Sunday, 10 August 2008

Kyrgyz efforts at the Olympics

First-off, congratulations to Vasily Danilov, a 19-year-old from Kyrgyzstan who came 3rd in the first heat for the men's 400m individual medley... OK, he may not have won, and no one from that heat actually got into the finals; but I think it's great that Kyrgyzstan managed to enter a swimmer who didn't (as per my expectations) come last, but who beat the speedy swimmers of Turkey and Andorra.

OK, it may not sound that great, but the Olympics (as of 1996/98) were virtually uncovered in Kyrgyzstan, so there's very little support for Kyrgyz athletes; which makes it fantastic they even manage to enter a team.

Little-known fact: Kyrygzstan (although then "the Kirghiz Republic of the USSR") has won one gold medal in Olympics history, for weight-lifting, in 1980. Go Kyrgyzstan! Independent of the USSR, I think they've only won the one medal — bronze — for extra lightweight judo in 2000.

In Kiwier news, congrats to the Evers-Swindell twins, who exceeded everyone's expectations with a beautiful easy win in the first heat of the women's double sculls; and the Waddell/Cohen team who everyone knew would win the first heat of the men's double sculls, although the Belorussian team gave them a very good run for their money.

Ahh, the Olympics. I'm mainly rooting for Kyrgyzstan and New Zealand, as well as any random small countries (e.g. Belorus) that catch my eye; and I do hope China get more golds than the States this year. Go China! Woo!

...end Olympics rave.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what did the poor, innocent USA do to merit you rooting against us? I'm rooting for the US, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and any random small country that catches my eye, such as NZ.

just kidding!

Ruth (Book Focus) said...

Hehe... I'm not rooting against the USA so much, I just feel you guys win everything! Time for someone else to win. It's pretty close though! :)

I don't know if you saw the results of the wrestling today - the Kyrgyz and Kazakh guys both got through to the semifinals, but were beat out respectively by Russia and Azerbaijan! I'm a bit gutted both of them were beat out, but go them for getting so far in the first place! :)