London 2012: Day 4

(Jon might be calm and reasonable today, but has decided to continue the daily Olympic recaps for some reason. This is your open thread for tonight's primetime coverage, should you deign to participate, which exhaustive research has shown is highly unlikely.)

Today's Olympic WTF?: "WTF was the deal with cash changing hands?" Yesterday, this happened twice, although most people only saw the second incident: during the fencing incident, and during the completion of the men's gymnastics team event. The IOC insituted a rule requiring any team filing an appeal to provide a "bounty" when requesting an appeal or inquiry. In order to reduce the incidence of frivolous appeals, the team requesting the appeal must provide this bounty in cash at the time the inquiry is requested. If their appeal is upheld, they get it back. Why don't they just levy a fine for rejected appeals? Because a lot of smaller countries don't exactly pay the fine in a timely fashion.

And now, you know. With that, on to the recap of Day 4, and your guide to day 5:

Archery: Jacob Wukie defeated India's Jayanta Talukdar 6-0 in the 1/32 round, but lost 6-2 to Baard Nesteng of Norwayin the 1/16. Jennifer Nichols got a 6-5 win over Indian Chekrovolu Swuro in her 1/32 round match; she also fell in the 1/16, 6-4 to Bishindee Urantungalag of Mongolia.

Badminton: Group play concluded in all five events

Basketball: In men's action, Group B saw Russia punk China 73-54, Spain beat Australia 82-70 behind 20 from Pau Gasol, and Brazil beat Great Britain 67-62. In group A, Lithuania cruised past Nigeria 72-53, France upended Argentina 71-64, and Team USA won 110-63 over a Tunisian team that was honestly a lot better than that score indicates.

Beach Volleyball: Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser had to fight through three sets, but got past Pablo Herrera Allepuz and Adrian Gavira Collado of Spain. Jennifer Kessy and April Ross needed three sets to dispatch Sanne Keizer and Marleen van Iersel of the Netherlands.

Boxing: Light welterweight Jamel Herring was eliminated by Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan, 19-9.

Canoe/Kayak: Tony Estanguet of France took the gold in the men's C1 slalom, while German Sideris Tasiadis won silver and Michal Martikan of Slovakia the bronze.

Cycling: off day.

Diving: Oh, look, another diving gold for China as Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao won the women's synchronized 10m platform competition. Paola Espinosa Sanchez and Alejandra Orozco Loza took the silver, and the bronze went to the Canadian duo of Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion.

Equestrian: The three-day event concluded with the jumping competition, and Germany's Michael Jung, riding Sam, took the gold. Sara Algotsson Ostholt and Wega of Sweden won silver; the bronze went to German Sandra Auffarth astride Opgun Louvo. Karen O'Connor and Mr Medicott had the best American finish at 9th, but the rest of the Americans suffered a poor day in the jumping arena. Phillip Dutton and Mystery Whisper finished 23rd, William Coleman and Twizzel 37th, Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister 40th, and Boyd Martin and Otis Barbotiere withdrew. In the team medals, Germany took the gold, Great Britain the silver, and New Zealand the bronze; the Americans, who started the day in fifth, slipped to seventh.

Fencing: In men's foil, Miles Chamley-Watson was dispatched 15-10 in the round of 32 by Egypt's Alaaeldin Abouelkassem; Alex Massialas advanced with a 15-6 win over Canadian Etienne LaLonde Turbide, and Race Imboden beat Brazilian Guiherme Toldo 15-5. Both Americans then bowed out in the round of 16; Massialas was beaten 15-6 by Alexey Cheremisinov of Russia, while Italy's Andrea Baldini took down Imboden 15-9. China's Sheng Lei captured the gold, defeating Abouelkassem in the final; Baldini lost in the bronze medal match to South Korean Byungchul Choi.

Football: In women's group F, Japan and South Africa played to a scoreless draw, while Canada and Sweden drew at 2-2. Sweden wins the group, while Japan and Canada both advance as well. Great Britain beat Brazil 1-0 in an essentially meaningless contest other than the "avoiding the United States until the final" sense, while New Zealand beat Cameroon to sneak into the quarterfinals. Finally, Team USA completed their clean sweep of group G with a 1-0 win over North Korea, who were eliminated when New Zealand won. France is the final quarterfinalist, securing their already near-certain advance with a 1-0 win over Colombia.

