Some surprises in Rio

As one might expect, I've been watching the Olympics.  No surprise that the U.S. women gymnasts won the team gold -- by a monstrous gap in this sport.  No surprise that Katie Ledecky won the 400, but a bit of a surprise that she won the 200 (but it shouldn't be anymore).  Her eventual win in the 800 won't be a surprise (she already set an Olympic record in the prelims).  Also no surprise that the USA women won the 4 x 200 freestyle relay with Ledecky anchoring.

We shouldn't be surprised anymore by what Michael Phelps accomplishes -- but still, looking as good as he does, and outswimming the field in the 200 IM sure looked surprising.  (And it was surprising that Lochte fell off by so much at the end and didn't medal.)   Go look at the world record progression;  only Phelps and Lochte have been in the 1:54s for the 200 IM.

Big surprise (and great swim) -- Simone Manuel winning the women's 100 freestyle - a surprise tie with 16-year old Penny Oleksiak of Canada, which is a double surprise because she's 16 and she's from Canada.

But the biggest surprise of tonight (August 11) had to be the USA men's volleyball win over Brazil.  I saw part of it, and didn't think they'd sustain how well they were playing, but they did.  So after a disappointing start, they still have a chance to get into the medal round. But to do that, they'll have to beat France, which is pretty good, and Mexico, which isn't as good.  What might help is that they're ranked fifth and France is ranked 11th.  Let's go, boys.