Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 10

 Day 10 - July 30, 2021

Hooray - I am back on pace to blogging at a normal hour!  Real post today!

As usual, let's start in the pool.  In hopefully some foreshadowing for what should be a great finals race, the USA's Caleb Dressel tied an Olympic record in the 100 meter butterfly in his Heat (which happened to be the last heat of the first round) of 50.39 seconds.  In the first semi-final, Kristof Milak of Hungary broke the Olympic record by swimming the race in 50.31 seconds.  Caleb Dressel immediately came back to break that record in the second semi-final by going 49.71.  Can't wait to see this final today!!!

Emma KcKeon of Australia won gold in the 100 meter freestyle, breaking the Olympic recod that she set just two days ago.  This is her second gold medal of these games.  Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey earned the bronze, and Australia's Cate Campbell won bronze.

The best result in the pool on Day 10 was turned in by South Africa's Tatjana Schoenmaker in teh 200 meter breastroke.  Not only did Schoenmaker win gold, but she broke the world record in the process.  The USA finished second and third, with Lilly King earning silver and Annie Lazor winning the bronze.

However, it wasn't Dressel, or McKeon, or Schoenmaker that were the talk of the pool, as American backstroker Ryan Murphy - without pulling any punches - stated that swimming results were tainted by doping, and that he doesn't think his races were clean.  Murpy finished third in the 100 meter backstroke earlier this week behind Evgeny Ralnov (gold) and Kilment Kolesnikov (silver); and he finished with the silver medal in the 200 meter backstroke behind Evgeny Ralnov.  Both Ralnov and Kolesnikov swim for the Russian Olympic Committee because Russia itself is banned from international competition for systemic doping and testing procedures, as well as the erasing of testing records of its athletes.

Qualifying heats have started on the track, and boy-oh-boy do we already have some controversy.  The USA's 4x400 mixed medley relay easily won its heat, but was disqualified for passing the baton outside of the exchange zone on the fist and second legs of the race.  However, team USA was reinstated after it was shown that race officials lined up Lynna Irby, running the second leg, incorractly.  Tape also showed the officials lining up other runners in other heats incorrectly, but those runners noticed it and self-corrected.  Team USA advances.

On a completely other track, Bethany Shriever won the finals in the women's  BMX.  The Great Britain rider narrowly defeated Colombia's Mariana Pajon by just .09 seconds.  Pajon was the two-time defending gold medalist in the event, having won gold in 2012 in London and 2016 in Rio.  Merel Smulders from the Netherlands finished with the bronze.  Apologies to Shriever, but this was the best picture I saw.

On the men's side, Conor Fields of the USA, the defending gold medalist and the number 1 seed entering the finals, took a horrific crash in the first turn of the finals, sending him to the hospital, where last report was that he was stable, but still undergoing tests.  With Fields down, Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands won gold, Kye White of Great Britain took silver, and Colombia's Carlos Alberto Ramirez Yepes earned bronze.

The games of the day is no doubt the women's soccer quarterfinals - all of the games (well, 3 out of 4)!  Sweden beat Japan 3-1, and in a barnburner, Australia defeated Great Britain 4-3, setting up an Australia-Sweden semi-final matchup.  In the other half, Canada outlasted Brazil in penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw.  In the final quarterfinal matchup, Vivienne Miedema earned her 100th cap in the game against the USA, and then proceeded to score her 9th and 10th goals of these Olympics.  It wasn't enough as the USA added 2 goals within a 3 minute stretch of the first half to send this game to extra time.  Preserving the tie was a late penalty kick save by US goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.  After a goalless extra time, the U-S prevailed 4-2 on penalty kicks, with Naeher making 2 saves in the shootout!  The clinching goal calmly scored by Megan Rapinoe.

Athlete of the Day - Alyssa Naeher, Soccer, United States

Not just the 2 shootout saves (Canada's goalie also had 2), but the big penalty shot save late in the second half as well.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Exchange Zone - A track and field term for the marked area in a lane of track where two relay runners must meet and exchange the baton; the exchange zone is 20 meters long.

Olympic Events Watched:  Athletics (Track & Field), Baseball, Basketball, BMX, Canoe, Handball, Judo, Soccer, Table Tennis, Volleyball 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Caleb Dressel, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Katie Ledecky, Sunisa Lee, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic                          

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 9

 Day 9 - July 29, 2021

Again, since I am doubling up on entries no pictures, but here are the stories!

There is only one story for today (I mean there are others, but not really), it is Sunisa Lee, the Hmong-American gymnastics start that was in the shadow of Simone Biles, winning the gold medal in the all-around, defeating Rebecca Andrade of Brazil, the silver medalist, Angelina Melnikova of the ROC, the bronze medalist, and everyone else.  To date, given the situation surrounding Simone Biles and the US team, this is THE story of the Olympics.

The best single event of the day was the women's 4x200 meter freestyle relay.  The heavily-favored Australian team did not disappoint in breaking the world record - BUT FINISHING THIRD!  The United States team also broke the world record and won silver.  It was China celebrating as they set the World Record and won gold!  Katie Ledecky earning her third medal of these Olympics, with the 800 meters freestyle still to go.

On the men's side, the Great Britain team won gold, and will forever be remembered for the interview by a Bristish reporter asking Matthew Richard about his incredible third leg!!!  Tom Dean led off to win his second gold of these Olympics.  The US men failed to medal, for the first time in Olympic relay history, finishing fourth by about half a second.  The US coach pulled Caleb Dressel from the team because ...

