Olympic Daily Glance, Day 12 — Ride, kick and punch

Wednesday at the Olympic Games: BMX and taekwondo get underway. So does the decathlon, with world record-holder Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee carrying hopes of a 1-2 U.S. finish.

Also, things get serious in men’s water polo and volleyball, you’ll see Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings for the last time in the Olympics, and you’ll see Clarissa and Claressa in the same hour.

WHAT HAPPENED TUESDAY

Not a bad day for the USA on the track. An unexpected silver for Leo Manzano in the 1,500. I’d picked U.S. silver in the high jump; didn’t think it’d be Erik Kynard. Then Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells finished 2-3 in the 100 hurdles, with Lolo Jones fourth.

Sarah Hammer so nearly had gold in the women’s omnium (a really complicated event even by track cycling standards) and took a well-deserved silver.

The U.S. star of the day, though, was Aly Raisman. She had a successful protest to take bronze in balance beam, then punctuated her Games with gold in floor exercise.

We’ll have an all-American beach volleyball final — Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings won a fantastic match against China, and April Ross and Jen Kessy took down the favored Brazilians. The U.S. women’s water polo team won its semifinal against Australia in overtime, and the women’s volleyball team advanced to the semis.

The bad news for the USA — the men’s boxing team is officially out of the running (again), and the wrestlers have little to show so far.

Britain’s simply floating on air right now. Gold and bronze in triathlon, gold in team dressage, two golds and a silver in track cycling, a sailing silver, and a high jump bronze.

MEDAL PROJECTION UPDATE

I’ve already explained why China’s lead over the USA isn’t likely to last.

A lot of Tuesday’s events were easy to predict. The only question in synchronized swimming was the order of silver and bronze. Russia got a surprise gold in men’s springboard, but that just changed the CHN-RUS-CHN order to RUS-CHN-CHN.

Britain is living up to expectations in track cycling, to say the least, so they’re hanging within range of what was a very generous projection.

Overprojected: Australia 8, Turkey 6, New Zealand 5, Britain 5, Germany 5, Brazil 4, Kenya 3, Italy 3, USA 3.

Underprojected: China 6, then 4 each for South Korea, Denmark, Cuba, North Korea, Mexico and South Africa. And 3 each for Canada, Sweden, Colombia.

Right on: Russia 48.

WEDNESDAY’S VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS

MSNBC hops between volleyball and water polo quarterfinals. NBC Sports Network has all four men’s basketball quarterfinals.

4-6 a.m.: None of the networks are on. Maybe I’ll sleep in.

• 4:00: Taekwondo, women’s 49kg and men’s 58kg first round. This takes four hours. No Americans in these classes.
• 4:30: Canoe/kayak, men’s K1 1,000 final.  Picks: CAN-BLR-DEN
• 4:48: Canoe/kayak, men’s C1 1,000 final. Picks: UZB-GER-HUN
• 5:00: Track and field, men’s pole vault and women’s hammer throw qualification
• 5:10: Track and field, decathlon, 100 meters
• 5:16: Canoe/kayak, men’s K2 1,000 final. Picks: GER-SWE-SVK
• 5:44: Canoe/kayak, women’s K4 1,000 final. Picks: HUN-GER-POL
• 5:45: Track and field, men’s 5,000 heats

• 6:00, NBC SpNet: Men’s handball, quarterfinal, Iceland-Hungary
• 6:10: Track and field, decathlon, long jump
• 6:35: Track and field, women’s 800 heats

7 a.m.:

• 7:00: Equestrian, individual jumping, final round A.
• 7:45, NBC SpNet: Table tennis, men’s team bronze medal match. Germany-Hong Kong. Yeah, there’s nothing else to televise.

8 a.m.:

• 8:00: Sailing, 49er medal race. Australia clinched gold, New Zealand clinched silver, bronze is up for grabs. Picks: AUS-DEN-GER
• 8:00: Wrestling, women’s 48kg qualification, Clarissa Chun
• 8:10: Track and field, decathlon, shot put
• 8:30: Boxing, women’s fly semis, Marlen Esparza vs. China’s Ren Cancan
• 8:32-ish: Wrestling, women’s 48kg round of 16
• 8:48: Wrestling, women’s 63kg round of 16. Elena Pirozhnov.

