the mad sports man

wow. the end of August already. now what happened? oh i don't know. the Olympics got most of the coverage. there was baseball. the Olympics. CFL football. the Olympics. NASCAR, NFL preseason. oh did I mention the Olympics? September brings back to school, more CFL, more baseball, more NASCAR, little more NFL. oh yeah the paralympics in Rio. can't believe September is tomorrow.

some pictures of the sunset tonight in Edmonton.

so this is the post Olympic hangover. ooooyyyyy. it was a great run while it lasted. so there are the Paralympics next month. not sure how I feel. it was pure joy while they were on. now.... eeeppp.

here are the front covers of the Edmonton Sun's sports section. dates cover from August 5th to today (the 22nd).

ao the closing ceremonies is pretty much done. the flame is done, the speeches were made, the Olympic flag handover to Tokyo happened, the Tokyo presentation happened and pretty much a party all around. Canada goes home with 4g, 3s and 15b for 22 medals. tied for most medals won with 1996 in a non-boycott year (won 44 in 1984 with the Soviet Union and other eastern bloc countries boycotted for the Jimmy Carter led boycott in 1980).see you in PyeongChang in 2018 for the winter games and 2020 in Tokyo for the next summer games.

Penny Oleksiak. four medals in swimming pretty much clinched it. although Andre deGrasse made it interesting with his three medals. i predicted Oleksiak would carry the flag more than a week ago. the closing ceremonies will be about 4:30 or 5pm Edmonton time today.

this went to penalty kicks. went down to the last shot each. the German had his shot stopped. up came Neymar. he calmly put the ball into the net, giving Brazil its first ever Olympic gold. this tournament is 23 and under though. 5 world cup. and now a gold in the olympics. Germany with silver and Nigeria with bronze.

Catherine Pendrel claimed Canada's 15th bronze in the women's mountain bike race. she was involved in crash after the start and battled her way back to get the bronze. Emily Batty finished 4th. a Swedish rider won gold and Poland got silver.

Usain Bolt has become the first athlete to pull off the triple triple winning the gold in the 4X100m relay three gold medals in three succesive games. Canada missed out on a medal by 2/100ths of a second. the U.S. finished with the bronze and Japan the silver. wow. UPDATE: the U.S. got disqualified. Canada moves up to bronze. 4g 3s 14b for 21 medals. this is breaking news.

Germany hung on to win 2-1 over Sweden to claim gold. Germany opened it, then went up two goals when a Swedish player inadvertinly knocked the ball into her own net. they got that goal back and made a valiant effort to tie it. quite the game. congrats.

in regards to the 50k walk. after the race Canada had appealed that the Japanese runner impeded Evan Dunfee. it was succesful. Japan then counter appealed and won Evan Dunfee does not get the bronze and the Japanese racer gets it back. we are back to 4g 3s and 13b.

Eric Lamaze got the bronze in individual jumping. had the winning time but his horse knocked a rail off. that is now 4g 3s and 14b for 21 medals. and the medals keep coming

just like four years ago, Canada played for bronze. and just like four years ago, Canada won bronze. and just like four years ago they won by a goal. this time they beat Brazil 2-1. they picked up Canada's 20th medal of the games - 4g 3s and 13b. wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Evan Dunfee has yet another bronze for Canada in the men's 50k walk. he originally finished 4th, but a Japanese walker bumped him enough to impede Dunfee's progress. the Japanese walker got disqualified and Dunfee got moved to bronze. that is now 4g, 3s and 12b

Usain Bolt has won hist third straight Olympic gold in the 200m, the first person to do so in track and field. Andre deGrasse has a silver in it. his second of these games. Bolt is now 2/3 to the triple triple. (3 golds in 3 succesive games). deGrasse's silver gives Canada 4g, 3s and 11b for 18 medals. four medals today. wow. there is still the 4X100m race yet.

