1. Sexism and the Olympics. Sigh.
Eighteen-year-old British weightlifter Zoe Smith – who can lift 121 kilos, just FYI – has responded to a series of sexist tweets from men (and women) who said she wasn’t womanly enough or that she was ‘manly’. She wrote on her blog:
[We] don’t lift weights in order to look hot, especially for the likes of men like that. What makes them think that we even WANT them to find us attractive? If you do, thanks very much, we’re flattered. But if you don’t, why do you really need to voice this opinion in the first place, and what makes you think we actually give a toss that you, personally, do not find us attractive?What do you want us to do? Shall we stop weightlifting, amend our diet in order to completely get rid of our ‘manly’ muscles, and become housewives in the sheer hope that one day you will look more favourably upon us and we might actually have a shot with you?! Cause you are clearly the kindest, most attractive type of man to grace the earth with your presence.
2. Magnussen so close, wins silver
Who else was on the edge of their seat this morning? James “The Missile” Magnussen went for gold in the 100m freestyle and was beaten by American swimmer Nathan Adrian by just 1/100th of a second. Ouch.
Twenty-one-year-old Magnussen qualified fastest for the final and was the favourite to take gold. After the race he said: “It hurts… I did my best tonight and and it was not quite good enough… To lose by that amount stings but I’ve had a lot of great support the last few days from people from back in Australia.”
Meanwhile, the women’s 200m freestyle team of Bronte Barratt, Melanie Schlanger, Kylie Palmer and Alicia Coutts also won a silver medal.
In other Olympic news, Sam Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the next round of the mixed-doubles tennis, Australia’s women’s water polo team beat Great Britain, the Opals beat Brazil 67-61 (and Lauren Jackson became the highest scorer in women’s basketball history) and Aussie rowers Kate Hornsey and Sarah Tait won a silver in the women’s pairs.
3. This is why we love the Olympics.
The Tunisian basketball team lost to the US by 50 points in their recent match. But it wasn’t all disappointment. This Tunisian player approached Kobe Bryant (who’s probably the best player in the world) after the game and asked for his autograph – great to see that there’s still room for a bit of hero worship at the Games, even amongst the athletes themselves.