Olympic Medal Count 2012 Update (Day 4)

Olympic Medal Count 2012 Update

China is still leading the Olympic medal count with 13 golds and USA trailing in the 2nd with 9 gold medals but both with 23 medals in total, as of Day 4, July 31, 2012. 

It was a historic day as American swimmer Michael Phelps claimed a silver and a gold medal, becoming the most decorated Olympian of all-time. He now has 19 Olympic medals, breaking the record of 18 Olympic medals set by Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina in 1964.

Allison Schmitt of the United States won the women's 200m Freestyle final in an Olympic record and 16-year-old Chinese sensation Ye Shiwen clinched her second gold of the Games in the 200m Individual Medley.

Germany’s Michael Jung clinched double gold - in both the Team and Individual Eventing at Greenwich Park.

Jung, riding alongside Peter Thomsen, Dirk Schrade, Sandra Auffarth and Ingrid Klimke, helped Germany land the team event earlier and he returned to edge out Sweden's Sara Algotsson Ostholt to also claim individual gold. Algotsson Ostholt would have finished first but she had the last fence down and that enabled Jung to triumph.

France's Tony Estanguet won Olympic gold in the individual Canoe Slalom (C1) in a time of 97.06. It was the 34-year-old's third gold medal in the event after he triumphed in Sydney and Athens.

The USA clinched Gymnastics gold in the women’s Team final ahead of Russia and Romania.

History was also made at a packed ExCeL with Africa's first-ever Olympic Fencing medal. But 21-year-old Egyptian Alaaeldin Abouelkassem had to settle for silver and not the gold he was really looking for - and looked like he might grab.

That went to China's world number nine Lei Sheng, who came from 13-12 down to win 15-13.

Lin Qingfeng went some way to restoring China’s reputation as a Weightlifting superpower after taking Olympic gold in the men’s 69kg. 

Check out the full 2012 London Olympics medal tally below:

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	People's Republic of China	13	6	4	23
2	United States of America	9	8	6	23
3	France	4	3	4	11
4	Republic of Korea	3	2	3	8
5	Democratic People's Republic of Korea	3	0	1	4
6	Kazakhstan	3	0	0	3
7	Italy	2	4	2	8
8	Germany	2	3	1	6
9	Russian Federation	2	2	4	8
10	South Africa	2	0	0	2
11	Japan	1	4	8	13
12	Australia	1	3	2	6
13	Romania	1	2	2	5
14	Brazil	1	1	1	3
14	Hungary	1	1	1	3
16	Netherlands	1	1	0	2
17	Ukraine	1	0	2	3
18	Georgia	1	0	0	1
18	Lithuania	1	0	0	1
18	Slovenia	1	0	0	1
21	Great Britain	0	2	2	4
22	Colombia	0	2	0	2
22	Mexico	0	2	0	2
24	Indonesia	0	1	1	2
25	Cuba	0	1	0	1
25	Denmark	0	1	0	1
25	Egypt	0	1	0	1
25	Poland	0	1	0	1
25	Sweden	0	1	0	1
25	Thailand	0	1	0	1
25	Taipei (Chinese Taipei)	0	1	0	1
32	Canada	0	0	4	4
33	Slovakia	0	0	2	2
34	Azerbaijan	0	0	1	1
34	Belgium	0	0	1	1
34	India	0	0	1	1
34	Republic of Moldova	0	0	1	1
34	Mongolia	0	0	1	1
34	Norway	0	0	1	1
34	New Zealand	0	0	1	1
34	Qatar	0	0	1	1
34	Serbia	0	0	1	1
34	Uzbekistan	0	0	1	1

Typhoon Gener August 1, 2012 PAGASA Update

Typhoon Gener continues to move towards Taiwan-Ryukyu area, the PAGASA reported Wednesday, August 1, 2012.

Typhoon Gener satellite image at 10:32 a.m., August 1, 2012 (Source PAGASA)

At 10:00 a.m.. today, the center of  Typhoon Gener was located based on satellite and surface data at 285 km Northeast of Basco, Batanes (22.8°N, 123.7°E).  It is packing maximum sustained winds of 120 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 150 kph. It is moving North Northwestward at 7 kph.

