Page 2B
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Olympics
Gold medals for Rio Olympics are barely gold at all
By TIM REYNOLDS
Associated Press
Gold medals are the ulti-
mate prize in Olympic sport.
They’re also a misnomer.
There’s no such thing as
a “gold” medal, not at these
upcoming Rio Olympics —
and really, not ever. Second-
place inishers get silver
medals and oddly enough, so
do the winners, albeit theirs
are plated in a tiny amount of
gold.
That factoid caught even
some of those who were put
in charge of making the 5,000
or so medals needed for these
Rio Games by surprise.
“Our operators and some
of our developers had the
same question,” said Victor
Hugo Berbert, who managed
the medal-making process
and was part of a team of
about 100 people at the
Brazilian Mint who were
part of the project. “We can
produce medals out of pure
gold. But we know how
expensive they are. So gold
medals ... are not exactly
pure gold.”
They’re barely gold at all.
The medals given to
champions at these Olympics
will weigh just over a pound,
so to make them entirely
from gold would have cost
about $23,500 in material,
each. By taking the silver
medals and then plating them
in a tiny amount of Brazilian
gold, the actual value of the
metal inside those metals is
about $600.
Not that the athletes will
mind.
“The gold medal,” hockey
legend Wayne Gretzky
famously said at the Salt
Lake Olympics in 2002 when
he was executive director of
the gold-winning Canadian
team, “is everything.”
Though there are a
number of exceptions, it’s
not uncommon for the
medal-making process to fall
to the host country’s national
mint. That was the case this
year, with Berbert saying it
took about two years for the
entire process to play itself
out — starting with discus-
sions on design with the
host organizing committee,
sketches, ideas, budgeting
and ultimately approval from
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
A Rio 2016 Olympic gold medal is displayed at the
Olympic Park Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro.
the International Olympic
Committee.
The medals for the
Olympics are done. Work is
ongoing on the medals for the
Paralympics, which follow in
Brazil later this summer.
“We needed to develop
the whole concept of the
medal. We worked a lot with
the committee about the art,
about the design, about the
materials,” Berbert said.
“We tried to catch what they
wanted to show in a Olympic
medal and we took our
experience, our know-how
in producing medals and turn
that into what they want. The
art came from the committee,
but our team needed to sculpt
them.”
The gold is certiied to
have a certain amount of
purity and is considered very
high quality. The silver and
“bronze” medals (and by
the way, they’re not really
bronze) are largely made
from recycled materials,
which is a source of pride
for the team that Berbert
represents. Sustainability, he
said, was an important goal
for the team.
The silver for both the
irst- and second-place
medals was culled in part
from mirrors and plates. The
bronze medals are made in
part from the same copper
that goes into Brazilian coin,
so the mint had plenty of that
to use in the Olympic project.
About 40 percent of what was
needed was already on hand
when the process started.
Even some of the plastic
used in the ribbons that will
be attached to the medals is
recycled.
“It’s
something
we
dreamed of,” Berbert said.
“When they called us, we
adored the project. We really
wanted to do this thing.”
The other obvious advan-
tage of using the mint to
make the medals is security.
And every precaution is
being taken to ensure that
nothing goes wrong now.
The mint will store the
medals and basically deliver
them to the organizing
committee on a day-to-day
basis — the medals that will
be awarded on a given day
will be kept safe as can be
until needed.
“We have special dates
with the committee where
they want them delivered,”
Berbert said. “There are
logistics on how to transfer
them to them ... until then,
we keep the medals in a safe
room. But all the Olympic
medals are packaged now,
identiied by the event and
competition, all organized
and ready to be delivered.”
Ready to be won, too.
MARINERS: Hernandez allows ive runs in irst start since May 27
Continued from 1B
disabled list earlier in the
day, allowed ive runs on
10 hits in 6 2/3 innings. He
struck out two and walked
two in his irst start since
May 27.
“It feels good to be out
there, try and do my job to
help my team to win,” said
Hernandez, who threw 94
pitches. “I had a good sinker,
got a lot of groundballs. They
were swinging, they were
swinging at every pitch and
that’s why my pitch count
was pretty low.”
Todd Frazier hit a
three-run homer in the irst
off Hernandez. Frazier’s
28th home run tied him for
the major league lead with
Baltimore’s Mark Trumbo.
“It was a changeup. I
left it up,” Hernandez said.
“Frazier’s got pretty good
pop and put a good swing on
it.”
Hernandez struck out
Eaton to begin the game,
but Melky Cabrera followed
with a double into the left-
ield corner. Justin Morneau
drew a two-out walk and
Frazier connected for his
third homer in three games.
The White Sox added a
run in the second on consecu-
tive two-out singles by Tyler
Saladino, Eaton and Cabrera
to make it 4-0. Martin
homered in the bottom half.
Chicago pushed the
lead to 5-2 in the ifth on a
leadoff triple by Cabrera and
Morneau’s single.
Seattle cut the led to 5-4
in the seventh on the home
run by Zunino, also called
up earlier in the day from
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez
throws against the Chicago White Sox in the irst in-
ning of Wednesday’s game in Seattle.
