Tag Archives: Rio Olympics

Red’s Olympic Update

Leave a reply

Mondial Ping -Women's Singles - Quarterfinal - Ding Ning-Ri Myong Sun - 17.jpg

For those who missed the exciting Women’s Single Table Tennis final last night, it featured a rousing match between Ding Ning (you know how Red likes interesting names)  and Li Xiaoxia decided in seven sets.  Ding avenged her loss to Li at the 2012 London Games in the final.  It appears that Li and Ding have a frosty relationship at best as after the match there was a perfunctory handshake and nothing else.  The Olympic Gold gives Ding the much-hallowed triple crown of table tennis (who knew?) having previously won the World Championship (twice) and the World Cup (also twice).

For those who discount table tennis as a professional sport — almost nothing comes close in China.

 

Red’s Olympic Update

Leave a reply

Red, for one – possibly the only one in Texas, is eagerly anticipating the first match for Chris and Gabby Adcock of Great Britain in the mixed doubles Badminton competition.  For those who have never played real badminton, Red can inform you that it is a tough game that takes great coordination, concentration, quickness and stamina.  And it is a lot of fun to boot.  The interesting thing about the Adcocks is that they are the only husband and wife in the Olympics who are competing together as a team.  Talk about potential for marital strife.  The Adcocks have been playing together and against each other since they were teenagers and were married in 2013.  They are no slouches as they are currently ranked 7th in the world having won the 2013 Hong Kong Super Series against the world No.1 and Olympic Champions, Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, the 2014 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold against Chai Biao and Tang Jinhua  and gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2015 BWF Super Series Masters Finals.

Their first match is Thursday at 2:40 p.m. against Ma and Xu of China.

Photo from telegraph.uk.