LITTLE ROCK — Solo out to block Chastain
U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo went on a Twitter rant against former player Brandi Chastain on Saturday for comments made during the broadcast of the Americans’ 3-0 victory over Colombia at the Olympics.
Solo was apparently unhappy with Chastain’s criticism of U.S. defender Rachel Buehler during the NBC telecast.
At one point, Chastain pointed out that a defender’s responsibilities are: “Defend. Win the ball. And then keep possession. And that’s something that Rachel Buehler actually needs to, I think, improve on in this tournament.”
After the game, Solo made four tweets about Chastain. Among them: “Its 2 bad we cant have commentators who better represents the team&knows more about the game.”
Solo also told Chastain to “lay off commentating about defending” and goalkeeping “until you get more educated” and “the game has changed from a decade ago.”
“I feel bad 4 our fans that have 2 push mute,” tweeted Solo, adding that she likes NBC soccer announcer Arlo White.
Chastain is one of the top all-time defenders for the U.S. team. She played in 192 international games from 1988-2004 and is best known for taking off her jersey to celebrate the decisive penalty kick in the landmark shootout victory over China in the World Cup final at the Rose Bowl in 1999.
A spokesman for NBC said the network would have no comment and that Chastain was unavailable for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. team also declined comment and said Solo would address the matter the next time she meets with reporters. He said Solo would not be made available today.
Solo is one of the most outspoken players on the U.S. team. She was essentially kicked off the squad at the 2007 World Cup and sent home from China separately from the rest of the players after she criticized Coach Greg Ryan for benching her for the semifinals.
Fences were mended, and she made her way back onto the team to become arguably the best goalkeeper in team history, anchoring the gold-medal run at the 2008 Olympics and winning the golden glove award for top goalie at last year’s World Cup in Germany.
Ring, ring
Everyone is warned to silence cell phones at news conferences with medal winners. So where was that rap tune coming from at Ryan Lochte’s news conference after he won gold in the men’s 400-meter individual medley?
From Lochte’s cell phone.
The ringtone? “I have a lot of them,” Lochte said. “Probably something from Lil Wayne.”
Steve Futterman of CBS, whose question was interrupted, cracked, “If you win a gold, you get to leave your phone on.”
Cover up
When temperatures dropped into the 60s for start of the first night session at Horse Guards Parade, the Olympic beach volleyball players said bye-bye to their bikinis.
Two-time defending gold medalists Kerri Walsh Jennings and Misty May-Treanor of the United States wore long-sleeved shirts on top of bikini bottoms for their 21-18, 21-19 victory over Natalie Cook and Tasmin Hinchley, a match that started at 11 p.m. Saturday when the temperature was 63 degrees. The Australians wore long pants, with Tshirts under their bikini tops.
“It’s cold,” Walsh Jennings said, with a “what do you expect” look on her face. “It’s 11 p.m. in London.”
The two-piece swimsuit is the standard attire in the sport — players say more material means more chafing from sand underneath — but the international tour has long allowed women to wear warmer clothes when the temperature drops. The FIVB changed an unrelated rule recently to also allow shorts and T-shirts for women whose cultural beliefs require them to cover up.
But TV viewers — and the British tabloids — seem to take the notion of more modest clothing as an affront. (No worries: The dance teams that entertained the crowds during timeouts continued with shirtless men, and a mix of one- and two-piece suits for the women.)
Walsh Jennings and May-Treanor have said they don’t mind the cold weather: They won their second gold medal, in Beijing, in a torrential downpour. They have also played in the snow, in Lake Tahoe, Nev., on the AVP domestic professional tour.
Ratings record
An opening ceremony from the mother country with a Beatle, a queen and Mr. Bean proved irresistible for viewers in the United States, with a record-setting 40.7 million people watching NBC’s first night of Summer Olympics coverage.
The Nielsen company said Saturday that London’s opening ceremony was the most-watched ceremony of any Summer or Winter Olympics. It topped the previous mark of 39.8 million people who watched the 1996 Atlanta Olympics begin, and the 34.9 million who watched the colorful first night from Beijing four years ago.
The London ceremony featured an unusual madefor-TV stunt featuring actor Daniel Craig portraying James Bond escorting the real-life Queen Elizabeth II to the ceremony and ended with Paul McCartney’s “Hey Jude.” But according to Twitter, the biggest spike in tweets came when actor Rowan Atkinson (“Mr. Bean”) appeared in a Chariots of Fire homage.
An estimated 5 million comments about the opening ceremony were made on social media, according to the research company Bluefin Labs. It was more interesting to women, apparently, as 58 percent of the comments were from women and 42 percent from men, Bluefin said.
It was the most-watched television event in the U.S. since the winter, when 39.9 million people watched the Grammy Awards and 39.3 million saw the Oscars.
Sports, Pages 30 on 07/29/2012