We watch everything, so you don't have to...
I was watching the 50K race walk, which is just over 30 miles, when an odd thing happened. (And yes, I watch long races where the competitors walk, okay?!) Former world record-holder Johann Yaniz of France had a long lead, when suddenly he stopped. And stood there, bent over for about 10-15 seconds. (This brought about one of my favorite exchanges between announcers I've heard during the game. The main play-by-play guy asked, "Is this allowed under the rules?" To which the expert analyst replied, "Yes. But it's not recommended.") Anyway, eventually several race officials came over to see what the issue was, since Yaniz clearly seemed to be having problems. What the announcers finally noted was that he "appeared to be having gastro-intestinal issues." And that appeared to be a fair assessment, given that he was given a towel to...well, let's just say to do some wiping. What was odd is that he remained standing there in seeming distress for about a minute -- he had that big a lead -- and the announcers figured he was out of the race. But when the walker in second place came upon him, he tapped Yaniz twice when passing by, and the Frenchman began walking again, stride-by-stride with him. This latest for a while until Yaniz fell back in the pack, though kept on. And about 10 minutes later, he collapsed. (Clearly, the distress was more than something that required a towel.) Yet even then, when race officials came up to him with a bag of ice, he got some strength from that, and then continued on. And then, 40 minutes later, with only five kilometers to go, he stopped again, bent over. But after about 20 seconds, he got encouraged by another walker and started up again. The initial video of his gastro-intestinal problems will clearly make its way around the Internet (and already has...), but what everyone will miss is how much distress he actually was in, and how he nobly he continued on. Later still, he stopped race-walking and just began "regular" walking, slowly. But continued race walking yet again. And completed the 12 mile race. As may be clear by this point, I like long races. And I enjoyed the 50K race walk -- though was surprised that NBCsn gave it SO much airtime (they covered almost the whole thing, which was 3-1/2 hours), which I suspect means there aren't all that many morning events left. But it's still one of the more inexplicable events. I don't just mean Olympic events, but events, period. "Hey, here's an idea, what if we have a race to see who can walk the fastest?!!" To which the next guy asked, "If they really want to walk fast, why don't they just...well, run??" By the way, the difference between the Silver and Bronze Medals was only eight seconds. During the last kilometer, the gap was even closer. It must be so frustrating to be only, say, five feet behind the racer ahead of you and know how easy it would be to overtake him, but are stuck with the rule that says, no, no, you can't go as fast as you can and run, you have to walk. Rhythmic gymnastics just started. Oh, dear God, please make it stop. This is why they invented the remote control. There, good, it's off. I put badminton on instead. ("But it's sooo pretty." Yes, and so are flowers. But they aren't an Olympic event.) I was looking at the schedule upcoming to help plan my days ahead, and saw that Sunday morning early they also have rhythmic gymnastic on again. Why this is held until Sunday morning, the last day, is a puzzlement. Maybe it's a case of "Geez, I don't know when we should put it on??? Okay, how about Sunday morning, we have nothing else there?" This is a theory I prefer. Anyway, with my planning done, I know what I won't be doing on Sunday morning... I'm officially in hell as I write this. After watching badminton on Bravo for a while it ended. And so did their Olympic coverage there for the time begin. I checked back with NBCspn, and they still had rhythmic gymnastics, so I quickly switched back to NBC. And they had...synchronized swimming!!! Aghhh. ("But it's soo pretty." Yes, and so is ballet, but...well, you know.) Fortunately, the Golf Channel has the ladies Olympic golf. I like watching golf -- yes, I'm one of the few -- though am not sure if it should be an Olympic sport. But it is, and it sure beats Synch-R-Swim and rhythmic gymnastics. But then, so does hitting yourself in the head with a hammer... Throughout the Games, NBC has show little, lighthearted pieces by some fellow named Rutledge Wood. Perhaps he's done a lot of the network, and I just haven't seen him. That's fine, but I'm been wracking my brain to figure out why NBC thinks he’s so wildly entertaining that they give him so much air time?? It's not that he's bad. He isn't all all -- in fact, he seems pleasant, and does a solid job getting across his sense of fun. But there’s nothing in his pieces under the surface, and the surface is as thin a veneer as one can possibly have. He did a piece today on games that Brazilians play at the beach. A perfectly fine topic “Mind if I play paddle ball with you?...Great, thanks….You’re SO good at this…Wow, you’re the world’s best…Thanks, bye.” And in the meantime, Mary Carillo sits in Purgatory. As well as all the wonderful Anne Thompson pieces that my friend Clare Duffy produces, which tend to show up on the pre-primetime syndicated Olympic Zone show or just online -- not to mention the featurettes with Tom freaking Brokaw, which I'm still waiting on. Just one piece so far by Mary Carillo. One.
