Olympics - Paris 2024 - Day 10

 Day 10 - August 2, 2024

Not sure anything could compare to the situation surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, except for that surrounding Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who is in the exact same position.  Any hormonal issues that either may, or may not, have could be different, but the underlying situation and its impact on the culture way are exactly the same, excepting the outrage that did not occur yesterday.

American golfer - and defending gold-medalist Xander Schauffele - did find himself in a bit of a jam as he approached his ball well off the 13th fairway and bruied in the whisps and the rough.  As he is addressing his ball, he sees something weird (my word, not his).  It turns out his ball was lodged up against an antpile.  No relief, play on.  He quikcly took a punch shot, sending hisball only 50 yards into the fairway, and ended round 2 in a tie for the lead, with Japan's Hideki Matsuyama and Great Britain's Tommy Fleetwood at 11 under.  Lurking in 10th place is world's number 1 Scottie Sheffler.

The biggest story had French judoka Teddy Riner, teh same Teddy Riner that lit the Olympic flame, woan his 4th gold medal in judo by capturing the heavyweight title.  His four golds - and six overall - make him the most decorated judoka of all time.

France had more success in BMX, as Joris Daudet captured gold for France, and leading a French sweep of the podium as compatriots Sylvain Andre (silver) and Romain Mahieu (bronze) joined him.

France continued its great performances on the day at equestrian, in the team show jumping competition, where it finished in the bronze medal position, behind a virtually flawless Great Britain squad which won gold, and the USA team that had 1 fault total between 3 riders to earn silver.

But no French athlete is having the games of Leon Marchand, who won his 4th gold medal - and 4th Olympic record - in 4 events as he swam away from the field in the 200 meter individual medley.

Not having as good a day in the 200m individual medley was Slovakia's Tamara Potocka, who collapsed after her preliminary heat.  She is under medical care now, and after first reports of an asthma attack, Potocka blamed exhaustion.  Here is to quickly improving, especially if you have any other events remaining.

In the women's 200m backstroke, Australia's Kaylee McKeown won another gold medal - her second of these games and 5th overall - finishing ahead of Regan Smith of the USA (silver) and Canada's Kyle Masse (bronze).

In trampolining, yes trampoilining, Ivan Litvinovich, an independent athlete, won gold defeating China's Wang Zisai (silver) and Yan Langyu (bronze).  Litvinovich is an independent athlete because Belarus is banned from these games due to its support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In doubles tennis, Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul lost their semi-finals match against the Australian duo of Matthew Ebden and John Peers, which prohibits an All-American final against Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.  Both American teams will play for medals tomorrow.

Ths US men's soccer team was ecstatic to make the quarterfinals, and that is where their run ended, falling 4-0 to Morocco.  Morocco moves on to play the country with which they share the world's shortest border of only 242 feet - Spain.  In the other half of the bracket Egypt will play host France.  I imagine that game is going to be PACKED!

In archery, Americans Casey Kaufhold and Brady Ellison earned bronze in team competition.  Kaufhold is ranked number 1 in the world, but was upset early in the women's event.  At 20, she looks to have many more chances for individual medals, and perhaps team gold!  The bronze is the fourth medal for Ellison, who is still alive in the men's event.  Korea defeated Germany for the gold, with the Germans winning silver.

The Americans also won a medal at the shooting range, as Sagen Maddalena won a silver medal in the women's 50 meter rifle, three position, behind only Switzerland's Chiara Leone who captured gold.  China's Zhang Qiongyue earned bronze.  This completely ruins my joke about teh US not being able to shoot unless they use an AR-15 and/or no medals in shooting is proof that the US does not apply anything they learn in school.

The United States also earned a bronze medal in sailing in the men's skiff.  Ian Barrows and Hans Henken secured the medal, finishing behind Spain (gold) and New Zealand (silver).

On the track, the United States set a world record in the 4x400 meter mixed relay preliminary round.  YES - IN THE PRELIMINARY ROUND.  Given that it was just the preliminary round, it will be interesting to see if the US keeps the team of Vernon Norwood, Shamier Little, Bryce Dedmond, and Kaylyn Brown together, or if they will add any "faster" runners for the finals.

As outstanding as the USA's performance was in the 4x400 mixed relay, nothing in these Olympics yet compares to the men's 10,000 meter event.  First, the medalists:  Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei won gold; Ethiopia's Berihu Aregawi earned silver and Grant Fisher from the United States captured the bronze.  That doesn't even tell the story.