Gymnastics: In a result which surprised absolutely nobody at all, we got USA GOLD in the women's team event as the Americans absolutely crushed the field, placing more distance between themselves and silver medalists Russia than Russia placed between themselves and fourth-place China. The bronze went to Romania, in a victory for all against Communist oppression, or something. The Americans won every event outright save the uneven bars, in which they placed third. China did win the uneven bars, but had horrible results in vault and floor, which led to their downfall.

Handball: Men's group A saw Iceland romp past Tunisia 32-22, Sweden blew out Great Britain 41-19, and France rolled Argentina 32-20; in group B Hungary beat South Korea 22-19, Croatia easily handled Serbia 31-23, and Denmark edged Spain 24-23.

Hockey, Field: In women's group A the Netherlands got past Japan 3-2, Belgium and China played a scoreless tie, and Great Britain handled South Korea 5-3. In group B, Team USA escaped Argentina 1-0 in a game they really had to win, New Zealand thumped South Africa 4-1, and Australia beat the Germans 3-1.

Judo: Travis Stevens defeated Aljaz Sedej of Slovenia in the round of 32 in the men's -81kg, then knocked off Avtandil Tchrikishvili of Georgia in the 1/16. Stevens won again in the quarterfinal, defeating Leandro Guilheiro of Brazil, but was defeated in the semifinals by German Ole Bischof before falling in the bronze medal match to Canadian Antoine Valois-Forster. The other bronze went to Russia's Ivan Nofontov, while South Korean Jae-Bum Kim won the gold over Bischof. In the women's -63kg event, Urska Zolnir of Slovenia won the gold, beating China's Xu Lili. The bronze medals were awarded to Japan's Yoshie Ueno and Gevrise Emane of France.

Rowing: Ken Jurkowski finished fifth in his men's single sculls quarterfinal, then also finished fifth in his semifinal, and has now been eliminated. In women's double sculls, Margot Shumway and Sarah Trowbridge advanced to the final. Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols won their repechage in women's light double sculls, advancing to the semifinals. There were also repechage races in men's four, men's light double sculls, and women's eight, none of which involved American rowers. Genevra Stone finished second in her quarterfinal heat of women's single sculls, advancing to the A/B semifinal; Team USA finished fifth in men's light four, and will race in the consolation final (i.e., eliminated from medal contention). The men's double sculls semifinal was also today, but no Americans were involved.

Sailing: Zach Railey took second in race 5 of the men's Finn, then finished 8th in race 6; that nudged him up to 12th overall. In men's 49er, Erik Storck and Trevor Moore stumbled to a 16th place finish in race 3, but turned around and won race 4, and are now 9th overall. Robert Willis finished 7th and 10th in the opening pair of men's RS-X races, and is 7th overall. Bad day for Paige Railey, who went 12/17 in women's Laser Radial; she slips to ninth overall. In men's Star, the US pair of Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih finished 8th and 9th, slipping to sixth place overall. Farrah Hall has dug herself a huge hole by finishing 22nd and 18th in the opening pair of women's RS-X races, and is 21st overall. Rob Crane went 30/28 in men's Laser, which was an improvement over the opening day; he's now moved up to 36th. Finally, the women's Elliott crew won both their head-to-head races today, beating France and Finland, and have moved up to a tie for third in the standings.

Shooting: Vince Hancock missed one of his fifty shots in today's second day of men's skeet qualifications. Fortunately for Vince, he could have missed three and still tied the Olympic record; his qualifying mark of 123 breaks the old record of 121. Obviously, he qualified for the final, but teammate Frank Thompson came up just shy, shooting 119 to finish in a tie for seventh. Hancock then proceeded to tie the Olympic finals record by shooting a perfect 25, winning USA GOLD. The silver went to Denmark's Anders Golding, the bronze to Nasser Al-Attiya of Qatar, who won a shoot-off with Russia's Valeriy Shomin.

Swimming: In the men's 100 free, Nathan Adrian and Cullen Jones both reached the semifinals, where Adrian won their heat but Jones finished dead last and will thus miss the final. Kathleen Hersey won both her qualifying heat and semifinal in the women's 200 fly, while Cammile Adams finished third in both her races; both advance. Scott Weltz and Clark Burckle both reached the final of the men's 200 breaststroke. Team USA was over two seconds faster than anyone in the heats for the men's 4x200 free relay (Charlie Houchin, Matt McLean, Davis Tarwater, and Conor Dwyer swimming the qualifier). In the final, Ryan Lochte, Dwyer, Ricky Berens, and Michael Phelps raced to USA GOLD, followed by France and China. The win made Phelps the most decorated Olympian of all time.

