USA! USA! USA!

And hopefully, that'll be the last time I break into that jingoistic chant. (I'm not guaranteeing anything - I do get swept up in things once in a while).

It's interesting that the organizers of the olympics make sure to tell us that 'countries' don't compete in the olympic games, but they're respective National Olympic Committees assemble teams and send them to the games to compete.

United States top medals table at end of Paris Olympics

PARIS, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The United States topped the medals table at the Paris Olympics with 40 golds after the final title was decided on Sunday, finishing above China only by virtue of their 44 silvers.

China, who were the last team apart from the U.S. to top the standings when they did it on home soil at the 2008 Beijing Games, also won 40 golds but managed only 27 silvers.
The U.S. women's basketball team secured their country's pre-eminence by edging host nation France in a breathless finish to win the final gold of the Games. The U.S. also won most total medals with 126 to China's 91.

France won 16 golds to finish fifth on the table and their total tally of 64 medals was their best for more than a century.

Out of 206 teams, 84 of them won at least one medal. 

Here's the top 15:

Put A Pretty Face On It

This has to be the best lede paragraph I've seen in a long time - WaPo (pay wall)

At the starting gate, 200 feet up, big air Olympians can choose from a panoramic array of views. Straight ahead, they can take in the grand Beijing skyline, the under-construction Citic Tower poking into the clouds. Behind them, they can peer out at the craggy, brownish Western Mountains in the distance. And to their left, they can gaze upon a dystopic array of cooling towers and blighted office buildings, a fever dream that looks like someone plopped Homer Simpson’s workplace into circa-2005 Bushwick.

It just doesn't quite capture that winter wonderland feel, does it?

Today's Olympic Video

The single most important aspect of world-class athletic performance is the ability to maintain a razor-sharp focus on the task at hand.  The great ones know this almost instinctively, and a great coach knows how to prepare the athlete to stay in the moment and concentrate. 

Dang, America

Out of 45 possible medals, US shooters have managed only 3.

We have more guns per capita than anybody.

We spend lotsa time and money on it - we shoot a lot.

Three lousy medals, and the only gold is BB guns?  Seriously - what's the fucking point??

Of course, ya gotta figure the US team's at a particular disadvantage, since the competitors aren't allowed to shoot at each other. 

Sochi 2014

Walt Putin is a Soviet era kinda guy, and he's having a difficult time breaking with the old Soviet habit of trying to get style to triumph over substance. (not that he's the only politico who seems always to fall for his own bullshit - just sayin', y'know?)

Read about some of this shit at UK's Daily Mail.