Triple-A Tacoma. It was
the third homer for Zunino,
who hit two during an earlier
two-game call-up.
Lind, whose pinch-hit,
three-run homer in the ninth
inning gave Seattle a 4-3
victory on Monday, tied it
with his 15th homer.
“The home run was our
friend early, and then it
became our enemy,” White
Sox manager Robin Ventura
said. “You give up enough of
those, it’s tough to withstand
it.”
Servais was pleased with
what he saw from Hernandez.
“I think for the irst time
out, he was probably better
than I thought he would
be, other than the home run
that he gave up to Frazier,”
Servais said. “I thought his
stuff was good, I thought he
was pretty crisp, but after the
irst inning at that point if you
had told me he was going to
get as deep as he did into the
game, I probably wouldn’t
have believed it.”
S T R I K E O U T
MACHIINE
Mariners rookie reliever
Edwin Diaz fanned all three
batters he faced in the eighth,
giving him six consecutive
outs by strikeout. The
22-year-old hard-throwing
righty has struck out 42 in 20
2/3 innings, while allowing
ive runs.
UP NEXT
Mariners: Seattle opens
an 11-day, eight-game road
trip on Friday at Toronto.
LHP James Paxton (2-4,
4.56 ERA) starts the
opener, followed by Hisashi
Iwakuma (10-6).
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: SS Ketel
Marte was out for the third
straight game with an illness.
He was not expected to travel
with the team to Toronto on
Wednesday night, pending a
few more tests, but Servais
said he hoped Marte would
join the team in time for the
series against the Blue Jays
that begins Friday.
BOWMAN: Planning to compete at Ironman again in 2017
TRADE:
Vogelbach
hitting .318
with 16 HR
at Triple-A
Continued from 1B
way I can and help them win
a World Series,” Montgomery
said.
“It kind of hit me by
surprise,” he said. “When
I heard the news, I wasn’t
shocked, but I deinitely didn’t
see it coming.”
Montgomery said the Cubs
told him he would begin in the
bullpen.
“Mike had a good deal of
value in the market today,”
Dipoto said. “I told him he
built up so much equity from
opening day to today in the
industry, that his value I thought
was at a high.”
“He pitched incredibly well
for us, he did a great job in
the ‘pen, he’s done a great job
since we asked him to ill in in
the rotation and he ills a real
niche for the Cubs. I think that
combination of events allowed
us to get a pretty good deal for
him,” he said.
Maddon described Mont-
gomery as “big left-hander with
a very good arm.”
“He’s certainly not a house-
hold name, but we think he’s
got a chance to take off,” Cubs
president of baseball operations
Theo Epstein said.
Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer
was looking for a boost in the
bullpen with Travis Wood
and Clayton Richard the only
healthy left-handers. The NL
Central leading-Cubs are likely
to seek more reinforcements
as they aim for the club’s irst
World Series title since 1908.
Vogelbach, 23, was hitting
.318 with 16 homers and 64
RBIs in 89 games for Triple-A
Iowa. The Cubs selected Vogel-
bach in the second round of the
2011 amateur draft.
Pries, 26, had a 4.93 ERA
in Double-A Jackson and
Triple-A Tacoma this season.
The 22-year-old Blackburn had
a 3.17 ERA in 18 starts with
Double-A Tennessee.
Continued from 1B
part of 2014, with a goal
set for competing in the
Ironman 70.3 race in Coeur
d’Alene, Idaho in June of
2015. However, just three
months into his training,
Bowman suffered a stress
fracture in his lower leg
which sidelined him for the
rest of the year and erased
his hope of competing in
that race.
“I was able to maintain
swimming and pedaling,
which was good for me,”
Bowman said. “I was able
to start running again at the
end of the year and I was
still kind of in shape from
working with the other
two.”
So once he was able
to start running again and
restart his training schedule,
he set his sights on the same
Ironman 70.3 race in June
of 2016 in Coeur d’Alene,
but had to get some smaller
competitions under his
belt irst. He started with a
sprint triathalon, a shorter
race totaling in 15.5 miles,
and later worked his way
up to a 32.1 mile Olympic
triathalon in Walla Walla,
Washington over Memorial
Day weekend that year.
He would compete in
one more sprint race in
Goldendale, Washington
in the fall before hitting
the training regimen hard
and begin to focus on being
prepared enough for the
Ironman race.
“It was my goal all along,
to go to Coeur d’Alene, and
I just kept working out and
wondering if I could do it,”
Bowman said. “Finally I
just fully committed to it.”
By early spring time, he
was deep into his training
which consisted of six day
per-week workouts. On
Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday’s Bowman would
swim and then follow it up
with a run, which grew by
one mile each week. Then
on Tuesday’s and Thurs-
day’s Bowman would
head to spin class where he
would ride the stationary
bike for 75 minutes, before
ending each week with
anywhere from a 40 to 80
mile bike ride either on his
own or with the Pendleton
On Wheels club.
