Gold, Silver, Bronze

TigerBlog has eyes. He can see that LoLo Jones is very attractive.

In contemporary American society, she's the poster child for television coverage of the Olympic Games. Good-looking. All-American girl-next-door type. A difficult childhood. Came so close to winning gold four years ago. Overcame a career-threatening injury a year ago.

And, given the way it all works these days, TB also understands the willingness of people to immediately tear her down when she doesn't win a medal this time around.

Jones sat tearfully on "The Today Show" - can those people have embarrassed themselves any more the last two weeks than they have? - the other morning, talking about the story in the New York Times that called her, apparently (TB didn't read it), the Anna Kournikova of track, with the implication that she's known only for her looks and not for any athletic achievement.

This, of course, is nonsense. Jones is an accomplished hurdler, whether she is ugly or pretty.

What really struck TB from the clip of the Jones interview was when she said that she'd trained six days a week for four years for a 12-second race.

And then she came with one-tenth of a second of winning a medal, finishing in the worst possible spot, fourth.

So if you work that hard for a singular goal and fall one-tenth of a second short, how do you go on? It's not like you can get 'em next year; you have to wait four more years.

In that regard, TB gives Jones and everyone else who finishes fourth all the credit in the world. Even the ugly ones.

The Olympics are reaching their end, and most of the events TB wanted to see have already been contested.

He's fine without seeing any more of "Misty" and "Kerri," though he does wonder why the NBC announcers called those two beach volleyballers by their first names and called the other American team by their last names.

When TB has mentioned his total revulsion by the way that they were referred to by their first names, more than one person has said that maybe it was because their last names were so bulky. Yes, three syllables each. Who could handle that? 

There aren't too many more athletes that are more fun to watch compete - or appear to be having more fun competing - than Usain Bolt. Of course, it's easy to have that much fun when you simply demolish the field the way he does.

The women's soccer competition was tremendous. The basketball hasn't grabbed TB, though team handball did. And synchronized swimming. And kayaking. And open water swimming. And cycling. And a bunch of others.

The gymnastics not as much. The diving definitely didn't. Even though he though the syncro diving and swimming were wild to watch, TB is no fan of sports that are judged.

Princeton's Olympic competition ended yesterday, ended in a great way, as Diana Matheson's goal gave Canada the bronze in women's soccer.


Princeton's final medal count stands at seven, with one goal, two silver and four bronze, which are displayed on the main website, by the way, in a relatively cool graphic that TB had nothing to do with putting together (Kristy McNeil's idea and execution).

As of now, Princeton all by itself would be tied for 27th out of the 204 countries competing at the Olympic Games. For the record, that'd be tied with Kenya and Sweden with seven medals.

Among the countries that don't have as many medalists as Princeton? Mexico, Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Ireland and on and on.

India, a country with 1.2 billion people, has won four medals. Princeton, a University with an undergraduate population of about 5,000 each year, won seven.

As for American colleges, Princeton sits first in the Ivy League and seventh overall in medals won.

Not surprisingly, USC and Florida rank first with 18 total medals. Cal is second with 16, followed by Stanford with 14 and then Texas and Washington with nine each.

Princeton is next.

These have been a great Olympic Games, with something for every one to get into.

Especially Princeton fans.