9 a.m.:

• 9:00, NBC SpNet: Men’s basketball, quarterfinals: Russia-Lithuania. Martynas Pocius alert.
• 9:00, MSNBC: Men’s volleyball, quarterfinals: Brazil-Argentina. Sign up Neymar and Messi!
• 9:04: Wrestling, women’s 48kg quarterfinals
• 9:05: Sailing, women’s match race quarterfinals. Finland leads USA 2-0.
• 9:30: Boxing, women’s middle semis, Claressa Shields vs. Kazakhstan’s Marina Volnova
• 9:36: Wrestling, women’s 63kg quarterfinals
• 9:55, NBC (at 10): Equestrian, individual jumping, final round B. Picks: SWE-FRA-CAN

10 a.m.:

• 10:00: BMX, women’s seeding run
• 10:08: Wrestling, women’s 48kg semis
• 10:24: Wrestling, women’s 63kg semis
• 10:30: Table tennis, men’s team final. China-South Korea. Picks: CHN-GER-KOR
• 10:40: BMX, men’s seeding run
• 10:45, MSNBC: Men’s water polo, Serbia-Australia

11 a.m.:

• 11:00, NBC: Men’s volleyball, quarterfinals, USA-Italy.
• 11:00, NBC SpNet: Men’s basketball, quarterfinals: France-Spain. Lots of NBA talent here. 

Noon:

• 12:00, MSNBC: Men’s water polo, quarterfinals, Montenegro-Spain.
• 12:45: Wrestling, women’s 48/63kg repechage/bronze.

1 p.m.:

• 1:00: Track and field, decathlon, high jump
• 1:30, MSNBC: Men’s water polo, quarterfinals, Hungary-Italy.

2 p.m.:

• 2:00: Diving, women’s platform preliminary round
• 2:00, NBC: Beach volleyball, women’s bronze medal match. Brazil-China
• 2:03: Wrestling, women’s 48kg final. Picks: JPN-AZE-CHN-USA
• 2:05: Track and field, preliminary/semi men’s javelin, men’s 110 hurdles, women’s 1,500
• 2:40, MSNBC: Men’s volleyball, quarterfinals, Russia-Britain
• 2:48: Wrestling, women’s 63kg final. Picks: JPN-HUN-USA-CHN

3 p.m.:

• 3:00, NBC: Men’s water polo, quarterfinals, USA-Croatia.
• 3:00, NBC SpNet: Men’s basketball, quarterfinals, Brazil-Argentina.
• 3:05: Track and field, women’s long jump final. American favorite Brittany Reese struggled in qualifying. Picks: USA-RUS-RUS
• 3:10: Track and field, men’s 200 semis. It’s Bolt time.
• 3:45: Track and field, women’s 400 hurdles final. Time for Lashinda Demus to pick it up. Picks: USA-RUS-JAM

4 p.m.: You might want to clear out some time to watch online now. NBC picks up track and field at 4:30.

• 4:00: Beach volleyball, women’s final. USA-USA. Picks: USA-BRA-USA
• 4:00: Track and field, women’s 200 final. Allyson Felix looked like Bolt in the semis. Sanya Richards-Ross and Carmelia Jeter could make it a sweep, but Jamaica has something to say about that. Picks: USA-JAM-USA
• 4:15: Track and field, men’s 110 hurdles final. Sorry to say my bronze pick is out. Picks: USA-CUB-CHN
• 4:30: Track and field, decathlon, 400 meters.
• 4:30, MSNBC: Men’s volleyball, quarterfinals, Bulgaria-Germany

5:00:

• 5:15, NBC SpNet: Men’s basketball, quarterfinals, USA-Australia.
• 5:15: Taekwondo, women’s 49kg final. Picks: ESP-TPE-DOM-THA
• 5:30: Taekwondo, men’s 58kg final. Picks: CHN-TPE-ESP-MAR

More taekwondo times: quarterfinals at 10, semis at 12, repechage/bronze at 3. Also other quarterfinals in men’s handball and women’s hockey. And some more sailing and boxing.

Check the full schedule for time updates and results throughout the day: London2012.com

REMINDERS

Full TV listings: NBCOlympics.com
Full online listings: Also NBCOlympics.com

You know who actually has the best glance of how Americans are faring? Wikipedia.

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.