At the 2012 London Summer Olympics, American Michael Phelps won 4 gold medals, bringing his overall Olympic career total to 18 gold medals, the all-time career record for Olympic gold medals in any sport. One of the events he won was the 100-meter butterfly. For each of the following examples, identify the type of variable—nominal, ordinal, or scale. 

a. Phelps of the United States came in first, and Chad le Clos of South Africa and Evgeny Korotyshkin of Russia tied for second place. 

b. Phelps finished in 51.21 seconds, and le Clos and Korotyshkin finished in 51.44 seconds. 

c. One might examine the hemisphere from which swimmers hailed. Phelps and Korotyshki live in the Northern Hemisphere, whereas le Clos lives in the Southern Hemisphere.