The following areas are still under public warning storm signals:

Signal #2: Batanes Group of Islands, Calayan Group of Islands, and Babuyan Group of Islands
Signal #1:  Rest of Cagayan and Apayao

The PAGASA also made the following advisories:

"Typhoon Gener is expected to enhance the Southwest Monsoon that will bring rains and moderate to strong winds over Luzon and Western Visayas.

"Residents living in low lying and mountainous areas are alerted against possible flashfloods and landslides. Likewise, those living in coastal areas under Public Storm Warning Signal #2 are alerted against big waves or storm surges generated by this tropical cyclone.

"Estimated rainfall amount is from heavy - torrential (10 - 35 mm per hour) within the 700 km diameter of the Typhoon.

"Fishing boats and other small seacrafts are advised not to venture out into the Seaboard of Luzon and Visayas due to the combined effect of Typhoon Gener and the Southwest Monsoon.

"Meanwhile, the Low Pressure Area (LPA) was estimated at 360 km West Northwest of Basco, Batanes (21.0°N, 118.1°E).

"The public and the disaster coordinating councils concerned are advised to take appropriate actions and watch for the next bulletin to be issued at 5 PM today. "

Suspension of Classes August 1, 2012

Due to inclement weather several local government units in Metro Manila and nearby provinces have suspended classes on Wednesday, August 1, 2012:

Suspension of Classes August 1, 2012

Below is the list of local government units and schools that announced suspension of classes in Metro Manila:

• Manila - preschool to high school (public only; afternoon shift)
• Makati - preschool to high school (public only; afternoon shift)
• Pasay City - preschool to high school (public only)
• Quezon City - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Marikina - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Navotas City - preschool to high school (public and private); Navotas Polytechnic College
• Mandaluyong - preschool to high school (public and private)
• San Juan City - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Malabon - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Valenzuela
  • Rincon Elementary School
  • Pasolo Elementary School
  • Isla Elementary School
  • Tagalag Elementary School
  • Coloong Elementary School
  • Pio Valenzuela Elementary School
  • Wawangpulo Elementary School
  • A. Deato Elementary School
  • P.R. San Diego Elementary School
  • Polo National High School

The are also no classes on August 1, 2012 in following areas outside Metro Manila:

• Benguet - preschool to college (public and private)
• Rodriguez, Rizal - preschool to college (public and private)
• San Mateo, Rizal  - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Obando, Bulacan - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Sta. Elena, Bulacan - preschool and elementary
• Sasmuan, Pampanga - preschool and elementary
• Guagua, Pampanga - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Imus City, Cavite - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Naic, Cavite - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Rosario, Cavite - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Tanza, Cavite - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Ternate, Cavite - preschool to high school (public and private)
• Olongapo, Zambales - preschool to high school (public and private; afternoon shift)

Classes in the following schools and universities were also suspended:

• Ateneo de Manila University - elementary and high school
• OB Montessori Center (all Metro Manila branches)
• University of the East (Manila and Caloocan) preschool to high school)
• Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (afternoon classes)
• Unibersidad de Manila (afternoon classes)
• University of the Philippines - Manila (starting 1 p.m.)
• San Sebastian College Recoletos (starting 11:30 a.m.)
• De La Salle University (Taft, Makati and Ortigas campuses; including offices)
  
• De La Salle - College of St. Benilde (starting 11:30 a.m.)
• University of Santo Tomas (starting 12 p.m.)
• Casa de Soleil Child Develoment Center (Caloocan)
• Great Redeemer Accelerated Christian Education College (Caloocan)
• St. Catherine of Sienna Academy of Novaliches (Caloocan)
• Jeremiah Christian Academy (Valenzuela)
• Nuestra Senora De Guia Academy (Valenzuela)
• PolyLove Academy (Valenzuela)
• Niog Elementary School (Bacoor, Cavite)
• Panapaan Elementary School (Bacoor, Cavite)
• San Diego Parochial School (Valenzuela)
• Ubihan Elementary School (Meycauayan, Bulacan)
• Zamora Elementary School (Meycauayan, Bulacan)
• Eastern Star Academy (San Mateo, Rizal)
• Cawag High School Annex (Zambales)
• Cawag Resettlement High School (Zambales)
• Nagyantok High School (Zambales)
• San Isidro High School (Zambales)

Source: ABS-CBN News, as of 11:35 a.m., August 1, 2012

Born On This Day- July 31st... Colin Higgins

Colin Higgins was one of Hollywood's most beloved directors & screenwriters. He is responsible for one of the most influential films of my youth- Harold & Maude.