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A few weeks back, I posted the tale of an email exchange I had with an American Airlines customer service rep over a series of problems I had on a recent flight, and it was one of the more impressive, thoughtful apologies I've gotten over the years. I particularly liked it because I tend to fly American, and have for decades, and have fairly substantial miles in their AAdvantage Club. In fact, I recent decide to make the leap and got an AAdvantage credit card, where you earn double-miles and get other bonuses for flying American.
And it all seems for naught. The reason is uncommon and wouldn't affect most people. And it isn't a case of being upset with the Airline over bad service. But it is a big problem that doesn't seem to have a resolution one would like. Setting the background to the story, several weeks ago I applied for a permanent TSA PreCheck. I have it applied randomly and if you've ever had reason to take advantage of it, you know it's wonderful. But "randomly" is the problem, since you never know. So, for just $85 over five years, just $17 a year, I applied for a standard PreCheck where you get a KTN -- Known Traveler Number. The process was extremely easy, you apply online and then set up an appointment to answer a few questions, get finger-printed, and pay. Then they do a background check -- and shocking as this might be to some people -- I passed. It takes a few weeks to get the letter of approval, but I got an email the very next day. So, now on to the tale. A couple weeks ago, I flew American again from Los Angeles to Chicago and was dropped off at the main terminal at LAX. It turned out that American is doing construction at the airport, and so my flight instead left from the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Fortunately, I’d left enough time to walk over, but that's not the problem. As you might imagine, it’s a bit problematic not knowing where to be dropped off for your flight. One can always call ahead of time, and I suppose should, but I suspect most people don't. Anyway, after reaching the Bradley Terminal, I then headed to the gate. To those who've never flown from this International Terminal, let me explain that it's a journey. Having enough nourishment ahead of time helps. So, there's more time you need to leave ahead of. But that's not the problem either. The problem is the International Terminal does not have TSA PreCheck facilities, which defeats the entire purpose of having just paid for the TSA PreCheck approval. (Again, fortunately I left early enough, even though expecting the short TSA PreCheck line.) My hope was that the construction work would be completed soon, and then the world would go back to normal. Alas. I wrote back to my American Airline customer service buddy and explained this all, and asked if he knew when the construction would be finished. I got yet another lovely note back from him -- since my email addressed some other points, as well -- and then he came to the kicker. He had looked into the issue. The good news is that the construction should be finished soon. The bad news is that American Airlines has no plans to stop using Tom Bradley International Terminal as a departure point for some of their flights. And the further problem is that the International Terminal has no plans to put in TSA PreCheck facilities. This is not A Good Thing. Not knowing which terminal one's plane is going to fly out of is not good. Having to make an incredibly long walk to your gate is not good. But permanently using a terminal that does not allow for TSA PreCheck is a deal breaker. As I wrote back to the fellow, I thought it was likely that I would end up cancelling my AAdvantage card -- and eve more, probably stop taking American Airlines. There's no point, it's just too inconvenient...and on a lot of levels. And the thing is -- he understood and agreed. He said he hated to lose me as a long-time customer, but he said he couldn't make an argument why I should continue. As I said, this isn't a situation that would affect most people. For starters, you have to live in Los Angeles. And also, you have to have a TSA PreCheck KTN. And probably having an AAdvantage card probably helps. But unfortunately, I fall into those cracks perfectly. I'll still fly American on occasion, because I still have a lot of miles to use up. And I'll do my best to get flights that leave from the main American terminal. I don't know how possible it is, but I'll try, even if it means changing flights the day before -- which one can do when using AAdvantage Miles. And maybe they'll stop flying from the Tom Bradley International Terminal. Or who knows, maybe I'll move elsewhere. But until any of that happens, I'll likely be ending my long run on American Airlines. Of course, an additional loss is that I'd finally found a wonderful pen pal at American Airlines with who I could write with my concerns. But now, that's gone with the wind... I've already gotten another double-miles card for air travel. It's not the same -- having an airline's own card gives you benefits, like first group boarding which has become very valuable in this day of full flights. But that's the way of the world. And so we move on. I'm having an odd -- but happily minor this time -- glitch with the website, which the tech support is unable to figure out. (The "Archives" list on the public site, which is what you see, is only showing through May, even though on my private "editor" end it's properly show up to date.) So, they are going to do some testing, which means you may see some temporary oddities here. We watch everything, so you don't have to...
