We watch the Olympics all day so that you don’t have to. And this is one of the things most people didn’t watch. Though I’m sure it will be on the main NBC broadcast now, when they had no plans for it before. I wasn’t going to begin with this story – and almost didn’t even watch, it was the Gold medal match for heavyweight wrestling -- but sometimes the Games take an unexpected turn. I’m not a big wrestling fan, but as I wrote here right before the Games began, I’ve had good luck with American wrestlers having no chance but winning the Gold medal matches -- having actually attended Jeff Blatnick’s amazing, iconic, near-impossible win in Greco-Roman Wrestling at the 1984 Olympics here in Los Angeles. And posted a photo as proof. So, when I saw yesterday that it was the Gold medal final, and young, inexperienced heavyweight Gable Steveson (named after the all-time great Dan Gable, could the story get any more Hollywood?!) was going against the 3-time defending world champion Geno Petriashvili from the country of Georgia, I figured, hey, maybe lightning will strike again, and I’ll watch. And – it was utterly amazing. The young Steveson was given almost no chance, though he held a lead after the first of two periods and even took a 4-0 lead. But the experienced world champ Petriashvili came back to take a two-point lead. He held a three-point lead with only a minute left. And then 30 seconds left. And then just 10 seconds left – as the color analyst began screaming what he has to do, what he has to do, what he has to do, what he has to do. Against the 3-time defending world champion. All I will say is keep watching, and don’t get mad at me for tricking you into watching a wrestling match with an unhappy ending. Here’s the video, you won’t believe it, even after you can figure out the ending. Because it’s more remarkable that you can figure. And I don’t like hyperbole. And I was watching live, figuring it was over, when the Oh, My God moment came. It’s worth watching the whole thing, but if you only want to see the end, just jump to the 3:45 mark with only 24-seconds left in the match. But stick around briefly to see the 275-pound winner (wearing blue) celebrate. NBC won't let the video be embedded, but I recorded the last 24 seconds of the match with my mobile phone, and although the sound is tinny, the overall quality is fine. However, the whole 6-minute match is wonderful and fascinating, and if you're interested you can see the full thing here. And this just in -- a joy watching Molly Seidel, the youngest member of the U.S. women's marathon contingent, just 27 with only three marathons under her belt, stun all the experts and get the Bronze medal in oppressive heat. My favorite part was when, with about 30 yards to go and knowing for sure that she was about to get a Bronze, she began to let out shouts of joy, shaking her arms in excitement. Glad to see the U.S. women’s soccer team come back from their tough loss to Canada and beat Australia to get the Bronze medal. Not what they were expecting, but it’s a solid result, especially given how weak their offense was the whole Olympics. It was an odd game. The Americans were winning 4-1 pretty far into the second half, but had to hold on to win 4-3. Though the Australian’s third goal came with a minute left in regulation. However, soccer – being what it is – had another four minutes of “extra time” that the U.S. team had to kill off. The American men’s basketball team had its own odd game – and as it happens, also against Australia, no less – in fact, far more odd. The winner would play in the Gold medal game, and halfway through the second quarter, it looked like that would be Australia, which took a 15 point lead. But no only was the U.S. team able to cut that lead to just one point by the end of the half…but in the third quarter, they went on a 17-point run. And ended up winning the game in a walk, winning by 19 points, 97-78. Speaking of walking, I may be ready to add Race Walking to the list of a few events that I could compete in and keep my Olympic Dream alive. No, I’m not sure I could do that bizarre wiggle-waggle that race walkers use – I suspect I might trip over my feet. But nothing says you have to walk that way in the race, you only have to…well, walk. I’d lose badly, of course, but I can walk. The challenge, which is why I’m hesitant to add it to the list, is that the race is 31 miles, five miles longer than a marathon. Being able to walk for 31 miles is not the same as being willing to. (The Olympic event was won in three hours and 50 minutes. At my normal, brisk pace, it would probably take about 10.) Whimsically, NBCsn carried the race in its entirety. Four hours of walking Incidentally, who in the world came up with the idea – “Hey, here’s a sport and we can put it in the Olympics – a walking race, but really