Eighteen-year-old Korean, Yu-Na Kim handily won the womens individual competition at Skate America in Everett Washington yesterday. Although Kim’s performance wasn’t perfect, it had a grace and fluidity that the other skaters’ routines lacked. Even more amazingly, this was her first appearance at Skate America, the first ISU Grand Prix event of the year.

Kim is definately a name to keep in mind for the Vancouver Games in 2010. She is a former world junior champion and two-time bronze medalist in the World Championships. Kim, who is ranked #2 in the world, is coached by former Olympian, Canadian mens singles two-time Silver Medalist, Brian Orser.

Below is Kim’s winning performance from yesterday afternoon:

^{(photo © newscom)}

Post from: EveryJoe

Kim Wins Skate America

The United States team earned the Bronze Medal in the Baseball competition, in the last such Olympic contest–at least for a while. The US men beat the Japanese 8-4 for the Medal. This comes a day after the US lost to Cuba 10-2, ousting the Americans from Gold Medal contention. Cuba is playing South Korea on Saturday for the Gold Medal.

Post from: EveryJoe

US Team Takes Baseball Bronze

The men’s individual gymnastics competition concluded on Tuesday. The Chinese made a strong showing, seizing three of the four individual Gold Medals. Below are the results:

In the horizontal bar, Zou Kai of China earned the Gold Medal. Jonathon Horton of the United States took the Silver Medal and Fabian Hambuechen of Germany took the Bronze.

On the parallel bars, Li Xiaoping of China earned the Gold Medal. Yoo Wonchui of South Korea earned the Silver and Anton Fokin of Uzebekistan earned the Bronze.

On the vault, Leszek Blanik of Poland took the Gold Medal, Thomas Bouhil of France earned the Silver and Anton Golotsutskov of Russia earned the Bronze.

On the rings, it was China’s Chen Yibing’s performance (pictured above) that earned the Gold Medal. The Silver Medal went to his countryman, Yang Wei and Oleksandr Vorobiov of Ukraine earned the Bronze Medal.

Post from: EveryJoe

Men’s Individual Gymnastics Results

To few people’s surprise the top-ranked Chinese team bested the perennially-number-two team Germany to win the men’s doubles Gold Medal in table tennis. The Chinese players, Wang Hao and Wang Liqin, won 3-0 over the Germans. It is the 18th time the Chinese have beaten the Germans in as many meetings. South Korea took the Bronze Medal.

The Chinese women also prevailed, besting the Silver Medalist team from Singapore and the South Koreans, who won the Bronze Medal.

The individual table tennis competition concludes on Wednesday.

Post from: EveryJoe

China Wins Gold in Team Table Tennis

Wednesday was opening day for Olympic baseball, with eight of the sixteen teams competing. The United States lost to South Korea 8-7; the Canadians walloped the Chinese 10-0; and Taiwan won over the Netherlands 5-0. Defending Gold Medalists, Team Cuba won over Japan 4-2.

Each team plays seven preliminary games in the Olympic competition, with the four team with the best record in those games advancing to the semi-final elimination round.

Post from: EveryJoe

Team USA Loses Baseball Opener

Following in the footsteps of the South Korean women, who took the team Gold in archery on Sunday, the South Korean men won the team Gold on Monday. Team members, Im Dong-hyun, Lee Chang-hwan, and Park Kyung-mo beat the Italian team by just two points, earning the Koreans their third consecutive archery Gold medal.

The Chinese, seeded 12th in the competition, earned the Bronze Medal, China’s first ever medal in archery.

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Korean Men Take Archery Gold

Thailand’s Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon won the women’s 53kg weightlifting competition on Sunday. Her clean and jerk of 126kg set a new Olympic record. The Silver Medal went to Yoon Jinhee of South Korea and the Bronze was awarded to Natassia Novikava of Belarus. Melanie Roach of the United States finished sixth.

In the men’s 56kg weightlifting event, China’s Long Qingquan prevailed over Anh Tuan Hoang of Vietnam to earn another weightlifting Gold Medal for the Olympic host country. The Bronze medal went to Eko Yuli Irawan of Indonesia.

Fellow Chinese athlete, Chen Xiexia won the women’s 48kg competition on Saturday.

Post from: EveryJoe

China, Thailand Earn Weightlifting Gold

The South Korean women’s team easily won the Gold Medal in the team competition on Sunday with a score of 224. The South Koreans have dominated women’s archery since it was introduced for the 1988 Games, winning all six of the available team Gold Medals. They have earned 15 archery Gold Medals overall.

The Chinese team earned the Silver Medal and the French team earned the Bronze. Great Britain finished fourth.

Post from: EveryJoe

Korean Women Win Sixth Archery Team Gold

It’s a list of the qualified countries divided into groups which will play during the finals group stage that can somehow be translated to a “how-to-get-rid-of-World-Cup-wannabes” process.

There is a mixture of opinions and emotions about the draw. I reckon particularly in Australia since it’s their first time to qualify for the World Cup in years only to get Brazil in the draw or England who got Sweden, a team they haven’t beaten in 37 years. But you’ll never know. I do believe that anything can happen.

Anyway, I’ve listed the Draw results so you can go see for yourself.

GROUP A

Germany
Costa Rica
Poland
Ecuador

GROUP B

England
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

GROUP C

Argentina
Ivory Coast
Serbia & Montenegro
Holland

GROUP D

Mexico
Iran
Angola
Portugal

GROUP E

Italy
Ghana
USA
Czech Republic

GROUP F

Brazil
Croatia
Australia
Japan

GROUP G

France
Switzerland
South Korea
Togo

GROUP H

Spain
Ukraine
Tunisia
Saudi Arabia

Image: BBC

Post from: EveryJoe

The Draw