Tokyo Time

TigerBlog finally figured out the answer to this burning question: What time is it in Tokyo?

It turns out that Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Princeton, so an event that is happening at noon in Tokyo is taking place at 11 the night before in Princeton. Then throw in that the Olympics website has everything in 24-hour military time, and who can tell what is happening when?

It's been an interesting start to the Games. The drama has certainly built for two prohibitive favorites from the United States - the women's soccer team and the men's basketball team, both of whom lost their openers in somewhat shocking fashion. 

It also took the U.S. until Day 2 to win its first medal. TB read that the last time there was a Summer Olympics in which the United States did not win a medal on Day 1 was in 1972 in Munich. 

Meanwhile, another prohibitive favorite is the U.S. women's water polo team, which is led by Princeton alum Ashleigh Johnson. The first time TB flipped on the Olympic coverage, he saw Johnson in goal as the U.S. rolled past the host Japanese in its first game. 

The Americans  played their second game against China at 2 pm Monday, Tokyo time, which means that it started at 1 am Monday Eastern time and therefore is already over. The Americans won 12-7.

It's already been a busy Olympic Games for the 18 Princetonians who are competing there. Of that group, all but five – all of whom are entered in track and field – have already been in action.

In addition to Johnson, Princeton has also had its athletes compete in fencing and rowing. 

As far as the rowers go, Kathleen Noble competed in single sculls for Uganda, where she grew up, and in doing so she became the first rower ever to represent that country at the Olympics. That alone is a tremendous feat. She has given a good account of herself as well, improving with each race through the repechage and now rowing in the E final.

Two other women rowers, Hannah Scott (Great Britain) and Claire Collins (US) will row in the B finals after making their way through the repechage as well.

Princeton will be represented as well by four men's rowers, all of whom will row Wednesday local time (meaning tomorrow night Princeton time). Fred Vystavel, who is rowing for Denmark, goes in the lightweight pairs A/B semifinal.

Gevvie Stone has rowed twice in the double sculls and has one more race to go, this time in the A final Wednesday, which really means tomorrow evening in this country. Stone is one of the more extraordinary people TigerBlog has ever interviewed, by the way.

She's an emergency medicine doctor. She's an NCAA champion. She's a three-time Olympian now. She's also an Olympic medalist, having won silver in 2016 in the single sculls.

How many people out there can say that they've gone to medical school, won an NCAA title and been a three-time Olympian, along with an Olympic medal? The list isn't quite that long, TB would guess.

Stone's partner in the doubles sculling is Kristi Wagner. A little bit of research revealed two things about Wagner. 

First, she enjoys bicycling, especially if "the destination includes ice cream or donuts." Second, she's a Yale grad. That's quite a boat, with Princeton and Yale against the world. 

Stone and Wagner reached the final by finishing third in their semifinal, beating fourth-place France by 1.5 seconds and finishing behind three seconds behind the Netherlands and two seconds behind Canada. The three qualifiers from the other semifinal are Lithuania, New Zealand and Romania.

Do the qualifying times matter when the final starts? Are they an indication of anything that will have an impact on this race? TB doesn't know. 

He just knows that he'll be rooting hard for the Americans, even if there is a Yalie in the boat.  

As always, you can follow everything about Princeton's Tokyo athletes at the special goprincetontigers.com section on the Olympics, which you can access HERE.