Caleb Dressel also had to compete in the men's 100 meter freestyle final, which he won and set an Olympic record while beating defending gold medalist Kyle Chalmers of Australia, who won silver.  This is Dressel's second gold in two events, with the 100 meter butterfly (he set an Olympic record in his heat), and the 50 meter freestyle still to come, along with up to two more relays.

Robert Finke won the gold for the United States in the 800 meter freestyle.  Regan Smith and Hali Flickinger earned the silver and bronze respectfully in the 200 meter butterfly, finishing only behind China's Zhang Yufei, who set an Olympic record.

In a completely different type of water event, Hungary defeated the United States women's team in water polo 10-9, scoring the winning goal with 45 secondd remaining in the game.  This was the first loss for the United States in the Olympic pool since 2008!

In the men's trap shooting event, Czech Republic teammates Jiri Liptak and David Kostelecky went to a shootoff, where Liptak won the gold medal.  Kostelecky was competing in his 7th Olympics.  SEVENTH!!!  He won gold in Beijing in 2008, and finished fourth in Rio in 2016.

Also in shooting, Alessandra Perilli of San Marino won the bronze medal in women's trap shooting, a first for her country and making San Marino - which has a total population of about 34,000 - the smallest country to ever win a medal.  Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova of Slovakia won the gold medal with an Olympic record, and American Kayle Browning won the silver.  Stefecekova previously won silver in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.

Aaron Wolf of Japan was impressive in winning the gold medal in the over 100kg weight class in judo.  His gold medal was Japan's 8th gold medal (and 11th overall) in judo alone!!!

Athlete of the Day - Sunisa Lee, Gymnastics, United States

Seriously, was this a questions?

Olympic Term of the Day:  Twisties - In gymnastics, a condition where a gymnast loses their sense of space and dimension when in the air, causing them to lost control of their bodies, and do extra, unintended, twists and flips, and may result in an inability to land safely.

Olympic Events Watched:  Archery, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, BMX, Boxing, Rugby, Shooting, Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo, 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Caleb Dressel, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Katie Ledecky, Sunisa Lee, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic                          

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 8

 Day 8 - July 28, 2021

I am a little late on this post so this information is going to be a bit dated, but I wanted to make sure that I covered every single day of these Olympics - so I am not going to skip it!  (No pictures today though, due to the fact I have to do multiple entries.)

As is often the case in the first week, the pool is where we find some incredible action, and this day was not exception.

In the freestly rematch between the 2 world champions, Ariarne Titmus defeated the field to win her second individual gold of the games, this time in the 200 meter freestlye.  Katie Ledecky finished in 6th.

But, Ledecky can never be counted out as she also had the finals of the 1500 meter, the first time this event has been competed in the Olympics by women.  Ledecky did not disappoint, winning gold, and pulling teammate Erica Sullivan to the silver.  Ledecky, who set the Olympic record in the qualifying heat, coasted to an easy victory despite having swam the 200 meter freestyle finals earlier.

The United States also won 2 medals in the women's 200 meter individual medley,  Yiu Ohashi of Japan won gold, followed by Americans Alex Walsh and Kate Douglas.  World and Olympic record holder, and all-time great Katinka Hosszu finished 7th, in likely her last chance at a medal.

Outside on the water, China, Poland and Australia advanced into the A-Finals in the women's quad sculls when Germany, who was in second at the time, caught a crab (see word of the day below), which immediately slowed the boat to the point where it looked like it was standing still.  A truly weird visual to anyone that has never seen this happen in a rowing event, which to be honest is most of us since we don't watch rowing regularly!)

Besides swimming, the other most popular sport is Olympics, and the women's gymnastics world, and thus that of these Olympics, was rocked a second time by Simone Biles' announcement that she was withdrawing from the individual All-Around, on the heels of withdrawing from the team competition.

Unfortunately for the men, Biles' announcement overshadowed the men's all-around, so I will definitely mention it as 19-year old Daiki Hashimoto of Japan won gold, defeating Ruatang Xiao of China - who won silver - and Nakita Nagornyy of the Russian Olympic Committee, the bronze medalist.

China faired much better in the mens 73kg weight class of weightlifting as Shi Zhiyung set a world record of 364 kilograms, winning the gold medal.

Annemiek van Vleuten made up for her mistake in the cycling road race by absolutely dominating the time trial, winning gold for the Netherlands by over 56 seconds over silver medalist Marlen Reusser of Switzerland, and teammate Anna van der Breggen, the bronze medalist.  (See previous post for van Vleuten's mistake, which resulted in a silver).

Fiji won its second gold ever in defeding its men's rugby 7s gold medal!

Team USA's women won the first ever gold medal in 3x3, defeating ROC in a game that was nowhere near as close as the the final 18-15 score.  Kelsey Plum scored 5 early points to stake the USA to an early lead, and to finish as the leading scorer in the tournament.  The ROC had no answer for 6'5 Stefanie Dolson, who led USA in scoring with 7.  Dolson was primarily responsible for placing the ROC in foul trouble when, after 7 fouls a team is awarded two free throws and at 10 fouls, the team receives 2 free throws AND the ball.  

Fellow US athlete Sam Kendricks, the 2x defending pole vaulting world champion and Rio bronze medalists has withdrawn from the Olympics due to a positive Covid-19 test.  Kendricks was the gold medal favorite in these games.

For the second consecutive day, Tokyo has set their record with 3,177 Covid cases.  

The USA men's basketball team rebounded (see what I did there?) by annihilating Iran, but because it was Iran I am not going to mention very much about this game, since it doesn't tell us much.  Concerning is that Kevin Durant has only scored 10 points in each of the team's first two games.

