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England

Olympics: athletics, day 3

How the sport works Athletics, what North Americans call track & field, includes a variety of running, jumping, and throwing events. I won’t explain every single event here, but you can generally assume the winner completed the event the fastest, highest, or furthest.     Please note the official description of the weather conditions…   … Continue reading »

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Olympics: women’s marathon

How the sport works You run 26.2 miles. Pretty straightforward!     I’ve run a few marathons and have decided I prefer to cheer on the marathoners rather than be one myself, so that’s exactly what I did at the women’s marathon this morning.   Being summer in London, I put on sunblock as soon … Continue reading »

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Olympics: athletics, day 2

How the sport works Athletics, what North Americans call track & field, includes a variety of running, jumping, and throwing events. I won’t explain every single event here, but you can generally assume the winner completed the event the fastest, highest, or furthest.     Men’s 400 meter hurdles semi finals I was lucky enough … Continue reading »

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Olympics: men’s team table tennis

How the sport works In team table tennis, each team has three players. The first team to win the best of five games wins the overall match. Each game is played to eleven points. The first, second, fourth, and fifth games are played one-on-one while the third game is played doubles (that is, two players … Continue reading »

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Olympics: women’s volleyball

How the sport works The first team to score twenty five points in three sets wins the match. This was still a preliminary round so there were no medals awarded tonight.   It never fails to stun me how tall volleyball players are, so when the American and Serbian teams came on the court, I … Continue reading »

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Olympics: rowing

How the sport works There are two different types of stroke: sweeping (one oar per athlete) and sculling (two oars per athlete, abbreviated with an X). If there is a cox in the boat to steer and motivate the athletes, it is abbreviated with a plus sign and a minus sign without a cox. Boats … Continue reading »

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Olympics: men’s & women’s beach volleyball

How the sport works Teams win a set by scoring twenty one points and the first team to win two of three sets wins. There were no medals up for grabs tonight.     Horse Guards Parade was a beautiful setting for the beach volleyball competition.   Just outside the venue, a sand sculptor was … Continue reading »

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Olympics: women’s and men’s cycling time trial

How the sport works Every ninety seconds, a cyclist starts the race and rides the entire course alone. The fastest time wins. The women's time trial was twenty nine kilometers and the men's was forty four.   My dad, brother, and I boarded a morning train for Hampton Court to secure a good spot along … Continue reading »

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Olympics: men’s 69 kilo weightlifting

How the sport works An athlete must complete two different types of lifts. Round one is the snatch, where he must lift the weight above his head in one fluid movement. The second round is the clean and jerk, where he must lift the weight first to his collarbone and then over his head. A … Continue reading »

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Olympics: rowing

How the sport works There are two different types of stroke: sweeping (one oar per athlete) and sculling (two oars per athlete, abbreviated with an X). If there is a cox in the boat to steer and motivate the athletes, it is abbreviated with a plus sign and a minus sign without a cox. Boats … Continue reading »

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