Track relay races began in the morning, with the women's 4x100. Much as I like them and find them very exciting, I was also going to write about how I have a hard time watching them, because they're so nerve-wracking, having to pass the baton and do it within a small, defined area. But before I could get to it, as I was watching the second heat, the U.S. women's team -- the defending Gold Medal winners -- got disqualified for dropping the baton. But it's a more convoluted story than that. The second runner, Alysson Felix, dropped the baton handing off to English Gardner. I saw her stumble ever-so-slightly, and afterwards, it turns out her elbow had gotten bumped by a runner in the next lane. But there's more -- you see, a team has to complete their race to be eligible to protest. And Felix had the presence of mind to make sure Gardner finished. But there's more than just that -- because the second runner can't just pick up the baton and run. The runner who dropped it has to go get it and pass it over. Fortunately, Felix knows that rule, as well, and got it to give to Gardner. But wait, there's more. That's because if the U.S. protest was allowed...eight runners already qualified, and the there are only eight lanes. So, here's what happened: the U.S. protest was allowed. And the decision was that the U.S. relay team would get to run a solo race in the evening, and if their beat a qualifying time, they will be in the finals, and the team with lowest time (in this case, China) will get bump.. Running alone takes away a level of competition, and they'll have run in the morning and likely will be recouping from that. But -- they run solo in practice all the time, and there will be no obstruction from others around them. Given how good this team is, they should be able to qualify. And they did. And that's one of the reasons I have a hard time watching the relays. And why they're so dramatic. All rolled into one... When watching the women's high-jump, I had an odd thought. It seems surprising that some female jumpers during the competition. I say this because, while once upon a time high-jumpers went over the bar chest first, now they all use the "Fosbury Flop" (named after Dick Fosbury) and leap over the bar with their back. So, that means the back of their head goes up first -- and that means if someone has a pony tail, it could knock against the bar. This occurred to me when I noticed several women come very close to hitting the bar with their pony tail. Given what's at stake at an event like the Olympics -- let alone most any competition -- it just seems surprising that an athlete would even risk anything that could either knock off the bar or destabilize it so that any other jolt would knock it down. The other day, I mentioned a long-distance runner I liked, Galen Rupp, who trains in Oregon with Gold Medal winner Mo Farah in the 10,000 meter race. They noted that he was going to attempt a rare double -- not only having run in the 10K race, but he'll also be competing in the marathon. That's a whole lot of Olympic running. Watch for him. They also began the "X-Game"-type events, which are fairly recent to the Summer Games. I don't care for them. It's not at the level of hating and dismissing them like Synch-R-Swim (though close, for several of the events), but just finding them forced. I don't like these kind of competitions in the Winter Olympics, but I at least understand why they have them. There are far-fewer events in the winter than the summer, so the IOC wanted to build that up. But there's no such need in the summer, so I find these unnecessary. And silly. Yes, they can be fun to watch -- what's going on this morning is bike racing on a hilly, winding course. And it's skilled and athletic. So is juggling. So is rollerskating. But these X-Games sports strike me as gimmicky: "Okay, hey, let's take a normal bike race, but, wait, wait, how's about this: let's put lumps in the road!" This particular event (compared to most X-Game types) isn't terrible, and If you want to have a bike race with obstacles, then fine -- but in fact, they do have cross-country mountain bike riding, and it's great, That strikes me as a substantive competition, not something you jerry-rigged with party props for the heck of it. And my understanding is that next year they'll be having skateboarding. Swell. By the way, to be clear, the Olympics add new events all the time, and some I like and some I don't. And I don't like all the events they already have. So, this isn't about not liking something new-fangled. (Mountain bike racing is fairly new, and terrific.) I just think these are slight, silly events, no matter how fun and difficult they might be. The triathalon was competed yesterday, but for some inexplicable reason, NBC chose not to cover any of it, or that I saw. They only had the very finish as the winner crossed the line. But that was notable -- and all the more reason why they should have covered it. The winner was Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain, who repeated his Gold Medal. But what was particularly notable, beyond that, was that finishing in second place, only six seconds behind, was...his brother! Jonathan Brownlee. (He'd won the Bronze Medal in London.) A shame that NBC didn't want to show any of that race, other than the six seconds at the end. In the late afternoon, NBC ran a quite-wonderful hour-long documentary on legendary gymnastic coaches Bela and Marta Karollyi, called The Karolyi's. Lots of great footage, including from their early days in Romania with a very young Nadia Comenici, to competition footage of Comenici, Mary Lou Retton and Kerri Strug, along with interviews with them all. It was a little bit of a puff piece, but there were some edges to it, and overall it was solidly done. My favorite part was them talking about how after they defected, but couldn't find jobs coaching -- despite their great success in Romania -- they realized that the problem was obvious: they didn't speak English. So, what did they do? "We watched Sesame Street." They also watched other TV and I'm sure took lessons, but eventually that helped turn their lives back around. Afterwards, Bob Costas did a very nice 10-minute in-studio interview with them. I expect that NBC