And to be honest, I only even mentioned the USA men's basketball team because the fact they played Iran gives me this great segue....

Judoka Saeid Mollaei of Mongolia won the gold medal in the 81 kg weight class.  Mollaei was born in Iran, and won gold at the 2018 world championships.  In the 2019 world championships, Mallaei was ordered by the government of Iran, the Iran Olympic Committee and the Iranian Judo Federation to throw his semifinal match so that he would not have to compete against Sagi Muki in the finals because Muki is Israeli.  Mallaei left the tournament and went into hiding, securing a 2 year visa from Germany.  He eventually gained citizenship from, and competes for, Mongolia.  After winning the gold, Mollaei thanked the citizens of Israel for all of their positive energy. 

Athlete of the Day - Saeid Mollaei, Judo, Mongolia

An athlete standing up for his beliefs, imagine that!

Olympic Term of the Day:  Catching a crab - In rowing, after sticking an oar into the water for a stroke, and the oar fails to come out of the water when released, thus stopping the forward momentum of the boat.

Olympic Events Watched:  3x3, Archery, Basketball, Canoe, Cycling, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically):  Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Katie Ledecky, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic                          

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 7

Day 7 - July 27, 2021

Day 7, and lots of action in the pool, so I am going to dive right in!

Thomas Daley and Matty Lee pulled off an incredible upsetting the Chinese duo of Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen, who finished with the silver.  Both Cao and Chen have won golds before in the event (1 in 2016 the other in 2012), and were favored by far to win this match, but Daley and Lee pulled off some incredible dives!

The women's synchronized diving was nowhere near as eventful as favorites Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi absolutely dominated after four dives that all they technically had to do in their fifth and last dive was jump off the platform together and land in the water.  They defeated the surprising Americans of Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell, who captured silver despite only being partners 10 days before the Olympic trials, due to an injury to Schnell's original partner.  Parratto and Schnell nailed their last 2 dives to move up from 6th after their second dive, into the silver medal.

In the other side of the pool, four noteworthy events took place.  In the men's 200 meter freestyle, Tom Dean of Great Britain won the gold medal, with is compatriot Duncan Scott winning silver.  Great Britain has to be the favorite for the gold in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay.

In the 100 meter backstroke, World and Olympic record holder, as well as the defending champion, Ryan Murphy looked to defend his title, only to finish third to win the bronze medal.  Murphy finished behind Russian Olympic Committee's Evgeny Rylov who won gold and Kliment Kolesnikov, who earned silver.  Rylov is the first Russian male swimmer to win a gold medal at the Olympics since the great Alexander Popov in 1996 (50 meter freestyle; 100 meter freestyle).

Kaylee McKeown  of Australia won the gold medal by finishing first in the 100 meter backstroke, setting an Olympic record in the process.  This was the fifth time that the Olympic record has fallen in this meet, as McKeown, silver medalist Kylie Masse of Canada, and the USA's Regan Smith (twice), who earned the bronze medal, all broke the record previously in the heats and the semi-finals.  McKeown is forever going to be remembered as the swimmer that screamed "Fuck Yeah!" when asked how it felt to win the gold.  All three of these women deserve their picture in this blog!

A surprise win - and loss - for the United States in the 100m breaststroke as Lydia Jacoby from Alaska - which has only one 50 meter pool in the state - surprisingly won gold, with pre-race favorite Lilly King winning the bronze. Tatjana Shoenmaker from South Africa won silver.

Moving from in the water to, well, on the water, Carissa Moore from the United States won the first women's surfing gold medal ever!!!  Here's hoping this event remains in the games for a long, long time.

The Russian men's gymnastics team won the gold in the men's team competition defeating host Japan by just .103 points (China earned the bronze), but all gymnastics was overshadowed by the fact that Simone Biles withdrew from the team competition.  We don't yet know if she will compete in either the individual all around or in the apparatus finals, for which she qualified on all four apparatus.   

Also out of the Olympics, but this time because of defeat, is home favorite and number 2 seed in women's tennis Naomi Osaka, who lost 6-1, 64 to Marketa Vondousova of the Czech Republic in the third round.  But, the only real winner in tennis this Olympics is the heat, which has damn near crippled the players, sending at least one player off the court in a wheelchair.

Also of bad news in Tokyo, the city had 2,848 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, the most it has ever had since the pandemic began.  Approximately 160 of those cases are linked to the Olympics.

It wasn't all bad news for the Japanese, as they won two big gold medals in the Olympics.  Fist, Japan defeated the United States for the gold medal game, technically defending their championship from 2008, and avenging their loss to the United States just one day earlier.  Softball will not be featured in 2024, and to be honest, until the rest of the world catches up to the 4 or 5 countries that actually play at a high level, it shouldn't return.

The host country also won an unexpected gold in mixed table tennis, as Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito knocked off China's Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen 4-3, after falling down 0-2 (5-11; 7-11).  China swept all 4 table tennis championships in Rio in 2016 (mens, womens, mens doubles, mixed doubles) and is such a strong team that Liu Shiwen isn't even on the women's singles team, playing only doubles.

In other noteworthy events, Milica Mandic defended her gold medal in Taekwondo at 67kg.  Over in weightlifting, Hidilyn Diaz from the Phillipines won a gold in weightlifting, the first gold medal ever for teh Phillipines!  In a similar vein, Polina Guryeva won a silver medal in wieghtlifting, the first Olympic medal in Turkmenistan's history!!!  And USA's 3x3 hoopster Kelsey Plum hit a last second-shot to send the United States into the semi-finals as the number 1 seed!