Born in the South Pacific island of New Caledonia to an Australian mother & American father, Higgins moved with his family to Redwood, CA from Sydney in the 1950s. After attending Stanford University for a year, he dropped out to hitchhike across the country. His travels took him first to the Actors Studio in NYC & then to Europe where he volunteered for the Army as a sports reporter for The Stars & Stripes. He eventually returned to Stanford to receive his degree in English & later attended film school at UCLA. During his final year, he wrote the screenplay for Harold & Maude.

While today it is considered to be one of the greatest of Hollywood films, Harold & Maude was a huge flop when it opened during the Christmas season of 1971 with little fanfare or advertising. The unusual romance between a young man & a much older woman, starring Bud Cort & my muse- Ruth Gordon, struck a chord with audiences & soon became a cult favorite around the world. His stage version ran for just 9 performances on Broadway, but ran in Paris for 7 years.

Following the success of Harold & Maude, Higgins went on to write & direct some of the most successful films of the 1970s &1980s:  Silver Streak, Foul Play, 9 to 5, & The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.

In 1986, Higgins established a foundation in his name. The Colin Higgins Courage Awards recognizes ordinary but remarkable individuals who have endured overwhelming hostility & hate, yet have handled themselves with the utmost grace as they educate & enlighten others about the LGBT experience. Each winner receives $10,000 as part of the prize.

In addition to the Courage Awards, the Foundation also funds film scholarships & has supported over 390 LGBT groups, ranging from the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to gay, lesbian, bisexual & transgender outreach & AIDS prevention programs in places like as Fayetteville, Arkansas & Biloxi, Mississippi.

In 1986, he also completed a mini-series based on Shirley MacLaine's book Out on a Limb, which turned out to be his last film project. Higgins died of AIDS in 1988.

Born On This Day- July 31st... Gay Rights Pioneer, Barbara Gittings

During an era when very few gay people dared come out in private, much less in public, Barbara Gittings was a vocal & visible figure in the fledgling fight for gay rights.

In the late 1950s, she founded the NYC chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first national organization for lesbians, even though she lived in Philadelphia. In the 1960s, she took part in early gay rights demonstrations at the White House & Liberty Square in Philadelphia. In the early 1970s, she helped lobby the American Psychiatric Association to change its stance on homosexuality; in 1973, the APA invalidated the definition of homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Gittings also strove to make information about gay men & lesbians more widely available in libraries. Though not a librarian by training, she was for many years the head of the American Library Association’s Gay Task Force; she coordinated & edited the association’s comprehensive bibliography of literature by & about gay people.

Gittings felt keenly aware of the need for such a bibliography as a young woman, when she scoured local libraries, seeking, but seldom seeing, something that would help her understand her own life.

Gittings was born on July 31, 1932, in Vienna, where her father was a member of the United States diplomatic corps, returning to the United States when Barbara was young. When she was a teenager, her father caught her reading The Well of Loneliness, the 1928 novel of lesbian love by the English writer Radclyffe Hall. He told her, via a letter, to burn the book. Gittings’ father mailed the letter, when he could not bring himself to speak to her.

Gittings studied theatre at Northwestern, but she was increasingly distracted by the need to learn as much as she could about homosexuality. She haunted the libraries of Chicago, unearthing little that was relevant & nothing that was encouraging.

Gittings: "I had to find bits & pieces under headings like ‘sexual perversion’, ‘invert, or ‘sexual aberration’ in books on abnormal psychology. I kept thinking, ‘It’s me they’re writing about, but it doesn’t feel like me at all.’"

She left Northwestern after her freshman year, & for decades she supported her activism with clerical jobs. In 1958, commuting from her home in Philadelphia, Gittings started the NYC chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, which was founded in San Francisco in 1955; she later edited the organization’s national newsletter- The Ladder. In 1965, she took part in one of the first gay rights pickets of the White House, in an effort to end discrimination against gay people in federal employment.

Gittings received many awards, among them honorary membership in the American Library Association. The Free Library of Philadelphia named its gay & lesbian collection for her, & the NYC Public Library acquired the papers of Gittings & her longtime partner- Kay Tobin Lahusen, which chronicle more than half a century in the gay rights movement.

