POSTS TAGGED: Olympics 2012

 Friday, August 10 Olympic Fun Fact: Czech gymnast Marie Provaznikova was the first Olympic athlete to defect during the Olympic Games. She defected during the 1948 London Olympics and sought asylum in the United States. Since 1948, at least 83 other athletes have used the Games as an opportunity to defect, primarily from the former [...]

Thursday, August 9 Olympic Fun Fact: Historically, the host cities of the Olympic Games tend to win more medals during their hosting year than they have in the Games four years prior (for example, Great Britain’s 146 medals won during the 1908 London Olympics as opposed to their 2 medals during the 1904 Olympics in [...]

Wednesday, August 8 Olympic Fun Fact: The 1908 Olympic Games were originally supposed to be hosted in Rome, but were moved to London because the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius required the funds intended for the Olympics to be diverted to rebuilding the town of Naples. Big Brother (CBS 8pm) Contestants compete in the veto [...]

Tuesday, August 7 Olympic Fun Fact: The ancient Olympic Games were held every four years from 776 BC through 326 AD. They originally began as a foot race in which young women competed for the position of priestess for the goddess Hera, followed by a race in which men competed for the position of the [...]

Friday, August 3 Olympic Fun Fact: The last year that Olympic gold medals were made out of solid gold was 1912. The current standard for a gold medal is that it must be at least 92.5% silver and plated with a minimum of 6 grams of gold. Minting the Olympic medals is the responsibility of [...]

Thursday, August 2 Olympic Fun Fact: My grandfather (GrandadBint) received a gold medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. He was not an athlete; as an engineer for IBM, GrandadBint was instrumental in developing a program that was used in collecting and figuring scores for the competitors as the Olympic Games began [...]

Wednesday, August 1 Olympic Fun Fact: The oldest known Olympic medalist was Oscar Swahn of Sweden, who won his final medal (a Silver medal in the Running Deer, Double Shot Team event) at the age of 72. Big Brother (CBS 8pm) Contestants compete in the veto competition. The burning question on everybody’s mind tonight is… [...]

Monday, July 30 Olympic Fun Fact: From 1912 – 1952, there was a fine arts component to the Olympic games. Items were submitted under the categories of Architecture, Literature, Music, Painting (which included drawing, painting, and graphic arts), and Sculpture. These categories were discontinued due to the argument that the artists submitting items for judgment [...]

Friday, June 29 On this date in 1974, Mikhail Baryshnikov defected from the USSR to Canada. Had Canada known of his eventual guest star stint on Sex and the City, they probably would have shipped his ass back to Mother Russia. After all, even Canadians draw the line somewhere. My Babysitter’s a Vampire (The Disney [...]

Tuesday, June 26 The Cyclone at Coney Island, the world’s most famous wooden rollercoaster, opened on this date in 1927. It is both an official New York City landmark and a National Historic Landmark. US Olympic Trials (NBC 8pm) Swimming: Live from Omaha, Nebraska They’re holding them in Omaha so that Michael Phelps can chow [...]

Emily who? The girls are finally training for the Olympics but there are only 5 spots and they aren’t guarenteed one.