Athlete of the Day - Hidilyn Diaz, Weightlifting, Philippines

First gold medal ever for the Philippines!!

Olympic Term of the Day:  First Pull - In weightlifting, the first pull of the snatch or clean is the movenment of the bar from its starting point on the floor until it reaches approximately mid-thight, the point at which the final upward explosive effort is initiated.

Olympic Events Watched:  Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Diving, Gymnastics, Handball, Softball, Surfing, Triathlon, Water Polo

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic  

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 6

Day 6 - July 26, 2021

Day 6, and lots of action in the pool, so let's get right to it!

In the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke Reagan Smith broke the Olympic record to be seeded first in the finals.  Of note, this was the 4th straight race in this discipline in which an Olympic record was broken!

In what was supposed to be one of the more dynamic races in the pool, the United States ran (swam?) away with the 4x100 meter freestyle relay, winning gold.  Caleb Dressel, Blake Pieroni, Bowen Becker, and Zach Apple took home the gold!

In the women's 400 meter freestyle, one of the marquis races of these Olympics due to those involved, Ariarne Titmus of Australia, in the second fastest time ever at this distance, won gold defeating Katie Ledecky, who herself swam the 4th fastest time in history.  They will meet again at 200 meters.

Adam Peatty of Great Britain easily won the 100 meter breastroke.  Peatty, who has the 15 fastest times in the world at this distance, is also the favorite at 200 meters.

Canada's Margaret McNeil won the gold in the 100m butterfly, followed VERY closely by Yufie Zhang of China and Australia's Emma McKeon, who took home the silver and bronze respectively.  Only .01 seconds behind McKeon and finishing in fourth was Torri Huske.  The spread between first and fourth was only .14 seconds!!!!

Outside of the pool, we have the first medals ever awarded in Women's Skateboarding, and the event was dominated by not only teenagers, but young teenagers!  Japan's Momiji Nishiya, 13 years old, won gold, with fellow 13 year old Rayssa Leal from Brazil winning silver, and the old person in the group, 16 year old Funa Nakayama won bronze.  Alexis Sablone, a 34 year old from the United States, finished fourth.

In softball, although the gold medal game between the United States and Japan had already been set, the US and Japan finished pool player with a humdinger of a game, the United States won on a walk-off home run by Kelsey Stewart.  This was the United States first home run of the entire Olympics.

In the most dominating performance of the day, Luka Doncic of Slovenia scored 48 points - the second most in Olympics history between Oscar Schmidt's 55 - as Slovenia defeated Argentina 118-100.  NBA fans know Doncic really well, and this performance cements him as one of the best players in the world.

Athlete of the Day - Adam Peatty, Swimming, Great Britain

Greatest breastroker ever!  Period.  Dominated the 100m for gold.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Eggbeater - In water polo, the leg kick used to tread water and and lift players vertically out of the water.

Olympic Events Watched:  3x3, Beach Volleyball, Gymnastics, Softball, Swimming, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Monica Abbot, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Cat Osterman, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic 

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 5

  Day 5 - July 25, 2021

A little late today, but that is mostly because it was a workday for me, and it was a Monday.  Ugh!  But at least it was an Olympics Monday!

So, in something that I will most certainly be typing again, USA Men's Basketball lost to France 83-76.  France is a very talented team led by Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert, among other NBA players, but Kevin Durant should be leading this team through pool play and into the medals.  Except he scored 10 points.  UGH!

Also surprising is that number 1 women's tennis seed Ashleigh Barty is out of the competition after losing her first round match to Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4, 6-3.  At leat the Americans are still in pool play.

Not all of the pre-Olympic favorites faired poorly, as the US women's softball team won a walk-off victory thanks to a 2 RBI single by Amanda Chidester to secure not only the 2-1 victory, but also a place in the gold medal game.  The runs scored by Australia was the first run given up by the Americans in the tournament so far - and it was an unearned run.  Monica Abbot struck out 13 in 8 innings to go 2-0 in the tournament.

In other good news, Japanese siblings Uta Abe and Hifumi Abe both won gold medals in judo, Uta in the women's 52-kg weight class and Hifumi in the men's 66-kg weight class.  The are the first brother-sister combination to win gold on the same day in the same Olympic competition.

In another feel good story, the dressage competition in equestrian has started, and American Phillip Dutton  has started his 7th Olympics competition.  Dutton is unique in that he competed 3 times for Australia (1996, 2000, 2004), and now 4 times for the United States after changing his citizenship (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020).  He has won gold for Australia (1996 Atlanta - team eventing; 2000 Sydney - team eventing) and a bronze for the United States (2016 Rio de Janeiro - individual eventing).

Australia showed that they are again just as competitve as the United States in the pool (hint:  foreshadowing for tomorrow's post) as they set a new World Record in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay, earning gold for Bronte Campbell, Meg Harris, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell as the team finished in 3:29:69, the first time a women's relay has finished under 3:30.  Canada just nipped the United States at the wall for the bronze, while the Americans earned a silver.

Staying in the pool, the men's 400 meter freestyle was certainly something to watch.  White the favorites, Jack McLoughlin of Australia and Kieran Smith of the United States certainly swam well, they only could earn the silver and bronze respectively as relatively unknown Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, only 18 years old, swam the swim of his life to capture the gold while out in lane 8 - which means he was the slowest qualifier for the finals, and in fact, only qualified for the final by .14 seconds!  He out-touched McLoughlin and Smith, who all finished under 3:44:00.

