Olympic silver medalist Bryshon Nellum will carry the U.S. flag at tomorrow’s closing ceremony of the London Olympics.
Nellum was told by doctors that he might never be an elite athlete again after he was shot in the legs while leaving a restaurant near the campus of Southern California in 2008. Four years later, he’s an Olympic medalist.
Nellum was part of the men’s 4×400-meter relay team, which finished second to the Bahamas last night. He also competed in the 400-meter dash, making the semifinal round.
Nellum says he’s “humbled by this incredible privilege.”
U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun says Nellum’s courage “embodies the Olympic spirit.”
*Olympic boxing officials said they had asked NBC’s announcers, Bob Papa and Teddy Atlas, to move back from their workspace close to the ExCel center ring to a position further back.
An International Boxing Association spokesman said the announcers were “very disturbing” for officials, even for bouts they were not announcing. Rather than move, the IBA spokesman said NBC decided to leave.
Papa, who is also the Giants radio play-by-play man, and Atlas have been critical of boxing judges and referees, saying some decisions have been unfair, and they don’t like the way fights are judged.
*Two Long Island women fared well yesterday on the waters of London’s Weymouth Bay. Shelter Island’s Amanda Clark and Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale) finished ninth overall in the women’s sailing two-person dinghy medal race in the Olympic regatta — the USA’s best finish in that event since 2000. In the women’s match race in keel boating, Bayport’s Debbie Capozzi, Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), and Molly Vandemoer (Stanford, Calif.) placed in fifth.
*Ous Mellouli of Tunisia won the grueling 10-kilometer race to become the first swimmer to win medals in the pool and open water at the same Olympics.
Mellouli pulled away from a small group of leaders in the fifth of six laps and finished in 1 hour, 49 minutes, 55.1 seconds in the murky waters of the Serpentine in Hyde Park. He also won bronze in the 1,500-meter freestyle last week.
*Park Chu-young scored a brilliant individual goal to lead South Korea to a 2-0 victory over Japan and a bronze medal in men’s soccer.
Brazil and Mexico play in the gold-medal match today at Wembley Stadium.
*Women’s boxing was a big hit in its first Olympics and could get even bigger in Rio.
IOC President Jacques Rogge says he’s thrilled the competition removed any doubt of the sport’s Olympic worthiness. AIBA President Wu Ching-Kuo is determined to at least double the Olympic field for the 2016 Games in Brazil.
*Brazil defeated Italy in straight sets in men’s volleyball, earning its third consecutive trip to the gold-medal match, this time against Russia.
Russia beat Bulgaria 3-1 in the other semifinal.