Damian Warner has a bronze in the decathlon. he finished with 8666 points. Ashton Eaton of the U.S. won gold and Kevin Meyer of France wins silver. that is now 4g, 2s and 11 b for 17 medals.

Erika Wiebe has won GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD. she beat Kazakhstan to win Canada's third ever wrestling medal and 4th gold medal of the 2016 games. she won her match 6-0. that is now 4g,2s and 10b for 16 medals. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. congrats to Erika

Meaghan Benfito has won a bronze on the 10m platform, giving Canada yet another bronze. two Chinese got the gold and silver. that is now 3g 2s and 10b for 15 medals. way to go.

Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain won gold and brother Jonathon won silver became the first brothers in an individual sport to claim the top two spots in an individiual race. wow. Alistair is the first male triathlete to win back to back Olympic golds.

for the first time ever, a European team has won gold in women's beach volley ball and it goes to Germany. they knocked off Brazil in two straight sets. hole moly guacamole.

this was a little closer. Germany ends up beating Nigeria 2-0. Germany will be facing Brazil in a rematch of the 2014 world cup semi final game - which Germany won 7-1. Brazilians i am sure haven't forgotten that (2014 world cup was in Brazil). this should be a lot closer though. will Brazil finally win gold or will Germany win their first time since being Reunified and win in Brazil again. game is Saturday. meanwhile Honduras and Nigeria will play for bronze.

in beating Honduras 6-0, Neymar of Brazil set an Olympic record for fastest goal, scoring 14 seconds into the game, beating Janine Becky's record by six seconds. yikes. Brazil will be playing for gold against either Germany or Nigeria. will Brazil win their first Olympic fold in soccer. find out Saturday.

Derek Drouin and it is a GOLD. he wins the gold in the high jump. made all of his jumps - the gold medal jump at 2.38m. also the first Canadian to win the gold in high jump since 1932. he went for one last attempt at 2.40m and missed. he has Canada's third gold of the games. that is now 3g, 2s and 9b for 14 medals. WOOHOO!

Germany comes out with a 2-0 victory over Canada and will face Sweden for gold in soccer, while Canada faces Brazil for bronze. Germany i think was a vastly better team, even though Canada had their chances. the bronze and gold games are on Friday.

the first semi final game in soccer is done and Sweden has knocked out Brazil in penalty kicks. on the 5th penalty shot, Brazil had their shot stopped and Sweden scored on theirs. Sweden wins 4-3 on penalty kicks. they will face the winner of the Canada vs Germany game for gold and Brazil will play the loser for bronze.

Thiago Braz Da Silva of Brazil just knocked out the defending Olympic champion in the pole vault, clearing 6.03m on his first attempt. Renaud Lavillinie of France. ends up in the bronze after missing at 6.08, earlier missing at 6.03 before Da Silva cleared that height. Sam Kendricks if the U.S. has the bronze. that was quite a finish. Shawn Barber finished 9th.

Andre de Grasse has just picked up a bronze in the men's 100m. some guy named Usain Bolt won it AGAIN. first athlete to win the 100m three times, all consecutively. winning time was 9.80. Andre is the firts guy to medal at these games. that is now 2g 2s and 9b. Justin Gatlin of the U.S. got the silver. wow.

Lanni Marchand finished the marathon this morning two days after completing the 10000m race. she is the only Canadian to do so. Lanni finished 24th in the marathon and 25th in the 10000m. a rare double.

Brianne Theisson-Eaton was 6th heading into today's last three events in the heptathon. she ends it winning the bronze medal. defending champ Jessica Ennis-Hill picked up the silver and Naffisatou Thiam wins gold for Belgium tha is now 2g 2s and 8b for 12 medals. holy crud. Canada has won a medal in all eight days so far. wow.

