Seriously, I need you all to be on your honor here. Name everyone you can. But don’t look at any other websites, record books, or other outside references. Just rely on your own memory.
Do I have to know both their first name and their last name? If so, one. If not, two.
Anything. Anything at all. Including NBA players who also played in the London Olympics, for any nation’s team.
The over/under is that the entire blog would not come up with more than 12 names. I’ll consult at the office tomorrow morning if a first name only counts, although I’m certain a last name only will. I think we’d need more than a first name to identify them, though, as in “That girl Daisy who was on the Canadian gymnastics team.”
Okay, then one. The other one is the girl with that picture, whose first name I know but whose last name I would be guessing at (I may know, but I don’t know if I am allowed to look it up to verify).
I can throw some basketball names out there that might have been on our team or someone else’s, but it’d be guesswork.
So are we making a running list? Are we collaborating (to get to 12)? I thought this was a competition amongst ourselves.
No, the thought was there are only a few sports fans who blog, and mostly of sports with non-Olympic crossovers.
Tod claims below he can name 56 basketball players from memory. I’d forgotten how much he loves basketball. I think what he ought to do is hold off a bit on that and see how many others can name, but he can chime in later.
Go Thunder! Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and some other guys for Team USA, and Serge Ibaka played with Spain
oops just saw I wasn’t supposed to post names Sorry Burt
It’s fine, Anne. I lost the bet already.
I can list off 56. However, they are all basketball players.
Oh wait, do you want me to list them, or not list them so other people don’t look?
Hold off on that for half a day or so. Then go nuts.
I should probably note that most of these players either play or have played in the NBA. That being said:
I can name the entire roster for both USA and Spain:
USA: Kobe, LeBron, OKC’s Durant, Westbrook, and Harden; CP3, Deron Williams, Carmello, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler, Ande Igoudala, and the rookie-to-be Anthony Davis. (12)
Spain: Both of the Gasol brothers, Serge Ibaka, Ricky Rubio, Rudy Fernandez, Jose Colderon, JC Navarro, Sergio Rodriguez, Victors Sada and Claver, Filipe Reye, and Caja Laboral. (24)
Five from France: Tony Parker, Nic Batum, Boris Diaw, Kevin Seraphin and Ronnie Turiaf. (29)
Six from Argentina: Manu Ginobli, Calos Delfino, Luis Scola, Pablo Prigioni, Marcos Mata and Heran Jasen. (35)
Six from Braziiiiiiil: Leonardo Barbosa, Nene, Teago Splitter, Marco Huertas (who I long to see in the NBA), Anderson Varejao, and Marcus Vierian. (41)
Four from Mother Russia: Andrei Kirilenko, Alesky Shved, Victor Krypa and Tim Mozgov (45)
Four from Lithuania: Sarunus Jasikevicious (sp?), Linus Kleiza, and Jonases Valenciunas and Jonas Maciulus (49)
Two from Great Britain: Luol Deng and Joel Freeland (51)
Two from Australia: Patty Mills and Brad Newly (53)
Two from China: Jian Yi and Lin Yi (55)
And last but not least*… from Nigeria, Al Faroqu Aminu. (56)
Oh! And now that I think about it, I realize I forgot about the women ballers, where I can add Candy Parker, Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Tamika Catchings. (60)
*Not really. He’s totally the least of this bunch as well as the last.
(jaw on floor)
Da-a-a-a-amn! I know you’re a round ball fan, so okay, how many non-basketball Olympians can you name? Any?
Two swimmers, one fencer, and… maybe thats it.
You must be great at remembering people’s names.
“I recognize that guy. It’s what’s-his-name. You know, from that thing at that place.”
Seth Kelsey and Soren Thompson, men’s epee (I’m an epee fencer and watched the streamed medal rounds for all the epee events). Mariel Zagunis, women’s saber. Whats-his-name Phelps, men’s swimming. Missy Franklin, women’s swimming, because she’s local to the Denver area and has created quite a stir. She’s 17 and turned down millions in advertising money after the Olympics so she could swim for her high school team during her senior year and then swim collegiately for at least a couple of years. Parents of swimmers on some of the competing teams are complaining that their daughters are forced to compete against an Olympic gold medalist; the young women doing the competing seem to be uniformly thrilled at the opportunity to swim against a medalist.