She appeared in the documentaries Out of the Past, Gay Pioneers, Before Stonewall & After Stonewall.

Lahusen: “Before Barbara died, we went jointly into an assisted-living facility. Our last bit of activism was to come out in the newsletter of our assisted-living facility.” Gittings died of cancer in her home on February 2007 at 74 years old.

Ye! Shiwen, She Won

Ye Shiwen exults after winning the women's 400 IM gold. Pic courtesy National Post.

The 16 year old Chinese girl's feat of out-splitting even the world's fastest male swimmer raises claims of doping

By Francis Adams

Arne Ljungqvist, chief of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission and a veteran anti-doping official showed, on Monday, how an official heading an important body at the Olympic Games ought to react impartially and in a professional manner.

  Ljungqvist quashed claims of doping when asked about 16 year old Chinese girl Yi Shiwen's astounding feat in the pool by saying, "I say no. I personally have no reason other than to applaud until i have further facts."

Arne Ljungvist

 Ye won the 400m Individual Medley gold in a world record time of 4min 28.43sec, erasing more than a second off the world record achieved by Australia's Stephanie Rice four years ago in Beijing. By clocking that record time, Ye would have beaten the world's fastest swimmers Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte of the United States.

 “Should a sudden raise in performance or a win be primarily suspect of being a cheat then sport is in danger because this ruins the charm of sport,” Ljungqvist, who has 40 years experience in anti-doping told the National Post.

  Ye's heroics did not go down well with John Leonard, executive director of the World Swimming Coaches Association. "But the final 100m was impossible. Flat out. If all her split times had been faster I don't think anybody would be calling it into question, because she is a good swimmer. But to swim three other splits at the rate that she did, which was quite ordinary for elite competition, and then unleash a historic anomaly, it is just not right," Leonard told The Guardian.

 Ye herself told The Guardian that "the Chinese team keeps very firmly to the anti-doping policies, so there is absolutely no problem."
  The clean chit given to Ye by WADA, the world anti-doping body, on Tuesday, has added addtional shine to her record-breaking effort.

 With 17 medals ( nine gold, five silver and three bronze) in two days of competition and dominating the leaderboard, China is more than likely to face the envy of the rest of the world, led by the developed Western nations who have been ruling the podium for almost a century, that is, until four years ago when China hosted the Beijing Games and finished at the top in the overall medal tally.
 Almost every country, dominant in sports or the also-ran, have witnessed doping related incidents.
  An editorial in Tuesday's The Times of India, the country's largest English-language newspaper by circulation and readership exhorted the country to "Begin With an Olympic Dream".
  Unlike India, with an equally huge population, China's orientation toward sports development began with Mao Zedong's slogan of "promoting physical culture and building people's health" that triggered the change.
  It was during this time that the feudal dynasty, with a Confucian cultural heritage embraced modern forms of physical exercises and sport owing to western influence and the advent of missionaries, who introduced track and field events as part of the educational program.
 According to a document "China and the Olympic Movement" by Hai Ren, who was the Professor of Beijing University of Physical Education and Director of the Centre for Olympic Studies at the Beijing University of Physical Education when he wrote it, "1979 marked a significant turning point of Olympic  development in China with its returning to the international Olympic family. During the 1980s a sport developmental strategy was proposed by the National Sport Commission, involving harmonious development between high performance sports aiming at the Olympic Games and mass sports, which focused on youngsters."
 The document says that with the exception of traditional sport such as Wushu, the administration in China restablished the National Games, held every four years into an Olympic-oriented policy. This produced dramatic and positive results.
  In an interesting anecdote from history, it was in 1948, post World War II and at the London Olympic Games that 33 athletes representing China in basketball, football, track and field, swimming and cycling ended up without a medal. As a result their government at that time left them stranded in London, without any money in their pockets. It asked the delegation to solve the problem themselves and made its intention clear that it would not spend a single penny for their return.
  Sixty four years on, the Chinese athletes participating in London 2012 are well fed and looked after by their government. June 23 is marked as Olympic Day and Olympic champions are treated as national heroes and showered with luxuries.
  It wouldn't be a surprise if China walks away as the leader at the end of this year's Olympic Games.