While we’ve come to realize that Columbians may not be the most athletically inclined people, no one can deny that the Olympics are something that the whole world can come together for (mainly because they’re on TV).  This year, at least 10 former and current Columbia students and coaches will be competing.  Check out who’ll be nimble/quick, and when it will air*, so you can finally have that light-blue themed tailgate and BBQ you’ve always dreamed of. On your couch.

Women’s Fencing: Nzingha Prescod, CC ’15, and Nicole Ross, CC ’12, will be fencing in team and individual foil.
Individual: Saturday, July 28; airing 9-9:30am, 4:30-5pm (finals)
Team: Thursday, August 2

Lightweight Rowing: Nick LaCava, CC ’09, will be rowing in the lightweight men’s four without coxswain (we have no idea either). He’s also a chocolate entrepreneur.
Heats: Saturday, July 28; airing 2:30-3pm
Finals: Sunday, July 29; airing Thursday, August 2, 2:20-3pm

Men’s Fencing: James Williams, CC ’07, and Jeff Spear, CC ’10, will be fencing in team and individual sabre.
Individual Sabre: Sunday, July 29
Team Sabre: Friday, August 3
Sherif Farrag, CC’09, will be fencing foil for Egypt.
Individual Foil: Tuesday, July 31
Team Foil: Sunday, August 5

Field Hockey: Caroline Nichols, Columbia field hockey assistant coach, will be competing as a defender on the field hockey team.
USA v. Germany: Sunday, July 29; airing 4:15-6pm (live)
USA v. Argentina: Tuesday, July 31; airing 2-3:30pm (live) - Update: US won 1-0!
USA v. Australia: Thursday, August 2; airing 5:45-7:15am (live)
USA v. New Zealand: Saturday, August 4; airing 2-3:30pm (live)
USA v. South Africa: Monday, August 6; airing 5:45-7:15am (live)
Semifinal: Wednesday, August 8; airing 2:15-3pm
Bronze-medal Match: Friday, August 10; airing 2-3:30pm

Women’s Marathon: Lisa Stublic, CC ’06, will be running for Croatia.
Marathon: Sunday, August 5; airing 6-9am (live)

Men’s 400 Meters: Erison Hurtault, CC ’07, will be running for Dominica.
Round 1: Saturday, August 4; airing 11:15-11:45am
Semifinals: Sunday, August 5
Finals: Monday, August 6; airing 8pm-midnight

Men’s Modern Pentathlon: Michael Aufrichtig, Columbia head fencing coach, will be coaching the fencing portion of the pentathlon (horseback riding, fencing, swimming, rifle, and running).
Pentathlon: Saturday, August 11

P.S. Columbia Athletics is doing a cute feature on the Olympics.  Enjoy!

Good luck to all, continue to make our community proud!

*all times based on NBC New York

Glorious rings via Wikimedia Commons

James Williams

As you may have heard, the Columbia fencing team is pretty freaking baller.  This summer, four of our own fencers will be going to London to compete in the 2012 Olympics. James Williams, CC ’07, was an alternate in Beijing in 2008, where he was called in to help the US win silver.  He is part of the US team this year. Jeff Spear, CC ’10, will be an alternate. Bwog giddily talked to these two sabre fencers about their journey, America, and James Bond.

Bwog: How long have you been fencing? When did the dream of going to the Olympics start to become a realistic possibility?
James: 17 years!  My junior year (2005) at Columbia, I made it onto the U.S. National team and realized that if I could do that again in 3 years time, I could go to the Olympics.
Jeff: I have been fencing for 11 years.  The best answer to when the dream became a realistic possibility is probably when I decided to ‘go for it’ in 2008.  At the time the goal was still unreachable—I had recently dropped off the national senior rankings—but it really was a conscious decision to try to go that made all the difference in the world.

B: James, how does it feel to be the “first Ivy League male to win an Olympics fencing medal in 60 years and the first to finish as high as second since 1904″?
JW: It feels fine. If you use that many qualifiers, you can be first or second in almost anything!

B: Has being involved in the Olympics made you more patriotic?
JW: Yes! Wow. It made me really proud to be an American.
JS: Yes and no. I am very proud to represent my country, but I think an even more important lesson I have learned is how similar people are all across the world. Every tournament there are 200 of us from 30 countries united by a common dream. I spend weeks at training camps with people from different teams, and we tell stories, share experiences, and talk about life.  The Olympics unites countries but I think, even more importantly, it unites the world.

B: Do people make a lot of obnoxious pirate jokes re: swords? Is that annoying?
JW:  Much more so before I made it to the Beijing Games. I mostly hear fencing related puns now. The humor has been exhausted, but I admit that were it someone else, I would be making the jokes, so I take it in stride.
JS: Mostly people make comments about my name, which I guess is tangentially related to fencing.

Emotional Olympics commercials, I Love You Man, and LitHum analyses after the jump

The US Men’s Olympic Fencing team took home the silver medal in team saber. One member of the team was Columbia’s own James Williams, CC ’07, (smiling victoriously at right) who fenced in the gold medal meet.

GO USA!

Happy Olympics, Columbia! It’s that time again for (undangerous) nationalism and spectacle and sport. To help get you in the spirit, Weekend Rental correspondent Brandon Hammer has suggested three Olympics films. GO USA!

Chariots of Fire (1981): [Cue the theme music.] Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Chariots of Fire is perhaps the epitome of the classic Olympics movie. It’s based on the true story of two British runners who competed in the 1924 Paris Olympics, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), both of whom attempt to use running in order for some greater purpose. On the one hand, Abrahams, the son of a Jewish immigrant, wants to do well in order to spite society’s prevalent anti-Semitism. Liddell, on the other hand, as an ardent Christian and Scot, wants to compete because he feels it is necessary to fulfill God’s will. Even, according to Roger Ebert, if you don’t like running movies, it’s still a very inspiring film.

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As those who watch the Olympics closely know, it abounds with the more obscure sports that only the Ivy League has enough money to field teams in. Not surprisingly, then, the Ivy League has fielded its fair share of Olympians over the years, even as other conferences have taken over the role of being the NBA and NFL’s minor leagues. There are enough, in fact, that somebody out in the Internets decided they deserve their own blog. Even less surprisingly, the historical medal count indicates what many a Columbian could have already guessed: Columbia has contributed only 35 Olympians and 13 medalists, significantly below the next lowest, Brown (51 Olympians and 25 medalists).That’s waking the echoes of the Hudson Valley. Still, Bwog wishes best of luck to the Columbians competing in dressage, the 400 meters, and, of course, fencing. Hopefully some of their events will actually be on in prime time.