Does it count that I can say that in one of the women’s epee semi-final matches, the referee screwed up big time and awarded the winning touch to the German, and the losing Korean had to sit on the strip for an hour while that decision was appealed? I know I’ve got the countries right. FWIW, international fencing rules require the fencer to remain at the strip during any appeals, due to historical abuse of the appeals process. Fencing probably has a longer history of non-drug-related cheating in major competitions than any of the other Olympic sports.
I recall that story too, I thought it was a remarkable event and the athlete — whose name I have forgotten, which is sort of the point of the exercise — was showing a remarkable kind of perseverance and an unusual sort of courage. But as enthusiastic as I was about the Olympics, I can’t remember her name, which is a demonstration of the fleeting nature of the fame that comes with this event.
Forgive my utter ignorance, but how does one cheat at fencing?
Olympic rules do not allow posthole diggers.
Fencing uses an electronic scoring system where the weapons detect when a legal target is struck. So cheaters can modify their weapons to register a hit when none was made.
This, particularly in epee (see Boris Onishchenko). In the pre-electric days, weapon tips at high-level competitions were chalked like a pool cue so a touch would leave a mark on the opponent. The marks were erased by using a mild acid like lemon juice or vinegar; some fencers would attempt to pretreat their uniform with various acids so the mark would disappear before the referee could check it in close cases. Plus a variety of lesser things: forged inspection marks to sneak non-qualifying weapons into a bout; collusion with the referee or floor judges; concealed radio receivers to allow coaching during the course of a bout.
Yeah my daughter doesn’t mind swimming against great competition. She likes to be able to say that she swam against and got smoked by a local swimmer who made it to the Olympic trials placing in the top 15. Yeah I can name quite a few swimmers but I will have to write down the names of who I remember from other sports by thinking of the sport first and then considering who I recall seeing in that particular sport. I’m not sure if I’ll make 12 or not.
Michael Phelps. And there was that beach volleyball player I liked till I found out she was married to a Dodger.
Because then you knew you would never be worthy?
What I liked was her competitiveness. I mean, she’s cute, but she’s no Cyndi Garvey.
Bradley Wiggans.
Gabby Douglas (gymnastics) Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmello Anthony (Basketball) Usain Bolt (sprinter) Misty May-something and Kerri Walsh Jennings (Beach Volleyball/ Women) Michael Phelps (as stated above/ swimming) and a whole bunch of others I can picture in my mind but cannot remember their names.
And how about if we are close on the last name like Pisto (the sprinter what was a double amputee and ran in London) I know that is not his whole last name but I remember it almost had pistol in it.
First name of above possibly Oscar, I remember thinking Oscar the grouch with a pistol the first time I heard him name.
Oscar Pistorius (check spelling), the first man to enter both the Olympics and Paralympics. I should not have missed that, especially after arguing at the time that regardless of the medals he was the one going in the history books.
Rafalca.
I don’t own a TV…
I didn’t watch anything on the TV. One of the cool things about this Olympics, speaking as a fencer who doesn’t care about any of the other sports, was that every minute of every fencing bout was available in HD by streaming. Even better, what they streamed was the raw audio/video feed sans announcers and color commentators. The directors were quite good; you got to watch each touch at full speed, followed by a quick slow-motion replay from an appropriate angle while the fencers returned to the on-guard lines. The only audio was the referee for the bout you were watching plus auditorium background noise.
I suppose it was unwatchable for non-fencers.
Pretty sure I could name a bunch of tennis players (Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, I think Venus and Serena were there…), but, you know, not that many others (besides basketball). Off the top, Usain Bolt, Clara Hughes, so-and-so Bell (a cyclist in the weird/cool multi-event event), Vancouverdon (first name Alex, maybe).
It’s clearly a neat exercise Burt, but I’m not sure if it is as telling as it may seem. I think we all tend to remember performances more than performers. And there are just so many names floating around, it’s easy to lose track of them.
