twitter 2, drugs 2
Entering Day 4 of competition, as many athletes had been banned for racist Twitter comments as for drugs. Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella became the second athlete tossed out for his social media writings after he tweeted that South Koreans "can go burn" and referred to them as a "bunch of mongoloids" after a 2-1 loss to South Korea on Sunday. Morganella "discriminated against, insulted and violated the dignity of the South Korea football team as well as the South Korean people," Swiss Olympic team chief Gian Gilli said. Morganella apologized in a statement.
time stands still
The longest second of her life left South Korean fencer Shin A-lam sobbing and, in the end, without a medal. • In a women's epee semifinal, Shin and defending champion Britta Heidemann of Germany were tied 5-5 with one second left. As that one second didn't tick off on the clock, the two played three times for the winning point. Heidemann got it. The South Korean coach appealed, apparently arguing that one second took longer than that to expire. All the while, Shin refused to leave the piste (competition area), sobbing, because by the rules, if she did, she would have accepted defeat. After about an hour, referees gave Heidemann the win. Shin returned minutes later for the bronze-medal match and lost. In a small form of cosmic justice, Heidemann lost the gold to Yana Shemyakina of Ukraine.
twitter does have standards
The L.A. bureau chief of British newspaper the Independent says his Twitter account was suspended because in one of several tweets criticizing NBC's Olympic coverage, he blamed NBC executive Gary Zenkel, left, and included Zenkel's corporate email address. NBC said it complained to Twitter about Guy Adams' tweet because it contained "personal information," i.e. the address, which is against Twitter policy. (Never mind that anyone who can do an Internet search can find it.) Twitter spokeswoman Rachael Horwitz said the company doesn't comment on users for privacy reasons but it considers work emails private unless publicly shared. By the way, Twitter is an official NBC Olympics partner.
Compiled by staff writer Sharon Fink from Times wires
readers ask us
If Palestine is not an internationally recognized nation, how can it compete in the Olympics?
Participation in the Games is contingent upon only a country or geographical area having a national Olympic committee recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Currently the IOC is recognizing 204 committees. The group is made up of 192 of the 193 members of the United Nations (the exception being South Sudan, which does not have a national committee) and 12 other areas: Palestine, Taiwan, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Island, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Island, Aruba, Hong Kong and the Cook Islands.
readers ask us II
How deep is the water polo pool? What are the dimensions of the goal? What's the significance of the 5-meter and 2-meter lines?
The pool at the Water Polo Arena is about 61/2 feet deep. The goal is 9 feet, 10 inches from inside post to inside post, with the bottom of the crossbar 2 feet, 11.5 inches above the water's surface.
The 2-meter line marks offside. No offensive player is allowed to swim inside the line unless he has possession of the ball. A 2-meter (or offside) call results in a change of possession.
If a defensive player commits a foul inside the 5-meter line that prevents a "probable goal," that player is charged with a penalty (or personal) foul and the opposing team is awarded a penalty throw (a "5-meter"). If an offensive player is fouled outside the 5-meter line, that player may pick up the ball and take an immediate shot at the opponent's goal.
Loading...