For the last two laps, it looked like the entire field was sprinting.  Cheptegei was leading a field of what looked like 7 or 8 medal contenders at that point.  With just under a lap left, the final sprints began.  Fisher passed about 4 men to come into second down the backstretch, only to be caught by an equally charging Aregawi at the finish line for a photo finish for the silver medal.  All told, the top 13 competitors BROKE THE OLYMPIC RECORD!  THIRTEEN!!!  Imagine coming in 11th, and still breaking an Olympic record.  Amazing - what a race.

Athlete of the Day - Teddy Riner, France Judo

Fourth gold and sixth overall in judo.  Most decorated judoka ever.

Co-Athlete of the Day - Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda, Athletics

Gold medalist in THE race of the day, outracing 12 other would-be Olympic record setters.

Team of the Day - 4x400 meters mixed relay, USA, Athletics

World record in the preliminaries.

American Athlete of the Day - Grant Fisher, United States, Athletics

Broke the previous Olympic record in the 10,000 meters in winning bronze.

Olympic Term of the Day:  Berm - In BMC racing, it is the banked corner which is an essential feature for riders to keep their speed through the turns.

Olympic Events Watched:  3x3, Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, BMX, Equestrian, Golf, Rowing, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball, Water Polo

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically - Capitals indicate a potential favorite to this point):  SIMONE BILES, Chloe Dygert, BRADY ELLISON, Torri Huske, Casey Kaufhold, LEE KIEFER, KATIE LEDECKY, Ilona Maher, Tom Murphy

Olympics - Paris 2024 - Day 8

Day 8 - July 31, 2024

For the first day of the Olympics, there isn't a major controversy (foreshadowing tomorrow's entry).  But, there has been a lot of smoke surrounding the ending of the France-Japan men's basketball game has created some serious drama.  Perhaps the smoke came from some "home-cooking" during the match.  In the waning moments of the game with France trailing by 4, Yuri Kawamura, who scored 29 points for Japan in the game, was called for a foul on Matthew Strazel as he was shooting a three-pointer, which he hit.  The resultant free throw tied the game and sent it into overtime.  The foul was nonexistent.

Overtime usually favors the more-talented team, so Japan was already behind the proverbial 8-ball starting the extra frame, but was even more hindered by the fact that there best player, Rui Hachimura, had been ejected from the game for his second unsportsmanlike foul - which, was definitely a foul but the fact it was even considered unsportsmanlike was questionable at best, wrong at most.  France went on to win the game.

The pool saw some of the most amazing action, and it starts (for the American side) with Katie Ledecky winning gold by over 10 seconds in the 1500m freestyle.  She so thoroughly dominated this event, that no other swimmer was in the frame when she finished, and she was over a lap ahead of other swimminers.  And this was the finals, so this race consisted of the 8 best swimmers at this distance inthw world.  This was Ledecky's 8th gold medal (tied for sixth of all time and most by an American woman), and 12th overall (also tied for most by an American woman).  She is favored in the 800 meters freestyle, and could pick up another medal in the relays.

Also in the pool for the first time in these games we can say, a world record has been set. as Zhanle Pan won the men's 100 meter freestyle in 46.4 seconds to capture gold medal.  Australia's Kyle Chalmers secured silver ahead of David Popovici's bronze.  This is the second medal won by the Romanian Popovici at these games.

As if a world record wasn't enough, France's wunderkind Leon Marchand won two gold medals yesterday, in the 200 meter butterfly and the 200 meter breastroke.  He now has three gold medals in these games ... and counting?

In the women's 100 meter freestyle we had a bit of a surpirse, as veteran Olympian Sarah Sjoestrom from Sweden won gold from lane 7, narrowly defeating American Torri Huske, herself swimming in lane 1.  Huske took the silver juest ahead of Siobhan Bernadette Haughey of Hong Kong, who made it to the podium with the bronze.

Men's gymnastics brought more disappointment for the Chinese, who expected a gold-silver finish.  Of course, they expected a team gold medal as well, but finished second to the Japanese.  China was bested by Japan again, as Shinnosuke Oka won the individual all-around gold medal - the fourth consecutive in this even for Japan - Zhang Boheng of China won silver while his compatriot Xio Ruotang earned the bronze.

And, American Coco Gauff lost her third round match.  A super questionable rule came into play - that didn't exactly cost Coco the match - but leads to some serious questions.  Now, the ruling was completely accurate, but the rule itself needs to be changed - IMMEDIATELY.  Here is the scenario - Gauff is down a break point when her opponent returns a shot and as Gauff is in her backswing to hit her shot, the linesman shouts "Out!"  Her opponent calls for a review, and the call was overturned and it was correctly ruled in.  However, Gauff would have hit the ball if the linesman had not made the ruling, but since she didn't, she lost the point, the break, and the game.  Gauff still has mixed doubles and doubles, so hopefully she can still come away with some hardware.