All the same, thanks to you all, I’m buying lunch today.
…Even before Tod recited one-third of the NBA’s roster.
“How many athletes from the London Olympics can you name?”
I keep waiting for Randy Harris to answer plainly and truthfully, “All of them.”
Based on the Monday trivia results over the last few months, I can’t believe that Burt made a lunch bet that assumed his regular readers were collectively ignorant on any subject.
Actually, I can only name a few: Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Eric Lochte, some basketball players, a handful of gymnasts and that’s about it.
I got to 41, and I’m really annoyed that I couldn’t name more, especially on the track. In particular, I’m especially annoyed that: (1) the only hurdler whose name I remember is Lolo Jones (note to NBC: I hate you for making it this way by promoting the marginally talented over the phenomenally talented); (2) I couldn’t remember the name of the American distance runner who actually medaled (at least I remembered Mo Farah, though); and (3) I can’t remember the last name of the English decathlete who was, y’know, supposed to be the face of the Games.
That said, if you remove basketball, I drop to 26.
“The over/under is that the entire blog would not come up with more than 12 names.”
Easy.
LeBron James
Michael Phelps
Ryan Lochte
Lolo Jones
Usain Bolt
Blake Griffin
Carmelo Anthony
Kevin Love
Chris Paul
Marc Gasol
Pau Gasol
Luol Deng
1 Usain Bolt – really can’t believe no one else got that one
2 Jessica Ennis
3 Mo Farah – no I will not stop telling people I was there for his second medal
4 Greg Rutherford
5 Victoria Pendleton
6 Bradley Wiggins
7 Ben Ainslie
8 Anna Watkins
9 Kat Copeland
10 Lizzie Armitstead
11 Nicola Adams
12 Yohan Blake
13 Michael Phelps
14 Rebecca Addlington
15 Missy Franklin
16 Ryan Giggs
17 Ettiene Stott (?)
18 Bradley Wiggins
19 Chris Hoy
20 Tom Daley
On the other hand I wouldn’t know a basketball player if they slam dunked me.
Seriously, I need you all to be on your honor here. Name everyone you can. But don’t look at any other websites, record books, or other outside references. Just rely on your own memory.
Do I have to know both their first name and their last name? If so, one. If not, two.
Anything. Anything at all. Including NBA players who also played in the London Olympics, for any nation’s team.
The over/under is that the entire blog would not come up with more than 12 names. I’ll consult at the office tomorrow morning if a first name only counts, although I’m certain a last name only will. I think we’d need more than a first name to identify them, though, as in “That girl Daisy who was on the Canadian gymnastics team.”
Okay, then one. The other one is the girl with that picture, whose first name I know but whose last name I would be guessing at (I may know, but I don’t know if I am allowed to look it up to verify).
I can throw some basketball names out there that might have been on our team or someone else’s, but it’d be guesswork.
So are we making a running list? Are we collaborating (to get to 12)? I thought this was a competition amongst ourselves.
No, the thought was there are only a few sports fans who blog, and mostly of sports with non-Olympic crossovers.
Tod claims below he can name 56 basketball players from memory. I’d forgotten how much he loves basketball. I think what he ought to do is hold off a bit on that and see how many others can name, but he can chime in later.
Go Thunder! Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and some other guys for Team USA, and Serge Ibaka played with Spain
oops just saw I wasn’t supposed to post names Sorry Burt
It’s fine, Anne. I lost the bet already.
I can list off 56. However, they are all basketball players.
Oh wait, do you want me to list them, or not list them so other people don’t look?
Hold off on that for half a day or so. Then go nuts.