will repeat this at some point, near the end of the Games -- they should, it was very good -- though it, of course, won't have the in-studio interview included. Perhaps it also will be available on YouTube. From this past week, this is just a great segment with John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. Just absolutely wonderful -- though not for the reason you might expect. The subject is companies that buy debt, and how insidious the practice is. I'm twix-and-between trying to decide whether or not to explain what makes this so great...but I think I'm going to pass. That will make it all the more dramatic. The segment is long, about 20 minutes, but all terrific. But here's the bone I'll toss: if you only want to hear the part that really makes it quite special -- and absolutely wonderful -- you can jump forward to the 17-minute mark. Just know, if you do that, that he spent the previous 17 minutes shredding the debt-buying industry that often preys on people when many of them are at their most vulnerable. This morning, they had the hammer throw event. While I like the hammer, it's such a strange-looking competition, with the big heavy ball at the end of the chain being swung around before flung, I've always tried to figure out why it and the discuss are both included. They seem both largely the same skill. Yes, I know that the technique is different, but still... I try to imagine the discussion at the IOC trying to convince them. "No, no, they're not the same at all. For one, you fling a disc, and for the other, you fling a ball at the end of a chain. TOTALLY different." And the IOC bought it. Now, include the shot put in the mix. ("Yes, okay, this, this one is a ball too...but...okay, here the difference -- there's no chain at the end of it!") Yes, that's definitely a different skill than the others -- but three events to throw a heavy, round object seems a bit beyond the limit. The decathlon is also now underway, the first day of the 2-day event. Gold Medal-winner from London, Ashton Eaton is expected to defend his title. But conditions are tough, it was 96 degrees. Kevin Mayer of France had an impressive shot put, which brought about an odd comment from the analyst. Expecting Eaton to repeat as winner, he noted that "there's quite a battle going on for the minor medals." Well, gee, that seems a wee dismissive of Olympic Silver and Bronze Medals. They ran a nice featurette on Eaton and his Canadian wife, Briane Theisen-Eaton, who earlier competed in the heptathalon and won a Bronze Medal. (Sorry, a "minor medal"...) When she had been competing a few days ago, her husband was seen on camera wearing a Canadian ball cap, and took a bunch of social media complaints from...well, total idiots. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, they may not have known his wife is Canadian and was competing for that country, so he was supporting his wife. But if they didn't know that, what did they think? That he just thought it was a cool cap, or he felt like supporting another country for the heck of it?? His response on social media was polite, but pointed and short. (And then later in the day I heard there was a "controversy" about whether she would wear a USA cap to support her husband. I'll guess that a) she will, and b) the Canadians will understand and not mind. NBCsn had a wonderful Interview with American Abbey D'Agostino and Nikki Hamblin from New Zealand These were the two runners in the 5000 meter race who fell and helped each other finish. Hamblin had been tripped by the runner in front of her, and when she stumbled, D'Agostino tripped over her. Though clearly hurt, she ran 2000 more meter to finish the race with Hamblin's encouragement. This is all the more impressive after discovering later that she had a torn ACL and torn meniscus. A challenge was filed, and it's been determined that both runners can compete in the finals. Unfortunately, D'Agostino is injured and won't be able to run, but Hamblin will. Making their support of one another all the more touching is that the two women hadn't even met each other before. There was an incredibly dramatic moment in the Brazil-Honduras semifinal soccer match, with about as conflicting emotions within seconds as one could imagine, all the more so since it concerned the host country. Only 14 seconds into the game, Brazilian hero, Neymar, one of the great soccer players in the world, scored the fastest goal in Olympic history. A loose ball rolled away near the Honduran goal, and Neymar leaped for it, crashed into and over the goalie, and knocked the ball in.
Wild roars from the home crowd, as Neymar leaped up and began racking around -- as soccer players are wont to do after scoring a goal. But then three seconds later, he began to stumble and collapsed to the ground. After doctors arrived, to a near-silent crowd, he later got up and began to slowly jog across the field -- but collapsed again. And they had to bring in a stretcher to carry him off. However, much to the relief of the nation, he returned to the field a few minutes later. He was clearly still sore, but went on. The sense I got was that when he fell, it looked like his hand was bunched in a fist underneath, and might have bruised himself, as well as badly knocked out the wind. In any event, Brazil went on to win the match, 6-0. You can see the goal and initial collapse here. And finally...and finally...the FINALLY ran a featurette by Mary Carllo! O huzzah. Right before sign-off, she was in the studio with Bob Costas…who intro’d it by saying it might be his favorite of all the pieces she's done. (So, gee, swell that they've been holding it for so long.) It was about her tracking down the real Girl from Ipanema. And then it goes into the history of Bosa Nova music, as well, and dealt with the culture of Brazil. Which is what Mary Carillo's pieces do. (It was wonderful, though I suspect Costas loved it because – from what he said – he dearly loved the song. I’ve seen others that she's done that I like much more.) Still, it was great to finally see one!! Okay, so now that they've broken the logjam, here's hoping more come pouring out... |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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