Even more confusing than Hafnaoui's victory, was the women's cycling road race, at least to some.  Early in the race, 6 riders including Anna Kiesenhofer of Austria broke away from the peloton practically as soon as the race started.  As often happens, most of the favorites - including Annemiek van Vleuten, Anna van der Bregge, Marianne Vos and Demi Vollering of the Netherlands - let Kiesenhofer and the other breakaway riders go, knowing they would have a chance to reel her in later with the rest of the peloton.  This occurred as the 5 breakaway riders were caught by the peloton, when van Vleuten made her move, and finished the race in Fuji Speedway thinking she had won gold.  Except, the peloton had only caught 5 of the breakaway riders, but not Kiesenhofer, who earned gold.  Van Vleuten, who suffered a horrific crash in Rio in 2016, settled for the silver.  Van Vleuten blamed her mistake on the fac that she is used to using a radio, as communications are ordinarily allowed in professional races where teams keep racers apprised of the race status, but those communications are not allowed in the Olympics.

The United States won two unexpected golds.  Lee Kiefer prevailed in individual foil over Inna Deriglazova of the Russian Olympic Committee.  Deriglazova was the defending Olympic gold medalist.

Anastasija Zolotic, an 18 year old from Clearwater, Florida, also won gold.  She defeated Tatiana Minina of the Russian Olympic Committee in the 57 kg final of Taekwondo.

On the downside, Skateboarding made its very disappointing debut.  It is nowhere near as exciting to watch as when snowboarding was added to the Winter Olympic schedule, and certainly pales in comparison to the other newcomer which has already started, 3x3.  Hopefully surfing is more like 3x3 and less like skateboarding.

I would also be remiss if I did not mention Amber English and Vincent Hancock's gold medals in skeet shooting.

Athlete of the Day - Ahmed Hafnaoui, Swimming, Tunisia

Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - foresaw his victory in the men's 400 meter freestyle.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Ollie - In skateboarding, it is a jump where the front wheels leave the ground first, and both the skater and the board are airborne.  This is the foundation of a lot of other technical tricks.

Olympic Events Watched:  Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Cycling, Diving, Equestrian, Fencing, Gymnastics, Skateboarding, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Monica Abbot, Phillip Dutton, Brady Ellison, Lee Kiefer, Cat Osterman, Kelsey Plum, Anastasija, Zolotic

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 4

 Day 4 - July 24, 2021

The first full day of competition is in the books, so like the swimmers I am going to just jump right in.  I should note, however, that Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time, so some of the events that I watch yesterday occur today, and that affects where I place them in my updates.  Also, where I place each of the events is largely dependent upon where I place them in my notes, so there may be some inconsistencies.  Oh well.

First and foremost, United States women's soccer righted itself with a 6-1 victory over New Zealand, in large part due to the insertion of 5 "new" starters.  These 5 new starters are mainstays of the team over the years, including Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd and Rose Lavelle.

This was our first look at 3x3 basketball, and it is amazing.  It is going to be a sure fire hit in these Olympics.  Non-stop action, and the skill level is absolutely amazing.  The American women are going to be a force to reckon with, led by all-tim NCAA career scoring leader Kelsey Plum (pictured).

In the 60kg weight class of judo, Takata Naohosa won the host country's first gold medal.  Traditionally the host country receives a bump - wins more medals than otherwise ordinarily projected - but without the crowds it will be interesting to see how Japan succeeds.

The race of the day was in the pool, in the Men's 400 meter freestyle qualifiers.  In the 5th heat five swimmers, Australia's Elijah Winnington and Jack McLoughlin, the USA's Kieran Smith and Jake Mitchell, and Italy's Marco de Tullio, all finished within .65 seconds of each other, and with the top 3 (Winnington, McLoughlin and Smith) finishing within .05 seconds of each other.   Each of the 5 advanced to the next round.  We can only hope that the semi-finals and finals are as competitive.

Another exciting match occurred in the women's Epee individual gold medal matchup between Sun Yiwen of China and Ana Maria Popescu of Romania, in which Sun defeated Popescu 11-10 in overtime for her first Olympic gold medal (and third overall).

Also in fencing, in the men's sabre, Aron Szilagyi of Hungary defeated Italy's Luigi Samele 15-7 in the finals to win his thrid consecutive gold medal, becoming the first male fencer to win 3 individual golds.

Also of note, out at Fuji International Speedway in the men's cycling road race Ecuador's Richard Carapaz jumped away from the Peloton to claim the gold medal and a little revenge after finishing fourth last week in the Tour de France.  Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia finished third to earn the bronze medal, just behind Belgian's Wout van Aert.  (Cue Tag Team!)

Athlete of the Day - Aron Szilagyi, Fencing, Hungary

Only male ever to win three individual gold medals in fencing.  That definitely merits the Athlete of the Day designation.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Riposte - In fencing, it is a quick return thrust, often after one parries an attack; a counter-attack.

Olympic Events Watched:  3x3, Archery, Badminton, Beach Volleyball, Boxing, Cycling, Fencing, Handball, Judo, Rowing, Shooting, Soccer, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo, Weightlifting, 

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Brady Ellison, Cat Osterman, Kelsey Plum

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 3 (Reprise)

Day 3 - July 23, 2021

As stated in my previous post, we have a guest poster that will be joining us throughout the Olympics.  She is a long-time friend of mine, and quite possibly the only person that I have ever met that loves the Olympics as much as I do.  She usually posts through her own social media sites - and still does - but will grace us with her presence several times during the next three weekends.  So, for her take on the Opening Ceremonies, I introduce you to Miss Miss.

Miss Miss - 

As you may or may not know, I am a bit of an Olympics fanatic and created a course called "History and the Olympics."  Usually I post recaps on social media; however, this year a friend who writes an Olympic blog [Ed. Note:  She means me/Pepster] asked me to contribute a few posts.  Here is my recap of the Opening Ceremonies this morning and a link to his blog.  Disclaimer: conversational, blog-style writing, only one grammatical check filtered through Doc P.  

Happy viewing! GO USA!  

And We’re Off!

Opening Ceremonies Report

The Olympics Opening Ceremonies commenced at 7am EST with about 40 minutes of artistic acts beginning with the presentation of the Japanese flag and the singing of the national anthem by Misia, pictured in her pastel rainbow-hued puffy gown below. There was a moment of silence, and then it picked up about ten minutes before the parade of athletes with a cool carpenters and tap-dancing-atop-wooden-rolling-tables-performance with a raising of the wooden Olympic rings.  There was a moment of silence, the stands were filled with cardboard place holders, and there was no applause.  Yes, there were fireworks, but the simplicity was reverent, respectful and so perfectly reflected Japanese history and culture, a hallmark component of every Opening Ceremony as conducted by the producers of each host city’s performance. Here we go!

As per tradition, Greece walked out first, followed by the Olympic refugee team (9 athletes representing 11 “countries”), Iceland, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and then a few more before Argentina started the fun with a great jumping song celebration.  The nations were presented in Japanese alphabetical order, and the athlete processional lasted about two hours.  Russia is going under ROC due to the state-sponsored doping program in 2014.  

Israel is participating in a team sport - baseball - for the first time since 1976. Baseball and softball will not appear in the Paris 2024 Olympics but perhaps in LA in 2028.  Which by the way, the IOC made the announcement simultaneously that these two countries would host in 2017 - that was a fun way to bring it back to these two cities.  For both of these cities, it will be their third summer games. Paris hosted in 1900 and 1924, while Los Angeles hosted in 1932 and 1984. (London has also hosted three summer games - 1908, 1948 and 2012). For France, it will be the sixth time hosting any Olympics, as Chamonix hosted the first Winter Olympics in 1924, Grenoble hosted them in 1968, and Albertville hosted in 1992. For Los Angeles, it is the first Olympics since the USSR led boycott in 1984, and the first time the Olympics are back in the US since 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics.  Speaking of threepeats…

The Tongan Taekwondo athlete went for the 3peat with his greased bare body - Rio, PyeongChang, and Tokyo! Pita Taufatofua first bared his smile in 2016, then braved the freezing 30 degree weather in 2018 and looked especially oily this morning (evening) in the Tokyo 81 degree weather.  Wait 2016, 2018 and 2021?!! Summer, winter, summer Games?!?!  Yes, this man is one of the few athletes who has competed in BOTH Winter and Summer sports (see Pepster’s post yesterday).  Pita is the first Tongan to compete in a Winter Olympics, and he did so in cross country skiing.  

 Photograph: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images

Now for the cool outfits - Angolans were gorgeous in sweet shiny black dresses with ruffled collars and sleeves, Kenyans were festive in red and electric blue gingham, and the women wore long, red capes, Serbian women had nice asymmetrical royal blue dresses, and Beninese athletes brocaded down the stadium with royal blue get ups with blue and dark pink flowers.  The Cook Islands have had a long history of bomb.com opening and closing ceremonies amazing outfits and their Tokyo garb did not disappoint.  As per their tradition, the flag bearers and the other participating athletes have different outfits.  

     Sorry - I did

not get  

               the full length outfit.

Thailand, Morocco, and South Korea - very nattily dressed with country-colored ties and scarves under gray jackets.  Same to Czech Republic with vests for the men and everyone carried coordinated navy with white dotted fans. And, of course Bermuda in their pink Bermudas (they did this in the freezing South Korean weather too!).  Austrians rocked lederhosen shorts.  Tuvalu sent two athletes from their nation of 11,000 and they sported awesome native outfits holding their flag. The most avant garde outfits were donned by Belgium athletes - red casual pajama-like pant suits with Belgique and Tokyo in scribble writing.  

Italy came out quite celebratory on the heels of their Euro Cup win - the first since 1968; Iraq sent 4 athletes; and the world’s second most populous country - India - sent 126 athletes and their most successful team is field hockey.

Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan has her own Barbie doll!  She won bronze in both the 2012 and 2016 Games and is a four time World Champion and five time European Champion.  For team competition, she won gold in 2008 and twice World team champion (2009 and 2013) and twice European team champion. Photo by Olga Kharlan/ Instagram, barbie.mattel.com

Uzbekistan presented a gymnast who is participating in her 8th Olympics (tune into my Olympic Ages post next week).  Always a good trivia fact: Great Britain has been represented in every modern Olympics.  [Ed. Note: So has Australia - sort of - France, Greece and Switzerland].

El Salvador sent four athletes and the female swimmer went to Nova Southeastern.  Ohio State sprinter Maggie Barrie held the flag for Sierra Leone.  Guatemala had a brother and sister sailor combo holding the flag and Juani went to the College of Charleston. Mongolia had a first-time female flag bearer, Khulan Onolbaatar, who will participate in 3x3 basketball.Tuvalu sent two athletes from their nation of 11,000 and they sported awesome native outfits holding their flag. The United States flag bearers:  phenom ex-UConn and Seattle Storm Basketball player Sue Bird THIS IS HER FIFTH OLYMPICS! SHE HAS FOUR GOLD MEDALS and if you did not know, her partner is soccer standout Megan Rapinoe; and Eddy Alvarez who needs to have a Disney movie made about him - son of Cuban immigrants, his Olympic dream was speed skating and now he is representing the U.S. in baseball.  Yes.  He silver medaled at Sochi in the 5,000 meter relay, after falling in two of his individual events, and dq’ed in his third.  He switched to baseball after the Games and plays for the Miami Marlins.  The Today show put his parents, his wife and 11-month-old ultra cute chunky baby boy on TV live after the ceremonies with him.  Beautiful teary-eyed Olympics story.  

Fashion Trend Alert:  Fans and fanny packs! Botswana, Poland, Czech Republic and Hong Kong, who competes under their OWN FLAG, all donned amazing coordinated flags.  My fave was Ukraine’s awesome yellow fanny packs.  Shout out to Kyrgyzstan with exceptional hats!  

Most excited entrance - Portugal! Also shout out to the last summer Olympics host - Brasil. 

After the athlete processional, there was some dancing and then akin to the PyeongChang technological spectacle: 1,800 drones appeared creating the Tokyo Olympic symbol and then morphed into a globe high above the Tokyo stadium.  A performance of “Imagine” by a Japanese youth chorus, and then pre-recorded singing by international singers, including John Legend and Keith Urban. In her speech, Japan’s Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto remarked, "After more than half a century, the Olympic Games have returned to Tokyo. Now we will do everything in our power to make this Games a source of pride for generations to come." 

There were songs sung - the Japanese national anthem as their flag was raised and the Mt. Fuji, which atop the Olympic flame will shine, changed to red, and then, an Olympic song with the traditional ceremonial releasing of the (paper) doves.  “Together” was added to end of the Olympic motto: “Faster, Higher, Stronger” to reflect the times.  Faster, Higher, Stronger. Together. 

The highlight of the Opening Ceremonies was the mini show of demonstrating the pictograms.  Pictograms are the symbols for each sport and this is a part of the visual representation of the Olympics. Watch the attached video and watch again tonight.  Totally awesome.

There was a Japanese performance and piano playing song then the Olympic flame entered the stadium.

Naomi Osaka lit the torch.  I’ll leave commentary on that to Pepster.  GO USA!  

Thank you Miss Miss.  Pepster back to discuss the choice of Naomi Osaka to light the flame.

When I was thinking which person could (should/would) be selected to light the Olympic torch, I immediately thought of two gymnasts Sawao Kato, and Kohei Uchimura, but I didn't know if either of them were still alive or even around (they are).  Then I thought about breastroker Kosuke Kitajima, a 7-time Olympic medalist, including 4 golds.  Then, Miss Miss told me of the Osaka selection (she watched live, I watched later after DVRing it in the morning), and I thought that this selection was perfect in the age of Athlete-Activism.  Good job TOC.

And Thank you Miss Miss.  We look forward to more of your posts!

Olympics - Tokyo 2020 - Day 3

 Day 3 - July 23, 2021

Opening Ceremonies dominated yesterday, so light schedule at the venues.  We will have a guest host highlighting the Opening Ceremonies, so this post will be short about the on field (river, court, etc.) action.

OK so I lied.  I will mention oe thing about the Opening Ceremonies.  THE DRONE GLOBE!  Oh!  My!  God!  1824 drones.  Amazing.

Sadly, we had our first despicable display of lack of sportsmanship - at its best - and total anti-semitism at its worst.  OK, so it was both.  Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine withdrew from the Olympics, and forfeiting his first round match to Mohamed Abdalrasool of Sudan because a victory in the first round would bring Nourine into a second round match against Tohar Butbul of Israel.  Claiming that his support for Palestine required him to withdraw from the tournament rather than face an Israeli  so that he "would not get his hands dirty."  UGH!!!  By the way, Palestine actually has its own contingent in the Olympics.  

In the women's archery ranking round, American MacKenzie Brown , who finished 17th in Rio in 2016, set a personal best of 668 to finish fifth and move to the medal round.  However, the South Korean team was just too strong, with Chaeyoung Kang, scoring 675, Minhee Jang scoring 677, and San An setting a world record in with 680 to finish 3, 2, and 1 in the rankings.  Here's to Brown setting another personal best in the finals to challenge for a medal.

On the men's side, South Korea was almost equally as strong with 3 of the top 4 men after the ranking round, with only American Brady Ellison, the current World Record holder, interrupting the Korea landslide by scoring 682 to finish second.  (Ellison's world record is 702).  Ellison has won 2 silvers in team competition (London 2012/Rio 2016), and 1 bronze individually (Rio 2016).  Good luck to Ellison in the medal round.

Athlete of the Day - San An, Archery, South Korea

If it is a slow competition day and you set a world record, you are the Athlete of the Day.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Judoka - A practioner of judoka, traditionally those with a rank of 4th dan or higher.  Those with a lower rank are generally referred to as kenkyu-sei.

Olympic Events Watched:  Archery, Rowing, Opening Ceremonies

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Brady Ellison, Cat Osterman 

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 - Tokyo 2020 - Day 1

Day 1 - July 21, 2021

Hello, and welcome to the latest version of the Daily Olympic blog!!!  Those that know me, know that the Olympics are the best part of the sporting calendar to me, and as such, I am going to try to keep up the ambitious schedule of one recap post for each day, focusing on the most important story of the previous day, along with any other interesting or unusual stories.  "So, what are you doing posting about the Olympics already, Pepster?"  Well, they started.  Technically two days ago, given the time zone differential between Japan and me, here in good old Eastern Daylight Time.  "But, but, I thought the Opening Ceremonies are tomorrow night?"  Well, they are, sort of.  They are being broadcast in Eastern Daylight Time Prime Time, but they will actually occur here in about 16 hours, but some team events, specifically softball and soccer have already started, due to the length of time necessary to complete these tournaments.  So, we have Olympics!!!