I should probably note that most of these players either play or have played in the NBA. That being said:
I can name the entire roster for both USA and Spain:
USA: Kobe, LeBron, OKC’s Durant, Westbrook, and Harden; CP3, Deron Williams, Carmello, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler, Ande Igoudala, and the rookie-to-be Anthony Davis. (12)
Spain: Both of the Gasol brothers, Serge Ibaka, Ricky Rubio, Rudy Fernandez, Jose Colderon, JC Navarro, Sergio Rodriguez, Victors Sada and Claver, Filipe Reye, and Caja Laboral. (24)
Five from France: Tony Parker, Nic Batum, Boris Diaw, Kevin Seraphin and Ronnie Turiaf. (29)
Six from Argentina: Manu Ginobli, Calos Delfino, Luis Scola, Pablo Prigioni, Marcos Mata and Heran Jasen. (35)
Six from Braziiiiiiil: Leonardo Barbosa, Nene, Teago Splitter, Marco Huertas (who I long to see in the NBA), Anderson Varejao, and Marcus Vierian. (41)
Four from Mother Russia: Andrei Kirilenko, Alesky Shved, Victor Krypa and Tim Mozgov (45)
Four from Lithuania: Sarunus Jasikevicious (sp?), Linus Kleiza, and Jonases Valenciunas and Jonas Maciulus (49)
Two from Great Britain: Luol Deng and Joel Freeland (51)
Two from Australia: Patty Mills and Brad Newly (53)
Two from China: Jian Yi and Lin Yi (55)
And last but not least*… from Nigeria, Al Faroqu Aminu. (56)
Oh! And now that I think about it, I realize I forgot about the women ballers, where I can add Candy Parker, Sue Bird, Maya Moore and Tamika Catchings. (60)
*Not really. He’s totally the least of this bunch as well as the last.
(jaw on floor)
Da-a-a-a-amn! I know you’re a round ball fan, so okay, how many non-basketball Olympians can you name? Any?
Two swimmers, one fencer, and… maybe thats it.
You must be great at remembering people’s names.
“I recognize that guy. It’s what’s-his-name. You know, from that thing at that place.”
Seth Kelsey and Soren Thompson, men’s epee (I’m an epee fencer and watched the streamed medal rounds for all the epee events). Mariel Zagunis, women’s saber. Whats-his-name Phelps, men’s swimming. Missy Franklin, women’s swimming, because she’s local to the Denver area and has created quite a stir. She’s 17 and turned down millions in advertising money after the Olympics so she could swim for her high school team during her senior year and then swim collegiately for at least a couple of years. Parents of swimmers on some of the competing teams are complaining that their daughters are forced to compete against an Olympic gold medalist; the young women doing the competing seem to be uniformly thrilled at the opportunity to swim against a medalist.
Does it count that I can say that in one of the women’s epee semi-final matches, the referee screwed up big time and awarded the winning touch to the German, and the losing Korean had to sit on the strip for an hour while that decision was appealed? I know I’ve got the countries right. FWIW, international fencing rules require the fencer to remain at the strip during any appeals, due to historical abuse of the appeals process. Fencing probably has a longer history of non-drug-related cheating in major competitions than any of the other Olympic sports.
I recall that story too, I thought it was a remarkable event and the athlete — whose name I have forgotten, which is sort of the point of the exercise — was showing a remarkable kind of perseverance and an unusual sort of courage. But as enthusiastic as I was about the Olympics, I can’t remember her name, which is a demonstration of the fleeting nature of the fame that comes with this event.
Forgive my utter ignorance, but how does one cheat at fencing?
Olympic rules do not allow posthole diggers.
Fencing uses an electronic scoring system where the weapons detect when a legal target is struck. So cheaters can modify their weapons to register a hit when none was made.
This, particularly in epee (see Boris Onishchenko). In the pre-electric days, weapon tips at high-level competitions were chalked like a pool cue so a touch would leave a mark on the opponent. The marks were erased by using a mild acid like lemon juice or vinegar; some fencers would attempt to pretreat their uniform with various acids so the mark would disappear before the referee could check it in close cases. Plus a variety of lesser things: forged inspection marks to sneak non-qualifying weapons into a bout; collusion with the referee or floor judges; concealed radio receivers to allow coaching during the course of a bout.
Yeah my daughter doesn’t mind swimming against great competition. She likes to be able to say that she swam against and got smoked by a local swimmer who made it to the Olympic trials placing in the top 15. Yeah I can name quite a few swimmers but I will have to write down the names of who I remember from other sports by thinking of the sport first and then considering who I recall seeing in that particular sport. I’m not sure if I’ll make 12 or not.