Another disappointment for the participants occurred in tennis, as the Spanish super team of Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal, a two-time gold medalist and a 22-time grand slam winner, fell to the American team of Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram 6-4, 6-2.  This was likely Nadal's last performance at Roland Garros.

For me, some of the best action of yesterday, and indeed this entire tournament, occurred on the volleyball court.  On the women's side the United States - Serbia matchup could have been a gold-medal match preview, with the United States women prevailing in an absolute thriller 25-17, 25-20, 20-25, 14-25, 17-15.  These teams should play in the medal round, and in fact, I demand that it happen!

On the men's side, Brazil and Poland also went to five sets, with Polish superstar Wilfredo Leon, A Cuban born Polish player absolutely dominating the game as an outside hitter.  He also finished the game with back-to-back aces as Poland won the deciding set 15-12.

Equally exciting was the ending of the France-Egypt game in handball.  France, having lost its first two matches and in dire need of a victory in order to keep its knockout round hopes alive, was trailing Egypt 26-25 when they forced a turnover with approximately 8 seconds remaining.  Ludovic Fabregas let go a shot as time expired, a shot that found the back of the net for a 26-26 tie.  The French team celebrated as if they had won, although the still trail everyone else in the group standings.

In judo, among other participants, Georgia won its first gold medal of these games, with Lasha Bekauri winning the men's 90kg final defeating Japan's Murao Sanshiro 10-1.

Evy Leibfarth of the USA earned bronze in the women's canoe slalom, just missing out behind Australia's Jessica Fox and Germany's Elenal Lilik, who won gold and silver respectively.

BMX is a younger, hipper, cooler sport that has been added to the Olympic stage, and the women's freestyle event did not disappoint.  Deng Yawen of China thrashed for the gold medal, Perris Banegas of the USA won silver, and Natalia Diehm from Australian completed the podium with bronze.  On the men's side, Jose Torres Gil of Argentina was victorious, outscoring Kieren Reilly of Great Britain (silver) and France's Anthony JeanJean (bronze).  Please note that I refrained from any of the obvious "Perris in Paris" comments.

The coolest person in the entire Olympics has been identified.  51-year old Yusuf Dikec of Turkey won the silver medal in the men's pistol event, but it was his attitude and demeanor that won everybody over.  Wearing just regular glasses, not specialized lenses, and no ear covers, and while keeping his off hand in his pocket, Dikec shot his way onto the podium, defeating every other participant except Serbia's team of Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec, who earned gold.  Dikec partnered with Seval Illayda Tarhan, but only Dikec was this cool!

But even Dikec was not the best story in shooting, as the women's trap event produced something never before seen.  Guatemala, which earned its second medal EVER (no golds yesterday), earned its third medal ever, and first-ever gold, in the women's trap shooting as Adriana Ruano Oliva bested the competition for gold.  She was an internationally competitive gymnas as a child before an accident broke her spine.  Her family moved to Guatemala, and she eventually took up shooting.  She qualified for the Tokyo Olympics where she finished dead last.  Yesterday, she won gold!

 

Athlete of the Day - Leon Marchand, France, Swimming

Has more golds than any other swimmer in French history (3), and they were all earned in the past two days.

Co-Athlete of the Day - Adriana Ruano Oliva, Guatemala, Shooting

Could not leave her out of this.  Amazing ending to an amazing Olympic story.

Team of the Day - USA Women, Volleyball

In a tough early tournament match, USA outlasted Serbia in what should be a gold medal game preview.

American Athlete of the Day - Perris Banegas, United States, BMX

Silver medal!

Co-American Athlete of the Day - Evy Leibfarth, United States, Canoeing

Bronze medal!

Olympic Term of the Day:  Clear - Opposite - In volleyball, the opposite hitter, or "opposite" often stands on the right side of the Court opposite the setter, and is.  In addition to powerful spiking, the opposite is often responsible for blocking the other team's outside hitter.

Olympic Events Watched:  3x3, Basketball, Beach Volleyball, BMX, Handball, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis Table, Water Polo

USA Potential Closing Ceremony Flag-Bearer (Alphabetically - Capitals indicate a potential favorite to this point):  Chloe Dygert, Brady Ellison, Torri Huske, Casey Kaufhold, LEE KIEFER, KATIE LEDECKY, ILONA MAHER, TOM MURPHY, Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson