Olympics - Paris 2024 - Day 1

Day 1 - July 24, 2024

Well, the Olympics are officially here.  Yes, I know that the Opening Ceremonies are not until tomorrow, but rugby and soccer started today.  I am going to attempt to do a daily recap of the events, but with work and personal life it may not always happen, but I am going to start!!!

But, as much as this pains me, we have to start with two scandals that have occurred already.  One, which I consider minor, involves the Canadian women's soccer team have a member of the delegation flying a drone over New Zealand's practice to spy.  Sounds like good olde American college football - looking at you Michigan and Conner Stallions.

The second is much more serious and impactul.  Six-time Olympic medalist from Great Britain, Charlotte Dujardin will not be participating in dressage (equestrian) these Olympics after a video surfaced showing her abusing horses.  I hav enot seen the video, nor will I, but it must have been bad for her to withdraw.

In the men's 7s in rugby, Fiji had two impressive performances scoring 40 points in both of their matches, against Uruguay and the United.   In addition to the loss to Fiji, the United States tied France, meaning they have some work to do today in order to qualify for the knockout stages.

The United States also competed against France in men's soccer, falling to Les Bleus 3-0, behind three second-half goals for the French.

In soccer the most dominating performance was put together by Japan, which defeated Paragruay 5-0, behind braces from Fujio Shoto and Shunsuke Mito.

But, the game of the day was the soccer match between Argentina and Morocco.  Morocco strikes first just before halftime on a goal by Soufiane Rahimi, who quickly doubled the lead on a penalty kick just after the start of the second half.  Argentian creeps back into the game on a goal by Giuliano Simeone in the 68th minute, and then seemingly equalizes well into extra time 90' +16.  Moroccan fans erupt, throwing items onto the field and some crazies even rushed the field.  The officials suspend the game for over an hour to clear the stadium, and when the players re-take the field, VAR announces that Argentina was offsides on the run-up to the goal.  NO GOAL!!!!  Morocco's 2-1 victory stands.  

Athlete of the Day - Soufiane Rahimi, Soccer, Morocco

His two goals were so important in the game of the day.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Hooligan, Soccer - Individuals known for the involvement in disruptive activities, such as vandalism, violence, or public disturbances, particularly during soccer matches.

Olympic Events Watched:  Soccer 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Nobody yet, but the best players for the USA soccer yesterday were Paxton Aaronson and Kevin Paredes                           

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 2

Day 2 - July 22, 2021

Really light day today, as only some soccer and rowing really in action, well, and training in shooting, but we won't count that.

 

So yes, I did watch some men's soccer - Brazil and Germany was exciting; Spain versus Egypt was not.  But, I did learn something incredibly interesting.  If you are a Spanish player, and you play professionally for a team in Spain's La Liga, if the national team selects you to participate, neither you nor the team can say "no".  You are obligated to play for the national team.  So, whereas Spanish players in the Premier League, or Bundesliga often are not allowed to play in the Olympics, if they play in La Liga - it is required.  It is Spanish law.  Amazing.

In rowing, we had men's single sculls heats, women's single sculls heats, men's double sculls heates, women's double sculls heats, men's quadruple sculls heats, and women's quadruple sculls heats.  These were just the heats, so no medals, but man-oh-man is the rowing venue gorgeous.  The bridges look amazing, and of course, the mountains in the background!

The big story from the games themselves come from the rowing arena, in men's quadruple sculls where Poland won the second heat by .03 seconds over Italy, finishing in 5:39.25, to the Italians 5:39.28.  In the first heat, The Netherlands won in a time of 5:39.80 with Australia in second in 5:41.54.  This sets up an amazing final between those 4 countries and whichever 2 countries make it through the repechage, likely Great Britain (finished in 5:42.01 in heat 1) and China (finished in 5:43.44 in heat 1).  If you want to watch a closely battled race in which all 3 medals are up for grabs, the men's quadruple sculls will be it.  It would seem the Olympic Record of 5:36.20 set by Australia in 2008 in Beijing could be there for the taking.

Athlete of the Day - Men's Quadruple Sculls, Poland

Dominik Czaja, Wiktor Chabel, Szymon Posnik, Fabian Baranski

The rowers in the aforementioned quadruple sculls heat will be the number 1 seed, by .03 seconds heating into the finals.  Regardless of what happens on the water in the future, these were the best performers on day 2!

Olympic Term of the Day:  Repechage - An additional race in rowing that gives non-qualifiers an additional chance to advance to the next round.  For example, in the previously discussed quadruple sculls semi-finals, the top 2 teams in each race advance to the finals, whereas the next 3 finishers advance to the repechage, where the top 2 in the repechage will join the finalists.

Olympic Events Watched:  Men's Soccer; Women's Rowing; Men's Rowing

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Cat Osterman 

Olympics - Rio 2016 - Day 18

Day 18 - August 20

Today's Events:  Badminton, Basketball, Canoe, Golf, Handball, Mountain Biking, Soccer, Volleyball, Water Polo, Wrestling

Olympic Word of the Day:  Stalling - In wrestling, failing to engage the opponent, presumably to waste time.  First infraction is a warning, and at the time of the second "warning" the action is stopped so that the athlete is "put on a clock", at which time he has to score a point within 30 seconds, or else the opponent is awarded a point.

On Saturday, nobody capped a more memorable Olympics that Isaquias Quieroz dos Santos, the Brazilian canoer nicknamed "Missing Kidney".  On Saturday, he secured his third medal of the Olympics, a silver in the men's 1000 meters, to go along with his silver in the men's doubles 1000 meters and a bronze in the men's 200 meters.  Three medals to signify each of the three times he almost lost his life.  At age 3 a pot of scalding water fell on him, and the doctor's told his mother he was not going to make it.  At 5, he was kidnapped, but later returned unharmed.  And, at 10, he climbed a tree to get a better look at a snake out on a branch, fell onto a rock with the fall breaking a kidney in half.  He has been nicknamed "Missing Kidney" ever since.  

From the remarkable to the sublime, the United States Women's Basketball team secured gold by demolishing Spain 101-72.  Nobody, with the possible exception of Simone Biles, was more dominating at the Olmpics than this U.S. team.  Diana Taurasi, who along with Sue Bird and Tamika Catchings earned her fourth gold medal, has been complaining - rightfully so - that the team has not garnered more attention.  It hasn't received more attention because they were too good, and the games have not been that interesting.  A weird dichotomy, sure, but domination sometimes has its price.

In today's lesson on sportsmanship, American J'Den Cox won the bronze medal by defeating Cuban Reinaris Salas.  Cox. who late in match was leading by one, was warned for stalling.  He had thirty seconds to win a point, otherwise Salas would be awarded a point.  This was important because in freestyle wrestling, ties are broken by whomever scored last.  Cox attacks, and attacks, and attacks, has the big Cuban up, flips him, and Salas still has a hold of Cox's ankle, so a point is awarded to Salas with just six seconds left.  Cox's team challenges, and upon video replay, Cox is awarded 2 points for a take down, and since he scored points, no penalty is awarded to Salas, thus taking his point away.  A 3 point swing.  Instead of being tied, Cox is now up 3.  After a brief protest by his coaches, Salas refuses to continue the match.  Cox technically wins by disqualification.

That should be contrasted with the actions of Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei.  Wei, the number 1 ranked badminton player in the world lost the gold medal match to China's Chen Long to secure his third Olympic silver in his fourth Olympics.  Lee, crying, then apologized to all 30 million Malaysians that he could not give give them the gold medal they expected.  This juxtaposed with Ryan Lochte, who, just apologized for embellishing a story, that was not actually accurate to begin with.

On the track, the Americans again excelled, with Matt Centrowitz winning the gold medal in the men's 1500 meters.  In winning a very tactical race that Centrowitz controlled from the beginning, he became the first American male to win at that distance since 1908.

For the sixth consecutive time, the American women won the 4x400 meter relay, in convincing fashion.  Another repeat winner was Great Britain's Mo Farah, who followed up his gold medal in the 10,000 meters with another gold in the 5,000 meters, completing the double that he accomplished in London in 2012.

Gwen Jorgensen won the gold medal in the women's triathlon, becoming the first American to do so in that event.  Jorgensen, who completed the course in 1:56:16, defeating silver medalist Nicola Spirig of Switzerland by 40 seconds, with bronze medalist Vicky Holland of Great Britain just 5 seconds behind Spirig.

Despite all of the triumph listed here, none came close to the triumph of these Olympics:  Brazil's triumph over Germany for the gold medal in men's soccer.  The game, tied a 1-1 through regulation and extra time, went to penalty kicks.  Germany, going first, scored on each of its first four spot kicks, while Brazil countered scoring on each of its first four kicks.  Then, Brazilian goalie Weverton guessing correctly by diving to his left, made a spectacular save on Germany's Nils Pieterson, who blistered his kick to the goalie's left.  Then Neymar, recognized as one of the world's greatest soccer players coming off his spectacular curling free kick in the first half that gave Brazil a 1-0 lead, buried his penalty into the top of the net after a stutter step to clinch the gold medal.  It was difficult to see who was crying more, the Brazilians for winning, or the Germans for losing, but the emotions ran extremely high at Maracana.  That, was the story of the day!

Olympics - Rio 2016 - Day 2

Day 2 - August 4

Men's Football, OK, OK, I give up - Men's soccer started today, and as we all know, nowhere in the world is soccer bigger than in our host country.  Brazil lives, eats, sleeps and breathes the sport.  The are perennially one of the world's powers, the are the host nation, and one of the three most recognizable and talented players in the world is playing in the Olympics - Neymar.  Neymar is so heralded in this country, that the Brazilians would expect him to jump into the pool and beat even Ryan Lochte (I sense a trend starting).

(As an aside, ESPN's reporter and radio personality, a University of Florida alumnus, recently said that he is thankful that the Olympics bring us Ryan Lochte every four years because Lochte is the one Gator - other than Aaron Hernandez - that he will constantly make fun of.  Gutierrez then insisted that he thinks Lochte is really not as dumb as he seems, but that it is part of an act, then followed that up by saying, "but he doesn't have to act very hard".)

Anyway, back to the major story of the day - Men's Soccer.  The host take the field as a medal favorite, and with the backing of the home crowd, the likely favorite to win gold.  They started off against South Africa with ... a 0-0 draw?!  What?  Well perhaps you should know that South Africa played the last 30 minutes (plus stoppage time - which means they played, well, who knows how many minutes) with only 10 players after Mothobi Mvala earned his second yellow card in a five minute span to get sent off.  The vaunted Brazil offense led by Neymar, Gabriel Jesus and Gabigol, although they had their chances, could not find the back of the net.

This is a very inauspicious start for the home team, and although still well in the chase to make the knockout round, was not the start the team, nay country, wanted to see.