Koreans at the Olympics

I have no idea how my Canadian team is doing at the Olympics. The Korean government has blocked all non-Korean Olympic newsfeeds, internet pages and phone calls until the end of the games. Well, that's a joke...kind of a parody of when they blocked all foreign blogs and monitored everything else after some knucklehead put the b-head-ing on his blog. (I do know, however that Korea is #10 in the medal standing and Canada is tied for #38; aka last.)

Seriously, though...when I watch AFN I see predominantly American athletes (or at least competitions/races where the Americans have a chance at medalling). Here is no different...in Korea I watched the women's archery competition til like midnight. It's actually quite interesting...a lot like curling (which, by the way, is the #1 sport for wealthy North Americans). The Koreans got a Gold, Silver and Bronze in 2000 but this year just a Gold and Silver after one Korean was out-shot by a rather manish Taiwanese....um, Lady. Also watched (skeet) shooting where Korea got a Silver. Korea also got Silver and Bronze in Men's Individual All-Around Gymnastics...man, they got quite the powerhouse here. And just to prove that they can come up with a stat for anything...this article talks about how a Greek beat a South Koeran in taekwondo: it was the first time ever in the games in a Greek vs. Korean match-up that the Greek won. Greece is the word, Greece is the word.

There was a football/soccer game between Korea and Mali yesterday, too. Korea was down 0-3 then got 2 goals and Mali got a goal too...they ended in a tie and Korea is in the quarterfinals now. You read right...a Mali player headed the ball into his own net! Not off a foot or shoulder...looked like he took a calculated shot!


Yay! The Mali screwed-up! Ma-li screw-up!..da.da...da.da.da!
From this article.

Listen to the jingle of that change in their pockets! It's not just the medals that are clack-clanking...but the green. Some major cash can be made by getting a gold in some countries. Gold medal gymnasts from China now have their own (one of them is the largest) sportswear companies and the Ukraine is promising 100,000 USD to Yana Klochkova if she gets Gold (she has 2 already) and also the title of Hero of Ukraine. (Note: the average wage in the Ukraine is about USD71 a month.) Wow. Another country whose name eludes me at the moment is offering a free house to its Olympic hopeful...I remember hearing that the odds were pretty slim, but still...