Sixth place in Beijing for twin ConnectU founders
The 2008 Olympics in Beijing are over for Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the founders of would-be Facebook rival ConnectU who earned spots on the U.S. rowing team. The identical twins ended up placing sixth overall in the men's pair event; they don't take home any medals, but it's still a more than respectable finish. To get there, the pair had to make it through two rounds of heats, a semifinal, and then the grand final; just making it to the last round is a big accomplishment.
The Winklevosses placed sixth out of the six boats in the final with a time of 7:05.58 on the 2,000-meter course; the gold was snagged by the Australian crew of Drew Ginn and Duncan Free, the team that had beaten the Winklevosses in the event's semifinal on Wednesday. The Aussies won with a time of 6:37.44.
Rounding out the medal stand in second and third place, respectively, were crews from Canada and New Zealand. In fourth was Germany, and South Africa placed fifth.
The brothers Winklevoss had recently settled a lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whom they accused of stealing their plan and business code while all three were students at Harvard and Zuckerberg was employed as a ConnectU programmer. ConnectU has nevertheless contested the settlement, claiming Facebook failed to adequately disclose details involving its valuation.
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Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline.
