Olympics day 10 recap: Gold, gold, gold!

1. Gold for Slingsby on the ‘best day of his life.’

Tom Slingsby has won Australia’s first individual gold medal in the laser sailing class at Weymouth. Twenty-seven-year-old Slingsby was favourite to win at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but finished in 22nd place.

“If I didn’t win at this Olympics I’d definitely hang up the shoes,” Slingsby said after the race. “I mean last time (Beijing 2008) I’d won the worlds, I’d won world cups, the Europeans and everything going into China and the Olympics was the only thing.”

In other Olympic news, cyclist Shane Perkins won a bronze medal in the men’s sprint, the Hockeyroos are out of medal contention after they drew with Argentina, the Australian men’s basketball team beat Russia by 2 points and shooter, Michael Diamond finished fourth in the men’s trap shooting.

2. Will you be watching Sally Pearson? 

Set your alarms – Sally will be racing in the final of the 100m hurdles at 6am AEST tomorrow. Sally qualified last night with the fastest Olympic heat run in history at just 12.57sec.

“I was really, really nervous,” Pearson said. “I am glad it is out of the way and now I can move on. But it’s really bizarre, I have never felt like I am right now, really relaxed and casual. It was just nerves because it is the Olympic Games, just nerves that it is the first round of my event. If I’m not nervous I don’t feel ready so I’m glad I had nerves today.”

3. Whoops. New Zealand forget to register an athlete.

You can do all the preparation you like but when your country forgets to register you as a competitor, well, you’re no chance for a medal. New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams must have felt like using that shot put for less-than-appropriate purposes when she discovered that NZ officials had failed to sign her up for the event.

“Valerie Adams has been added to the start list of the Olympic shot put competition tomorrow after an administrative error saw her name missed from the initial line up,” the NZOC said in a statement. “The matter was dealt with swiftly and has been fully resolved. The IAAF have confirmed her name is on the list.”

4. Cute Alert.

Meet Maggie May and Rusty. They belong to Andy Murray and his girlfriend Kim Sears and – before you ask – no they didn’t win events at the Olympics. They’re just wearing Murray’s medals. Murray won gold in the men’s final against Roger Federer and silver in the mix doubles, where he partnered with Laura Robson.

5. Are scrunchies back in fashion?

The scrunchie is back and you can thank the world’s gymnasts for its return. They have been proudly sporting the ’90s fashion accessory in their hair during competition this week.

According to the UK press: “The scrunchie, usually resigned to laughable images from the Eighties and Nineties, is a traditional hair accessory for the gravity-defying sport that has long been a pipe dream of millions of growing girls worldwide. The put-together Olympians, with their clean and slicked back ponytails and cute up-dos, always finish off their outfits with a matching scrunchie, and it seems the fashion industry is taking note.”

With that in mind, let’s take a look at gymnast’s hair through the years.

You can see that full gallery at Jezebel.

For more on the London Olympics you can head on over to visit our friends at ivillage.com.au