In the other finals, Allison Schmitt set a new Olympic record and won a USA GOLD in the women's 200 free; Missy Franklin missed bronze by, quite literally, a fingernail to Australia's Bronte Barratt, while France's Camille Muffat captured silver. Michael Phelps was almost as close to a gold in the men's 200 fly, settling for USA silver when South Africa's Chad le Clos beat him by a mere .05 seconds. Japan's Takeshi Matsuda won bronze. Tyler Clary finished fifth. Ye Shiwen of China captured the gold in the women's 200 IM, and Aussie Alicia Coutts won silver; Caitlin Leverenz earned USA bronze while Ariana Kukors finished fifth.

Table Tennis: We had some men's quarterfinals, but let's talk about women's semifinals since that matters. China's Ding Ning defeated Tianwei Feng of Singapore 4-2, earning a spot in the gold medal match against her teammate Li Xiaoxia, who dispatched Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa 4-1.

Tennis: In men's singles second-round action, Andy Roddick was eliminated in straight sets by nemesis Novak Djokivic. Andy Murray and Lleyton Hewitt advanced. The Bryan brothers won 7-6/7-6 against the Russian duo of Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny; Roger Federer's doubles match was postponed. Varvara Lepchenko was knocked out by Germany's Julia Goerges in straight sets, but Venus Williams advanced in straight sets over Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, then joined her sister in dispatching Germans Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki in doubles. The other American women's doubles team, Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, got past the Radwanska sisters of Poland 6-4/7-6. Maria Kirilenko and Maria Sharapova also advanced to the third round. But let us not forget the most amazing match of the day, wherein Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Milos Raonic of Canada 6-3/3-6/25-23. Tsonga's scheduled doubles match was postponed. For some reason.

Volleyball: In men's group A, Bulgaria beat Poland 3-1, as did Italy over Argentina, and Australia swept Great Britain. In group B, Serbia won 3-1 over Tunisia, Brazil-Russia, and Team USA cleared Germany in straight sets.

Water Polo: In men's group A, Croatia edged Spain 8-7, Australia beat Kazakhstan 7-4, and Greece tied Italy 7-7; in group B Montenegro squeaked past Hungary 11-10, Serbia absolutely destroyed Great Britain 21-7, and Team USA beat Romania 10-8; the Americans now realistically need only another win to guarantee a spot in the quarterfinals.

Weightlifting: Maiya Maneze of Kazakhstan won the gold in the women's 63kg, with the silver going to Svetlana Tsarukaeva of Russia and the bronze to Canadian Christine Girard. In the men's 69kg, Lin Qingfeng of, grr, China won the gold. Indonesian Triyatno Triyatno not only has the same first and last name, but won the silver; Razvan Constantin Martin of Romania captured the bronze.

MEDAL COUNT: We're still deadlocked. China and the USA each have 23 medals, with Japan in third at 13. France follows with 11, while South Korea, Russia, and Italy are tied with 8. As for golds, China leads with 13, and the USA with 9. France is third with four, followed by both Koreas and... no, really, this is not a joke... Kazakhstan with three apiece. Kazakhstan has more gold medals than the Netherlands has medals. Hide your children.

Tomorrow (all times Central):

Remember, all events available live streaming if you can get it to work. The broadcast details I give here are TV-specific. They also don't necessarily imply coverage of any particular competitor or team matchup unless specified.

Archery: Three Americans in today's schedule. Khatuna Lorig goes first, at 6:15am against Sherab Zam of Bhutan, with another match at 6:41 if she advances. Brady Ellison faces Mark Javier of the Philippines at 9:13am, 1/16 at 9:52. Jake Kaminski shoots at 10:31 against Moldovan Dan Olaru, 1/16 at 11:10. (tape delay: MSNBC, 1:15-1:30pm)

Badminton: Round of 16 singles matches, as well as quarterfinals in women's and mixed doubles. (tape-delay: NBCSN 6-6:30am)

Basketball: Women's group B starts the day with Canada-France, followed by Australia-Brazil and Great Britain-Russia. In group A, there's China-Angola, Croatia-Czech Republic, and at 4:15pm Team USA takes on Turkey. (All games LIVE on either NBCSN or NBC Specialty; USA-Turkey at 4pm on NBCSN)