I will also have a guest poster during these Olympics on a few occasions.  A persion that is just as big a fan of the Olympics as I am - maybe even more.  I will introduce her in time.

Back in Rio of 2016, I made a joke about Ryan Lochte not being selected as the flag-bearer.  At that point I decided to make a Ryan Lochte joke every day.  That was pretty easy at the beginning, but then became easier with his antics at the Rio gas station/convenience store, you know the one, where they may have taken gas and/or money, pissed on the outside wall and apparently tried to bribe the cops?  Boy did I have jokes.  I couldn't do that in Pyeongyang 2018, as Ryan Lochte wasn't involved in those Olympics.  But, the day 1 story gave me an idea.  At the team captains' meeting to decide the US flag-bearer for the Opening Ceremonies, apparently Erin Hamlin, the first American luger to medal in the Olympics and competing in her fourth Olympics tied Shanni Davis, the very talented, multi-medal winning speed-skater.  The teams then flipped a coin, which Hamlin won.  Davis was insulted and complained about the entire process.  So, that gave me the idea to do an "American Disappointment of the Day" segment.  Well, given that our politics the last few years has been the big disappointment, I want something a little more uplifting.  I don't yet know what that is, but I better figure it out soon.

Speaking of flag-bearing, we have great stories with the selection of flag-bearers.  That is right, I said "flag-bearerS", plural.  (Cue How I Met Your Mother last season running joke).  The first selection, and rightfully so, is women's basketball player Sue Bird.  Sue Bird is competing in her fifth Olympics, and aiming - along with teammate Diana Taurasi - to become the only 5-time gold medalists in basketball history.

The second is USA Baseball team member, Eddie Alvarez (currently of the Miami Marlins organization, playing with the Triple AAA Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp).  Now, with no major league baseball players allowed to leave their teams to play in the Olympics, what is Alvarez doing as a flag-bearer?  Well, Alvarez, from Miami of all places, has won an Olympic medal previously - a silver medal in Sochi in 2014 in SHORT TRACK SPEED SKATING!!!!  Athletes have competed in both winter and summer Olympics before, especially with USA Bobsled's recruitment of athletes to be pushers for the sled team.  See Jones, Lolo.  And, we have seen several long trace speed skaters compete as cyclists (which makes sense given that both sports use most of the same muscle sets and body movements.)  But baseball has such a unique skill set compared to just pure speed and/or strength.  Congratulations to Eddy Alvarez, and I hope he brings home a medal in baseball.

The big story of the day is the US women's soccer team being defeated 3-0 by Sweden.  USA, on a 44 game unbeaten streak comes to an end.  But, let's not get too carried away.  First, Sweden is ranked number 5 in the world, and, in the last year is the only team to not be defeated by the US Women's team (they tied in their last match).  Also, Sweden knocked the US out of the quarterfinals in Rio in 2016.  They are a legitimate team.  And, this is simply pool play.  Eight of the twelve teams in the Olympics make it to the knockout quarterfinals.  Team USA will be there.

The story with the women's Olympic team is just the ruthless and scathing social media response they are receiving for taking a knee - which any soccer fan knows that every team around the world with the exception of some Eastern European countries - have been taking a knee at the start of the game for a couple of years now.  But, some people feel that just because someone is an athlete that disallows them from taking stances - stances which the International Olympic Committee now allows to take place during the Olympics.  Grow up, and let grown ups do whatever they want.

The other big story from the first day (well, day and a half) of the Olympics is the U.S. Softball team.  The US bats have been relatively quiet, but a 2-0 win against Italy in the opening match, followed up by an incredibly important 1-0 win over Canada are a great start.  Why was the win against Canada so huge?  Well, by all accounts there are only really 3 legitimatily competitive teams out of the six in the tournament - Canada, host Japan, and the U.S.  Each of hte six teams play a round robin against the other 5, with the top 2 teams in round-robin play matched-up in the gold medal game and the third and fourth place teams meeting for the bronze medal.  This means that whichever of the 3 competitive teams can beat at least one of the other teams is most likely guaranteed a spot in the gold-medal game.  So, barring something incredibly extreme, the U.S. basically guaranteed themselves a gold-medal appearance with the win over Canada.

The U.S. team is all about pitching, with Cat Osterman pitching 6 innings of one-hit ball in the opener, and Monica Abbot pitching a perfect seventh in the opener, and a one-hitter against Canada.  If the US is going to win the gold, it will be because of Osterman and Abbott.  Of note, this is Osterman's third Olympics (softball is returning after a hiatus since 2008), and Abbott's second, so both are international mainstays.  Both are also hoping for revenge after a silver medal in Beijing in 2008.

Athlete of the Day - Marta, Brazil, Soccer

Marta, one of the top handful of women's soccer players EVER, scored two goals in Brazil's 5-0 blanking of China, making her the first person in history to ever score a goal in FIVE separate Olympics.  If soccer wasn't already in action, she would be a perfect selection to carry Brazil's flag in the opening ceremonies.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Riseball - A softball pitch that is thrown with upward trajectory AND backspin.

Olympic Events Watched:  Women's Soccer; Softball

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer:  Cat Osterman