Michael Phelps has his 23rd gold and 28th overall medal when he and the U.S. team won the 4X100m freestyle relay. what a capper to what could have been his last olympic race.

in the women's 50m race, Denmark won its firs swimming medal since 2008 when Pernille Blume touched the wall first. it is also Denmark's first gold since 1948. wow. this after Monica Puig won Puerto Rico's first ever Olympic gold. she won the tennis finals holy crud

the women's team pursuit of Allison Beveridge, Georgia Simmerling, Kristi Lay, Jasmin Glaesser and Laura Brown have picked up Canada's 11th medal and 7th bronze of the games after beating out New Zealand in the bronze race at the team pursuit. that is now 2g 2s and 7b for 11 medals. wheeeeeeeeeeeee

Michael Phelps in his race ended up in a three way tie for silver, with Chad Le Clos and Laslo Cseh. Joseph Schooling won Singapore's first swimming medal - a gold - in the 100m butterfly. i think the silver gives Phelps 27 career medals(22g, 3s 2b). wow. after his race, Katie Ledecky of the U.S. completed a rare triple. she became the second swimmer to win the 200m free, 400m free and 800m free. first one happened in 1968. and she won the 800m in world record time. fitting.

this time it's Hilary Caldwell. i believe that is Canada's 7th medal in the pool and fourth bronze. Maya Dirado of the U.S. got the gold and Katinka Hosszu of Hungary got silver. that is now 2g, 2s and 6b for 10 medals. woohoo.

Rosie McClennan has defended her gold from 2012, winning gold in trampoline. first back to back champion in trampoline. Bryony Page of Great Britain and Li Dan of China won silver and bronze. congrats. that is now 2g, 2s and 5b for 9 medals.

this game went into penalty kicks tied at one. the penalty kicks ended with Sweden pulling off a shocker of an upset, beating the U.S. 4-3 in the penalties and going to the semi finals. the defending women's world cup and olympic champions are out. wow. Sweden is in the semis. who will join them? stay tuned. update: Brazil just knocked out Australia in penalty kicks 7-6, Canada beat France 1-0, as did Germany over China. Brazil faces Sweden and Canada faces Germany in the semis

how about a rowing silver. in the rowing, lightweight women's double sculls. Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee got the silver. Netherlands won the gold and China got the bronze. that is now 1g, 2s and 5b for 8 medals.

Penny Oleksiak has just won Canada's first gold of the games. her and Simone Manuel got the exact same time to finish with 52.70 - an Olympic record. wow. she is the first Canadian to win four medals at a summer games. Canada now has 1g, 1s and 5b for seven medals. woohoo.

boy this just happened. Michael Phelps wins his 4th consecutive 200m Individual Medley gold, thus making history two ways. 1: becomes the 4th athlete to win 4 consecutive gold in the same event winning this event in 2004, 2008, 2012 and this year (Paul Elvstrom of Denmark in firefly dinghy in 1948, 1952, 1956 and 1960. Al Oerter in discus in 1956, 1960, 1964 and 1968 and Carl Lewis in long jump in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996). 2: passes Larisa Latynina of Russia for most individual medals with 15 (Latynina has 14). wow.

Fiji has been to 16 olympic games and have won their first ever medal and it is also the mens rugby sevens first ever medal as well. the first medal for Fiji is a gold medal as they blew out Great Britain 43-7 to win it. the British get the silver, and South Africa got the bronze. simply awesome.

Lukas Krpalekof the Czech Republic has won his country's first judo medal, and it happens to be gold. he won it in the 100kg weight class. i think the third first time of these olympics. congrats.

Penny Oleksiak will be going for her fourth swimming medal tonight in the 100m freestyle (8:18pm on cbc). she is one of four Canadian swimmers (Victor Davis, Anne Ottenbrite and Elaine Tannner are the other three) to have three. can she do it tonight? tune in.

golf has made its return to the games. it has also produced a first. Justin Rose of Great Britain shot the first hole-in-one in golf history. Canada's Graham Delaet sits second, three shots back of Australia's Marcus Fraser. George Lyon of Canada is the "defending" champion, winning the last tournament in 1904.

