"Quiet Star" - Day Five Review/Day Six Preview

No overarching narrative today. Got to be up for Field Hockey in a couple hours! Let's get into it

Things You Need to Know:

• If you don't know who Allison Schmitt is by now, you need to find out real quick.  The 22 year old, who trains out of North Baltimore Aquatic Club (Meadowbrook stand up!), swam an awesome anchor leg in the 4 x 200 meter free relay to lead the USA to gold. It's the first relay gold for a US women's team since Athens, which is sort of weird, considering how good we are at swimming. Although, now that I think about it, I guess we did lose in Beijing. Guess I just blocked it out, along with the women's gymnastics team final. Anyway, Schmitt is really good and also seems like a person you'd want to chill with. From all accounts, she's funny and very personable. With Missy "The Missile" Franklin getting all the headlines (bad nickname coined by others), Schmitt has been lost in the shuffle, with NBC's Dan Hicks calling her the "Quiet Star" of these games. It seems like she is starting to get her due though. Hell, she got an NBC fluff piece, and that means you've made it! 
• Kohei "Uchi Mane" Uchimura (bad nickname just made up by me), won gold in the men's all-around. He's a fantastic gymnast, who's in discussion as the greatest gymnast of all time. He also has been victim to the NBC narrative train, with Al, Tim and Elfi (I know you hate them at this point), unsure whether to lavish praise on him, or talk about how he "hasn't been himself" during these Olympics. If not being yourself means Olympic all-around titles, you must be really good. 
• After Uchimura watered down his high bar routine, by taking out a tough skill near the end, Trautwig (he of clearly planned lines) threw this gem at his analysts, saying "Does the greatest of all time take out an element?" Now, I sort of understand his point because it's a little along the lines of, "great player must always be great or he's not the greatest" (I hope that makes sense, think the ridiculous pre title LeBron questions). Anyway, the worst part of that forced question was dopey Tim Daggett's answer. It was something along the lines of, "ehhh IDK??", followed by some line about how Uchi's removal of the skill goes against Japanese gymnastics history and culture. Now I try my best to follow this sport and I know next to nothing about J-Gym (shout out to J-MMA) culture. Tim, you got to explain that to the viewers at home. Elfi then said something worthless. Shocker. OK, rant over.
• Props to you, Danell Leyva. That high bar routine was the highlight of the men's gymnastics competition so far for me. You and your awesomely crazy father deserve that medal. Also, you apparently aim high, which makes me excited for your future, John Orozco's future and USA Men's Gymnastics as a whole,
• China IS SO GOOD AT DIVING. It's honestly getting ridiculous. I've tried to minimize my splash like that in the pool a couple times, and lets just say it went pretty poorly.
• This badminton thing is so funny/sad/weird. Dan Wetzel of Yahoo wrote a fantastic funny/informative piece on it, so I'll just let him speak for me. Seriously though, fixing in badminton? What's next? Locking reporters off Twitter for criticizing NBC? The world champion Japanese women's soccer team purposely drawing against South Africa to avoid traveling? Oh, wait.
• Didn't catch much of USA volleyball vs China today, but Destinee Hooker is pretty sick. Her ability to hit the ball extremely hard is quickly becoming the highlight of volleyball for my friends.
• The thing I said earlier about USA Boxing. YIKES....
• Quick shoutouts. Nathan Adrian, that was a great win. Rebecca Soni, you're just legit as hell going for a world record in the semis. Bradley Wiggins, thanks for finally getting Team GB (TEAM GB!!!) a gold medal. I was getting worried.  

Day Six Preview:

What to Watch:

• I hope my family and friends are ready for me to be a nervous wreck again, because the Women's All-Around final goes down tomorrow at the O2 (11:30 am ET, computer)! Burk will be rooting for Gabby "The Flying Squirrel" Douglas (if he actually is awake) and I'll be rooting for Aly "I always knew you could be here" Raisman. My younger brother Sam will sing the Soviet National Anthem and try to make funny comments about Russia, while my mom will continually walk away between rotations before getting mad that she missed stuff. We will all try to avoid making eye contact with Aliya Mustafina. It's a family event! 
• I am beyond pumped to see former Maryland great (that's a huge stretch) Ekene Ibekwe lead his Nigeria team into battle against the fighting Krzyzewski's (5:15 pm ET NBCSN). Seeing that over the head shot release will bring me to tears, then rage that Ibekwe and his athletic gifts didn't turn into a better player, and then outright depression about parts of that era of Maryland basketball. Cue the mixed John Gilchrist memories!
• In about three hours, USA Field Hockey goes for their second win of these games vs Australia. I'm planning to talk more about Field Hockey in the next few posts, but let's just say this win would be historic for the program. I have to finish talking about them though, because I have to actually wake up to watch their game.
• If you like to impress your friends by being up on potential MMA prospects, watch some judo (all morning, computer)! Sometimes they turn into winners, and sometimes they don't. All things considered, it's an awesome sport.
• I love tennis, so it's about time I write something about it. While this Olympic tennis tournament has been weirdly off my radar (lack of Rafa?), the men's and women's quarters have some nice matchups. Fed vs Big John Isner and Joe Willy vs Nole highlight men's slate for me, while Serena Williams vs Caro "I get unfairly blamed for Rory McIlroy's bad year" Wozniacki and Kimmy C vs MARIA intrigue me the most on the women's side. (7:00 am ET, Bravo)
• You know swimming is happening (2:30 pm ET, computer), you know it's always important and you know when NBC says Phelps vs Lochte, they may kill you if you don't watch. Don't hurt me, Bob, I WILL WATCH.

Storylines to Follow:

• Under the radar Andy: Don't look now, but Andy Murray's in the quarters! After losing in a heartbreaking Wimbledon final against the greatest tennis player of all time mere weeks before the Olympics, many opined that a perfect elixir to Murray's pain would be Olympic gold at the same venue. Well, he's three matches away achieving that goal and if he makes the final, it will be must watch. Not only because a win could turn Murray's career in a different direction, but also because the crowd will be insane throughout his effort.
• TFA To Watch: Aly Raisman 
• PGA To Watch: Chinese divers. Seriously, can't one (or two) of them just lose?

One Last Thing:

• I am enjoying the congratulations that the Fierce Five are receiving from various people on Twitter. Shoutout to the Biebs, who not only tweeted at all the girls, but also followed them. Obama, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga also joined in the congratulating party. Gaga tweeted directly at Maroney only because I think she was scared that Maroney would have stared her to death if she didn't. 

Well that's if for this post. I think I'll go with a running diary format on Thursday just to switch it up. Once again, comments are cool and follow me on Twitter @TaylorSmyth10 unless spoilers make you angry.