Projo Sports Blog

Tonight's Olympics schedule is highlighted by Michael Phelps' quest for the all-time gold medal lead and by the women's gymnastics team finals -- predicted to be a showdown between the United States and China. The team finals will be live on NBC (Cox Channel 10) at 10:30 p.m.

The U.S. team, which features Brown's Alicia Sacramone, will have to overcome a Chinese squad that is not only very good, but should have great support from the home fans as well as the advantage of competing last. The Chinese should know exactly what scores they need in order to win the gold. The U.S., meanwhile, boasts the more experienced squad, with Sacramone, Nastia Liukin and Chellsie Memmel each veterans of three world championships. These three will look to lead the U.S. team to its first gold medal since 1996.

Previewing the matchup, Sports Illustrated's E.M. Swift says the keys for the U.S. women are to win the vault and the beam, to stay close to the Chinese on the uneven bars (which is China's specialty), and to avoid mistakes in the floor exercise.

This cheat sheet on the NBC Olympics web site will help you make some sense out of the convoluted scoring system that will decide the outcome tonight.

Also tonight, Michael Phelps looks to become the person with the most career gold medal victories in the history of the Olympics, when he competes in the finals of the 200-meter butterfly and the 800-meter freestyle relay. Phelps already has nine gold medals between 2004 and 2008, tying him with Carl Lewis, Mark Spitz, Larysa Latynina and Paavo Nurmi for the most ever.

The butterfly final is set for 10:34 p.m. our time while the relay will be at 11:19 p.m.

 Tags  Alicia Sacramone Olympics women's gymnastics

1 Comments

raul velazquez said:

sacramone,i like you so much.

i hope someday meet you.

well,good luck in london.

peace.

Link | September 16, 2008 3:56 PM
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