Canada has just picked up their 5th bronze in these games. the relay team of Katerine Savard, Taylor Ruck, Brittany MacLean and Penny Oleksiak finished behind Australia (silver) and the United States (gold) in the 4X200m freestyle relay. and getting a Canadian record at the same time. Oleksiak has three medals, her second in the relay, and Ruck has two. that is now 1s and 5b for 6 medals so far. i think that is it for medals today. tune in tomorrow for more Olympic fun.

this just happened Dimitriy Balandin of Kazakhstan just won his country's first medal of the game and it happens to be gold in the men's 200m breaststroke. big time wow.

Michael Phelps has just won his 20th career Olympic gold medal in the 200m butterfly, just edging out Masato Sakai of Japan by 4/100ths of a second. Chad le Clos finished 4th. i thing he looked left into Phelps lane a couple of times costing him a medal. this gold is also 14th individual medal tying him with Larisa Latynina of Russia (the Soviet Union when she competed) for most individual Olympic medals. update: he picked up gold #21 in the 4x200m freestyle relay. wow.

Canada beat out Germany 2-1 in women's soccer and have finish first in their group. they will await to find out after the remaining group games to see who they face in the quarter finals. Germany finishes second in the group and will also me in the quarters. Australia finished third and will await if they are one of the two best third place teams going to the quarters. update later.

another day, another medal. this time in the 10m synchro diving. Meaghan Benfeito and Rosaline Filion clinched the bronze on their last dive after the North Koreans faltered on their last dive and the British didn't have it on their last. that is Canada's 5th medal of the games. (1s 4b) congrats to Meaghan and Rosaline.

last night, Brandon Crawford tied a national league record with seven hits as the San Francisco Giants beat the Miami Marlins 8-7 in 14 innings. last player to record seven hits was Rennie Stennet of the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Chicago Cubs on Sept 16, 1975. wow.

three days - three medals. Kylee Masse picks up the bronze in the women's 100 m backstroke. tied with a Chinese swimmer for the bronze and missed a silver by a hundreth of a second. unbelieveable. that is two medals today. that is now 1s and 3b so far

wow what a time for the laptop to die. Saturday, Canada picked up its first medal - a bronze - in the pool. the 4X100m freestyle women's team (Sandrine Mainville, Taylor Ruck, Penny Oleksiak, Michelle Williams and Chantalle Van Landegran) picked it up. yesterday, Oleksiak picked up a silver in the 100m butterfly. today in rugby 7s, the womens team beat Great Britain to win the second bronze. Australia won the gold and New Zealand the bronze. the first medals in rugby sevens. Kosovo won its first ever medal in their first games, and it happen to be gold. yesterdat, Michael Phelps picked up his 23rd medal (19th gold) in the 4X100m freestyle. yesterday in baseball, Ichiro Suzuki got his 3000 hit - a triple - in Colorado. he is the second oldest, behind Cap Anson to get his 3000th and also the second to get his 3000th on a triple. Paul Molitor being the other. more to come soon.

roughly halfway through day one and medals already handed out. the first gold goes to Virginia Thrasher of the U.S. in the 10m air rifle. the silver went to Du Li and bronze - both from China. right now Canada vs Brazil in rugby 7s. Canada is winning so far. they won their first game earlier over Japan 45-0. the women's soccer team beat Zimbabwe. more medals to come later. stay tuned.

a wonderful opening ceremony for these games. it was a low budget affair with loads of Brazilian culture and a little bit of samba dancing near the end like what happens at the sambrodrome. 207 nations were in the parade of nations, which includes the first refugee Olympic team. they got a rousing cheer when they entered. Kuwait came in as an independent Olympic team. Vanderlei de Lima lit the cauldron. the cauldron is the most unique one ever seen. after lit, the cauldron was raised to spiral mirrors which started spinning around and will continue to do so until the end. it resembles the sun. it had a serious environmental message. all the athletes brought in a seed in which, when the rings was formed, sprouted and turned green. first official day is tomorrow. first events start at 5am Edmonton time. 16 days of madness. until tomorrow, that is it for tonight.

