Aren’t they getting a little old for that?
All day: Badminton (singles round of 16, doubles quarterfinals), women’s handball, men’s hockey.
Check the full schedule below for updates on table tennis and (non-table) tennis.
You know who actually has the best glance of how Americans are faring? Wikipedia.
Full schedule for the day: London2012.com
REMINDERS
Full TV listings: NBCOlympics.com
Full online listings: Also NBCOlympics.com
I’ll be doing this daily during the Games. As a reminder, you’ll also find my work at Bleacher Report, and I’ll be helping Trapit capture the best Olympic news sources. Follow @TrapitSports or all Olympic-related Trapit feeds on Twitter for more.
Duresport.com 