2012 London Olympics: Don’t blink or you’ll miss the speeding objects

At the London Games, a radar gun might be more valuable than a program in enjoying how fast things are traveling.

8. Field hockey shot

Dominic Ebenbichler/REUTERS
Netherlands' Sophie Polkamp (L) and Japan's Akane Shibata fight for the ball during their women's Group A hockey match at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Riverbank Arena on the Olympic Park in London July 31.

62 m.p.h.

Anyone who thinks of field hockey as a mainly a prep school sport hasn’t seen world-class field hockey. The goalies need to be well protected because the plastic ball, which is slightly larger and heavier than a baseball, is plenty hard. And since all shots must be taken with an arc extending only 16 yards from the goal, vigorously struck shots may arrive “hot.”

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