it is almost here. the Rio games begin tomorrow and end on August 21st. an expected 206 nations to be at the games. over 11,000 athletes also to be at these games. there will be a refugee Olympic team for the first time. many things leading up to these games - zika, garbage near where the sailing and open water swimming will be. how many records will fall? who will win the first gold? how many medals will Canada win? they will be sending 314 athletes to the games (127 men and 187 women. although I have seen 128 men and 315 athletes). Shallon Olsen will be the youngest at 16 years old (one of four athletes born this century). the oldest is 56 year old Lesley Thompson-Willie, who is the coxswain in the women's eights. this is her 8th games. Georgia Simmerling will be the first Canadian athlete to compete in three different games in three different sports (2010 - alpine skiing, 2014 - freestyle skiing and track cycling this year). soccer has already started yesterday.

London was host for the third time. they were held from July 27 to August 12. 204 nations participated in these games. highlights include: Michael Phelps becoming the most decorated athlete in Olympic history, finishing these games with 22 medals in his career. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei sent female athletes for the first time. these were the first Olympics in which every nation sent female athletes. Women's boxing was included for the first time, marking the first time evert sport had at least one female participant. these games were the last under Jacques Rogge. the next summer Olympics will be Thomas Bach's first summer ones. Usain Bolt won the 100m, 200m and 4X100m for the second straight games. the 100m was a world record of 9.63s. eep. Canada won 18 medals (1g 5s 12b) at these games. tomorrow: the 2016 preview. below is the logo for 2012.

Olympic football (soccer here) has begun today on the women's side. Sweden beat South Africa 1-0 to open the tournament. Canada is playing Australia at the moment and is leading 1-0. their goal came 20 seconds into the game. that ended up being the fastest goal to open a game in the Olympics. Janine Beckie scored it. it is in the second half as I type this. update after the game. update Canada 2 Australia 0. Christine Sinclair scored the second goal - her 9th Olympic goal. Canada played most of the game one player down. Canada plays again Saturday against Zimbabwe.

Beijing was host of these games. they were held from August 8-24. 204 nations were at the games. 125 Olympic records fell, including 37 world records. in swimming alone 65 Olympic and 25 world records fell. only two swimming Olympic records still stand. BMX racing was held for the first time. women's 3000m steeplechase was held for the first time. open water 10km swimming was held for the first time. Michael Phelps won all 8 golds in swimming, including the relay races. Usain Bolt won the 100m in a WR time of 9.69s. he also won the 200m and 4X100m relay. Afghanistan, Mauritius, Sudan, Tajikistan and Togo won their first Olympic medals. Mongolia and Panama won their first golds at these games. Mongolia had the record for most medals won without winning a gold before these games. Serbia won its first medal under this name, previously participating as Serbia & Montenegro and Yugoslavia. Nastia Liukin won the all around gold in gymnastics becoming the third American -

Athens was host for the second time in 108 years. they ran from August 13-29. 201 nations were at the games. shot put was contested on the site of the ancient Olympics, while archery was at Panathinaikos stadium, same site as in 1896. the marathon was on the same route 1896 - running from the site of the Battle of Marathon to Panathinaikos stadium. women's wrestling and women's sabre were held for the first time. while leading the men's marathon, with less that 10km Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was pushed into the crowd by a defrocked Irish priest. he eventually got away and ended up with the bronze and won the Pierre de Coubertin award for his display at the end of the marathon. while in the women's marathon, Paula Radcliffe has a spectacular wipeout, leaving Mizuki Noguchi winning the marathon. Hicham El Guerrouj won the 1500m and 5000m, the first time since Paavo Nurmi in 1924 to do so. Greek Fani Halkia camo out of retirement to win the 400m hurdles. the U