But
once
again,
Bowman hit some road-
blocks. About six weeks
before the Ironman race
was to take place, Bowman
developed tendinitis in his
ankle which sidelined his
running for ive weeks. And
then, once the ankle began
to heal and he was prepared
to start his last-minute
training, he also developed
a respiratory issue that
caused some issues in his
training. However, with
all that going on, Bowman
remained committed to the
race.
So when the big day
Contributed photo via Dave Bowman
More than 3,000 competitors (in neon yellow and
pink caps) line up as they wait for the starting gun
at the Ironman 70.3 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on June
26, 2016.
inally came, Bowman was
both excited yet unsure
about what he was about to
get himself into.
“I was nervous about the
whole ordeal,” Bowman
said. “I remember it being
really hard to sleep the
night before, and then I
had to be at the venue by
5 a.m. so I had to get up
around 3:30 a.m. and get
my nutrition going.”
When he arrived to
the starting line at Lake
Coeur d’Alene, he couldn’t
believe his eyes. It was
announced that more than
3,000 people had registered
for the race, a lot more
competition than Bowman
had expected.
“I about fell over when
I heard there were 3,000
entries and 2,000 volun-
teers,” Bowman said. “And
3,000 people from all over
the world here, too, which
really made it a mess trying
to get going in the swim.”
When all was said and
done, Bowman was one of
15 people in his 65-69 age
group to inish the race out
of the 26 competitors that
started the day. He inished
with an overall time of
8:16:52 which also placed
him at 2,200th overall for
the race. His individual
splits for the race were
48:58 for 1.2 miles swim-
ming, 4:08:41 for 56 miles
in cycling, and 2:59:19
over 13.1 miles running.
“I just wanted to inish
the race,” Bowman said.
“They give you a certain
amount of time to inish
and can pull you out at any
time for a Did Not Finish,
but I made it in time. I had
a little bit of cramp trouble
on the bike, but I made it.”
Two other Pendleton
residents also competed in
the event, with Troy Baker
competing in the 45-49 age
group and Erin Bartsch
competing in the 35-39 age
group. Baker inished 159th
out of 236 in his group with
a time of 6:29:13, split
between a 38:50 in swim-
ming, 3:16:32 in cylcing
and 2:22:47 for running.
Bartsch inished in
6:46:19 for a 100th place
inish out of 183 total. She
turned in a 57:52 for swim-
ming, 3:24:31 for cycling,
and 2:08:41 for running.
As for Bowman, he went
into the race last month
thinking he was going to
be one-and-done, but that
mindset changed after he
inished the race.
“I just thought I’d do it
once and quit, but here I am
already training for the next
one,” Bowman said.
He has his sights once
again set on the 2017 race
in Coeur d’Alene, but
won’t start his rigorous
training for a few months.
“I’m just casually doing
some stuff now,” he said,
“and trying catch up on my
ishing.”
———
Contact Eric Singer at
esinger@eastoregonian.
com or (541) 966-0839.
Follow him on Twitter @
ByEricSinger.
MAUI INVITE: Tournament games to be televised on ESPN2
Continued from 1B
national scale and deinitely
within the Pac-12. We will
help our players through it,
ighting those expectations.
Sometimes it is harder to
maintain a certain level of
success than achieve it so
we deinitely have some
obstacles to overcome to get
guys in the right frame of
mind to compete. This tour-
nament will do that because
game in and game out there
will be great competition.
So having a tournament
like this early in the year
will help out and we go to
Baylor before Maui, so we
will be well-prepared.”
Oregon will play either
Wisconsin or Tennessee
in the second game
while Oklahoma State,
Connecticut, North Caro-
lina and host Chaminade
are on the bottom half of
the bracket.
“You look at the ield
and the exciting thing
about it is a lot of teams
have a lot of experience,”
Altman said. “There are
good programs and good
coaches. North Carolina
is coming off being in the
national championship, and
Wisconsin was in the Sweet
16, and we had a nice year.
It should be a competitive
ield, and we are excited to
be part of it.”
The three-day tourna-
ment concludes with the
championship game on
Nov. 23 at 6:30 p.m. on
ESPN2.
Oregon returns starters
Chris Boucher, Dillon
Brooks, Casey Benson and
Tyler Dorsey while adding
senior point guard Dylan
Ennis.
“Oregon is one of those
programs that just reloads,”
Thompson said. “They
have weapons we have to
limit that can hurt you in a
lot of ways. We have to be
ready for that.”
Georgetown is coming
off a 15-18 season, but
returns four starters and
added 6-foot-5 senior
transfer Rodney Pryor, who
averaged 18.3 points and
8.0 rebounds per game at
Robert Morris last season.
L.J. Peak, a 6-5 junior,
was Georgetown’s leading
scorer last year with 12.3
points per game, and 6-9
junior Isaac Copeland aver-
aged 11.1 points. Seven-
foot senior Bradley Hayes
averaged 8.7 points and 6.7
rebounds.
“Georgetown
prides
itself on being a physical
team and we are going to
have to match that,” Altman
said. “A few years ago, we
did a good job of keeping
the loor spread and being
able to score some points
but had a hard time stop-
ping them.
“We know we will have
our hands full, but the thing
I remember most from that
game was the physical
nature of it. They have a lot
of experience back, and we
are an experienced team.”