Michael Phelps. And there was that beach volleyball player I liked till I found out she was married to a Dodger.
Because then you knew you would never be worthy?
What I liked was her competitiveness. I mean, she’s cute, but she’s no Cyndi Garvey.
Bradley Wiggans.
Gabby Douglas (gymnastics) Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmello Anthony (Basketball) Usain Bolt (sprinter) Misty May-something and Kerri Walsh Jennings (Beach Volleyball/ Women) Michael Phelps (as stated above/ swimming) and a whole bunch of others I can picture in my mind but cannot remember their names.
And how about if we are close on the last name like Pisto (the sprinter what was a double amputee and ran in London) I know that is not his whole last name but I remember it almost had pistol in it.
First name of above possibly Oscar, I remember thinking Oscar the grouch with a pistol the first time I heard him name.
Oscar Pistorius (check spelling), the first man to enter both the Olympics and Paralympics. I should not have missed that, especially after arguing at the time that regardless of the medals he was the one going in the history books.
Rafalca.
I don’t own a TV…
I didn’t watch anything on the TV. One of the cool things about this Olympics, speaking as a fencer who doesn’t care about any of the other sports, was that every minute of every fencing bout was available in HD by streaming. Even better, what they streamed was the raw audio/video feed sans announcers and color commentators. The directors were quite good; you got to watch each touch at full speed, followed by a quick slow-motion replay from an appropriate angle while the fencers returned to the on-guard lines. The only audio was the referee for the bout you were watching plus auditorium background noise.
I suppose it was unwatchable for non-fencers.
Pretty sure I could name a bunch of tennis players (Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, I think Venus and Serena were there…), but, you know, not that many others (besides basketball). Off the top, Usain Bolt, Clara Hughes, so-and-so Bell (a cyclist in the weird/cool multi-event event), Vancouverdon (first name Alex, maybe).
It’s clearly a neat exercise Burt, but I’m not sure if it is as telling as it may seem. I think we all tend to remember performances more than performers. And there are just so many names floating around, it’s easy to lose track of them.
All the same, thanks to you all, I’m buying lunch today.
…Even before Tod recited one-third of the NBA’s roster.
“How many athletes from the London Olympics can you name?”
I keep waiting for Randy Harris to answer plainly and truthfully, “All of them.”
Based on the Monday trivia results over the last few months, I can’t believe that Burt made a lunch bet that assumed his regular readers were collectively ignorant on any subject.
Actually, I can only name a few: Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Eric Lochte, some basketball players, a handful of gymnasts and that’s about it.
I got to 41, and I’m really annoyed that I couldn’t name more, especially on the track. In particular, I’m especially annoyed that: (1) the only hurdler whose name I remember is Lolo Jones (note to NBC: I hate you for making it this way by promoting the marginally talented over the phenomenally talented); (2) I couldn’t remember the name of the American distance runner who actually medaled (at least I remembered Mo Farah, though); and (3) I can’t remember the last name of the English decathlete who was, y’know, supposed to be the face of the Games.
That said, if you remove basketball, I drop to 26.
“The over/under is that the entire blog would not come up with more than 12 names.”
Easy.
LeBron James
Michael Phelps
Ryan Lochte
Lolo Jones
Usain Bolt
Blake Griffin
Carmelo Anthony
Kevin Love
Chris Paul
Marc Gasol
Pau Gasol
Luol Deng
1 Usain Bolt – really can’t believe no one else got that one
2 Jessica Ennis
3 Mo Farah – no I will not stop telling people I was there for his second medal
4 Greg Rutherford
5 Victoria Pendleton
6 Bradley Wiggins
7 Ben Ainslie
8 Anna Watkins
9 Kat Copeland
10 Lizzie Armitstead
11 Nicola Adams
12 Yohan Blake
13 Michael Phelps
14 Rebecca Addlington
15 Missy Franklin
16 Ryan Giggs
17 Ettiene Stott (?)
18 Bradley Wiggins
19 Chris Hoy
20 Tom Daley
On the other hand I wouldn’t know a basketball player if they slam dunked me.