Beach Volleyball: Jason Gibb and Sean Rosenthal meet the Latvians Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins at 10:30am, while Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings take on Doris and Stefanie Schwaiger of Austria at 5pm. (LIVE: NBC 10:30-11:30am, NBCSN 3:30-4pm; tape delay: NBCSN 12:45-1:15pm, NBC Primetime)

Boxing: We move into the round of 16 finally, with bouts in the bantam, heavyweight, and super heavyweight classes. Joseph Diaz Jr faces Cuban Lazaro Alvarez Estrada in a bantam fight at 7:30am. At 8:30am, Michael Hunter II meets Russian Artur Beterbiev in the heavyweight class, and in super heavyweight Dominic Breazeale -- former quarterback at Northern Colorado -- takes on another Russian, Magomed Omarov, at 9:30. (LIVE: MSNBC 8-9:30am; tape delay: CNBC 4-7pm)

Canoe/Kayak: Men's K1 semifinals at 7:30am; final at 9:15. No Americans. (tape delay: NBC 1:30-2pm)

Cycling: The individual road time trials are tomorrow. The women's event starts at 6:30am, the men's at 9:15, and I have no idea at all who's competing since there's no posted startlist. (LIVE: NBCSN 6:30-7:45am, NBC 9-10am; tape delay: NBC Late Night)

Diving: Troy Dumas and Kristian Ipsen will try to break the Chinese stranglehold on diving in the final of the men's synchronized 3m springboard, which commences at 9am. (tape delay: NBC Primetime)

Equestrian: off day.

Fencing: Men's epee today, with Weston Kelsey facing China's Li Guojie at 3:30am and Soren Thompson meeting Jorg Fiedler of Germany at 4 in round of 32 matches. We also get the women's sabre, the fencing event everyone's been looking forward to as Team USA's opening ceremonies flagbearer Mariel Zagunis meets Indonesian Diah Permatasari in the round of 32 at 7:10am. Dagmara Wozniak follows at 7:30, facing Egyptian Salma Mahran. (LIVE: NBCSN 7:45-8:30am, MSNBC 9:30-10am, 12:45-2pm, 2:30-2:50pm)

Football: Men's group play concludes. Group A is completely up in the air as Great Britain faces Uruguay and Senegal meets the UAE. Senegal is through to the quarterfinals unless they lose and Uruguay wins by three goals; Great Britain is through with a win or a draw. Uruguay needs to win. In group B, Mexico faces Switzerland and South Korea meets Gabon; both Mexico and South Korea require only a draw, and Mexico can even advance with a one-goal defeat. (There is, it should be noted, the horrific prospect of a four-way dead heat if Mexico loses by two and South Korea loses by one, in which case Switzerland and Gabon advance on goals scored.) Brazil is already through in group C, and will face New Zealand while Belarus meets Egypt. Belarus is through with a win or a draw and a Brazil victory. Should Egypt win, they would advance with a Brazil win or draw. If both Egypt and New Zealand win, whichever team wins by more advances; if they win by the same margin, Egypt is through. Finally, group D has Japan-Honduras and Spain-Morocco. Japan is through, and Spain is already eliminated; the only way Morocco can advance over Honduras is if Morocco beats Spain and Honduras loses to Japan, the scores of those games being irrelevant since Morocco would automatically have the superior goal differential in that case. (All games LIVE on either NBCSN, MSNBC, or NBC Specialty.)

Gymnastics: Men's all-around final starts at 10:30am, with John Orozco and Danell Leyva competing for Team USA. (tape delay: NBC Primetime)

Handball: In group A, Montenegro meets Angola, Great Britain faces Brazil, and Russia plays Croatia. Group B includes Norway-South Korea, France-Sweden, and Spain-Denmark. (tape delay: Spain-Denmark MSNBC 3:30-4pm.)

Hockey, Field: Spain-Australia, South Africa-Great Britain, and Pakistan-Argentina comprise group A tomorrow; in group B, it's Belgium-Netherlands, New Zealand-India, and South Korea-Germany. (LIVE: NBCSN Spain-Australia joined in progress 3-4am)

Judo: Men's -90kg starts at 3:30 am with no American entry; likewise, no American competes in the women's -70kg, starting at 4:19. (Not televised today.)

