Geez, Robert, don’t scare me like that!  I saw that you had posted and figured that someone had died during the Olympic games.  Thank goodness it wasn’t one of your obituaries!

As to your long tirade - yes, yes, of course there are plenty of other media outlets posting the Olympics.  I was talking about the US network broadcast of the opening ceremonies.  And of course it was for viewers.  NBC doesn’t post for its own gratification.  As for your claim that “everything was shown” - really?  I hear tell of a tribute to London victims of terrorism, yet I didn’t see that on the network broadcast.  Nor did I see more than 3-5 second of Latvian athletes, which was the main point.

Ulvis Kalnins
2nd
Men’s 100n Freestyle Heat 4

Medals per Capita
“
Meantime, we’re underway in 2008, as Monday evening in Beijing brought a fresh “official” medal table, haphazardly done as ever, quite possibly the least telling statistical chart in sports.

The far more astute MPC Table looked as follows. Note the influence of the colossal women’s 10-meter air rifle and 10-meter air pistol, which brought bronze medals to Croatia and Georgia, respectively. Note the prowess of the entire Korean peninsula, with a special MPC shout-out to those dynastic South Korean female archers, possibly the coolest athletes extant.

1. Australia (5 medals) - 4,120,171
2. Croatia (1 medal) - 4,491,543
3. Georgia (1 medal) - 4,630,841
4. Czech Republic (2 medals) - 5,110,456
5. The Netherlands (3 medals) - 5,548,438
6. Cuba (2 medals) - 5,711,976
7. North Korea (4 medals) - 5,869,772
8. South Korea (8 medals) - 6,154,106
9. Italy (8 medals) - 7,268,165
10. Azerbaijan (1 medal) - 8,177,717

Side note: The laggard United States had 12 medals for 25,318,721, and the Lilliputian Chinese gamely had clawed for 14 medals but still looked stuck with 95,003,186.

—Chuck Culpepper

LA TIMES 2008”

Russia (approx 300mill?) not mentioned.
Off the map or on the nose?

Right on Anita,I could not agree more with your p-31.
What is the latest on our beach volleyball?

mens Beach Volleyball:

LONDON, July 31 (Reuters) - Latvia beat Venezuela 2-0 in a
men’s beach volleyball Pool E match on Tuesday.

LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Men’s beach volleyball Pool E
results.

Erdmann/Matysik (Germany) 1 Plavins/J. Smedins (Latvia) 2

In the men’s competition, straight set victories went to Martin Spinnangr and Tarjei Viken Skarlund of Norway over Canadians Joshua Binstock and Martin Reader; Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Ruslans Sorokins of Latvia over Freedom Chiya and Grant Goldschmidt of South Africa;

Speaking of which/whom—volleyballists, Janis Smedins and Martins Plavins courtesy of Vinde:

http://www.london2012.com/news/articles/latvia-make-double.html

Irena

PS Thanks marisr for keeping us abreast!

Irena

Got things wrong in my story about Latvia’s beach volleyballers. The headline should read “Latvia’s Beach Volleyballers Poised to Advance”. Neither pair had qualified for the next round with their first two victories and needed a third victory to go through automatically. Samoilovs and Sorokins lost to the USA on August 1 and finished third in their group even though there was a three way tie in points. That means they need to wait for remaining games in the groups to see what happens. The top two teams from each of the six groups move forward, then it is the best two third place times and then the four other third place team compete for the last two places in the next round of 16 teams. Chalk the mix-up to positive thinking by a Latvians sports fan all two eager for Olympic medals.

Looks like Janis and Martins won!!

http://www.london2012.com/news/articles/latvia-maintain-winning-ways.html

Also, you can keep abreast with the Latvia athletes on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvia_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics

It gets updated daily.  GO LATVIJA!!!!

: o >

In men’s Beech Volleyball today Pļaviņš and Smediņš beat Norway and have advanced to the quarterfinals. They will play the winner of USA/Russia match! Sarauj, veči!!!!

Hi LigitaR:

Much thanks for your astute observation that the Wikipedia link that you shared gets updated daily (I would have never thought to look there for such current Olympic updates of what’s up with Latvian athletes)

I’ll herewith rebroadcast that part of your posting…..

Also, you can keep abreast with the Latvia athletes on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvia_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics

It gets updated daily.  GO LATVIJA!!!!

Olympic regards to you from a diehard sports fan,

Al

An Estonian, a Latvian, and a Lithuanian decide to go to London for the Olympics.  Alas, they have no tickets to the events.  The estonian has a bright idea.  “Follow me,” he says to his companions.

As they approach the gate to the Athlete’s Village, the Estonian reaches down and lifts a manhole cover.  Showing it to the guard, he simply states “Discus.”. The guard waves him in.  The Latvian spies a broom, and breaks the end off, leaving just a jagged broomstick.  “Javelin,” he says, and promptly gets waved into the Athlete’s Village.

The Lithuanian grabs a metal security barrier and approaches the guard.  “Fencing,” he says.

/R

Lauris - 03 August 2012 05:26 AM

In men’s Beech Volleyball today Pļaviņš and Smediņš beat Norway and have advanced to the quarterfinals. They will play the winner of USA/Russia match! Sarauj, veči!!!!

:cheese:  HURRAH!!!!!!!!!

GO LATVIJA!!!!!!

“17-Martins Plavins/Janis Smedins (Latvia) beat 18-Tarjei
Skarlund/Martin Spinnangr (Norway) 21-18 21-16   “
Reuters

And they are on again tonight.

Go Go Go Latvia.

Beach volleyball is a crap sport for me. I have played volleyball as a team sport and won several local medals in the years. This is not a tallent sport but garbage sport.