GOAL!

The women's soccer semi-final yesterday between the United States and Canada was one of the most exciting, thrilling, nail-biting games (of any kind of sport) I've ever seen.  Apparently I'm not alone, as the New York Times reported this morning that "fans around the world who watched it declared it one of the best games, involving men or women, in memory."  Of course, if we hadn't won, I might not feel the same.  Nevertheless, it's on to the gold medal game Thursday.

Did you ever wonder how a discus thrower or shot putter gets his/her projectile back after throwing it?  No, I never did either, but evidently somebody got tired of carrying them.  British automaker BMC has provided the London Olympics with three 1/4-scale, remote-controlled cars (which they are calling Mini Mini Coopers) with open tops into which a discus, shot, javelin, or hammer can be placed and then steered back to the area of the throwing circle.  I am not making this up.

As of last night, China went ahead of the United States in the medal count again, but it has been pointed out that we have won more medals per capita than they have.  They've won one medal per 22 million residents, whereas we've won one medal per 5.2 million people.  The winner is Slovenia (population 2 million) which has won four medals, or one medal for every 500,000 folks.

Who comes up with this stuff?

Day 10 Quote of the Day (Bruno Bini, coach of the French women's soccer team, prior to their semi-final match with Japan):  "I don't want to go home with a medal made of chocolate."

Actually, I wouldn't mind having one of those.