Rowing: We finally start handing out rowing medals tomorrow, as three finals are sandwiched by four semifinals. Semis first: men's single sculls at 3:30am, with Ken Jurkowski racing for a spot in the consolation final; men's light double sculls at 3:50am, USA already eliminated; men's quad sculls at 4:40am, USA already eliminated; and men's pair at 5am, Thomas Peszek and Silas Stafford racing to advance. FINALS: Sarah Hendershot and Sarah Zelenka race for gold in the women's pair at 4:10; at 4:20 Team USA races in the women's quad sculls final; and Team USA rows in the men's eight final at 4:30. In short: watch rowing online from 4-4:30am, and be better for it. (tape delay highlights: NBC 3:45-4pm)

Sailing: Continuing on with races 3-4 of men's and women's RS-X, 5-6 of men's 49er, men's Laser, and women's Laser Radial, and the women's Elliott round robin continues. (Not televised today.)

Shooting: At 3:00am, the qualifications for women's 25m pistol begin; American Sandra Uptragraff shoots in the second relay, which begins at 4:20. The event final begins at 9:30. (Not televised today.)

Swimming: Heats and semis: women's 100 free (Jessica Hardy and Missy Franklin, 4am and 1:38pm), men's 200 backstroke (Tyler Clary and Ryan Lochte, 4:21am and 1:49pm), women's 200m breaststroke (Rebecca Soni and Micah Lawrence, 4:43am and 2:27pm), men's 200 IM (Lochte and Phelps, 5:06am and 2:41pm). Heats and finals in the women's 4x200 free relay (5:26am and 3:04pm; squad includes Franklin, Schmitt, Dana Vollmer, Lauren Perdue, Alyssa Anderson, and Shannon Vreeland), and the finals of the men's 200 breaststroke (Clark Burckle and Scott Weltz, 1:30pm), women's 200 fly (Kathleen Hersey and Cammile Adams, 2:12pm), and Adrian Nathan in the men's 100 free at 3:30pm. (tape delay heats highlights: NBC 10:05-10:30am and 11:30am-12:20pm; tape delay highlights and finals: NBC Primetime)

Table Tennis: At 4am, the remaining men's quarterfinals will take place; at 8:30 the women's singles bronze medal match will see Japan's Kasumi Ishikawa facing Tianwei Feng of Singapore, while the Chinese teammates Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia will meet for the gold at 9:30. (LIVE: NBCSN 5-6am; tape delay: MSNBC, 10-11am)

Tennis: Third round singles matches include John Isner against Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, Serena Williams facing Russian Vera Zvonareva, and Venus Williams meeting Angelique Kerber of Germany; non-Americans include Roger Federer against Uzbeki Denis Istomin, Andy Murray facing Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, Maria Kirilenko clashing with Julia Goerges of Germany, Maria Sharapova and German Sabine Lisicky, and three really BIG matches: Daniela Hantuchova v. Caroline Wozniacki, Kim Clijsters v. Ana Ivanovic, and Lleyton Hewitt v. Novak Djokovic. In doubles, the delayed second round match between Roger Federer/Stanislaus Wawrinka and Israelis Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, as well as women's quarterfinal matches with both American duos: the Williams sisters face Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, while Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond meet Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elisa Vesnina. Finally, we get the first round of mixed doubles, with the team of Huber and Brad Bryan facing Germany's Lisciki and Christopher Kas, and Lisa Raymond and Mike Bryan meeting Italians Errani and Andreas Seppi. Other notables involved in the mixed doubles tomorrow are Hewitt, Ivanovic, and Murray. (LIVE: Bravo, 6am-2pm)

Volleyball: Women's group A: Dominican Republic-Japan, Algeria-Russia, and Great Britain-Italy; group B features Serbia-Turkey, Brazil-South Korea, and Team USA against China at 2pm. (LIVE: Dominican Rep.-Japan, NBCSN 4-5am joined in progress; USA-China, NBC 2pm)

Water Polo: In women's group B, Australia faces the British and Russia meets Italy; in group A China faces off with Hungary while Team USA challenges Spain, the winner guaranteed to advance. (LIVE: USA-Spain, NBC 12:20pm; tape delay: Hungary-China, NBCSN 10:15-11am)

Weightlifting: Men's 77kg and women's 69kg. There are still no Americans participating. (tape delay highlights MSNBC 2-2:30pm)