fast!!!” Clearly, no one at the IOC looked at him liked him like he was nuts and said, “Er, the whole point of walking as opposed to racing is that you’re not racing. If you want to race, then run. And by the way, it looks incredibly stupid.” They had several cycling races at the velodrome. As I mentioned, I not only like cycling (though I don’t understand most of the rules), I especially like races in a velodrome. The angled, oval track looks great, the cyclists whirr around at dazzling speeds weaving around one another, and it has a great sound. And I may understand the rules even less than the outdoors events. There are breakaway groups and chase groups, but why they matter – other than being ahead and behind – is beyond me. Yesterday, it was all part of what they call the Omnium, which is a great name and enough reason alone to like it all. As for as I can tell, this is an event made up of four different kinds of races – the scratch race, the tempo race, the elimination race and points race. The two they had in the morning included one kind of race that was largely a mass of cyclists trying not only to be first but get points. I’m going to guess that was the Points Race. The other was the team event that has something to do with your time is determined by which of your riders finished last – which tends to be near meaningless since they’re usually in packs and the last rider will finish about .3 seconds behind the first. I have no idea which of the other three it was. But here’s the five-minute Points Race. As I said, I don’t know exactly what’s going on with getting the points, but…it’s still a joy. Nor will NBC let this video be embedded, either but you can watch it here. (I'm not quite sure why NBC does this, since the videos are all on YouTube, not on the NBC Olympics site. Go figure.) There’s a wonderful and surprising feature that NBC has oddly only used on women’s field hockey, at least as far as I can tell. But TV has access to the referee’s headset, so when she’s talking with the officials booth about replays or other rulings, you can hear the conversation. Further, because the referee’s microphone is connected, we can also hear her discussions with the players – the players’ voices are as clear, of course, but clear enough. After all, when they’re talking to the referee it’s generally because they have a point to make, so they’re not in a whispering mood. It’s very interesting, and the only reason I can figure that it’s only being done in this one event is because it’s a test. Okay, just because you deserve it, I watched some more equestrian, so that I could pass along Jessica Springsteen’s second ride. Though she did well in her first, she didn’t qualify for the individual finals. However, this is her ride that helped the U.S. Team make it into the finals of the Team Show Jumping. And yes, again, this is an official NBC Olympics video, so you can see it here. And just so you know that every rider doesn’t just prance through this without much effort, here is Shane Sweetnam of Ireland, who just wasn’t in sync with horse Alejandro yesterday. You’ll note, too, the announcers commenting how, what with all the heat, the time off this pair had should be to their advantage. “Should be” being the operative term. Also, the phrase, “Oh, my…” comes to mind. As it happens, I recorded this off the TV with my phone (no official NBC video here!), so here it is below -- and the quality should be good enough. I have a new favorite from out of my extensive viewing during the Olympics. It’s Chinese golfer Shanshan Feng. She plays on the LPGA tour in the U.S. (and was the first Chinese golfer to win a major championship), but I hadn’t heard of her. She was interviewed yesterday after her second round because she shot 10 strokes better (a 64) than she did the day before – and it was her birthday. She was so charming, so ingratiating, so self-effacing, so open, fun, bubbling, honest and warm – the very opposite of the perception I think most have of quiet, taciturn, low-key Chinese -- and it was hard not to be won over. I wish I could find the interview, but I can’t. But this two-minute piece of her LPGA competitors explaining why they love her, interspersed with a few clips of her (all fun, but not of which do her justice compared to that interview) at least gives a sense. Early in the Olympics, I wrote about how problematic it seemed that Russia barely got a slap on the wrist for a massive doping scandal that an official report uncovered "a widespread and extensive state sanctioned doping system." There is an excellent article on Yahoo! News about how the IOC largely ignoring even its own minor sanctions has grown to be an “elephant in the room.” The story quotes Travis Tygart, chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, who called the IOC penalties on the Russians “a farce.” Tygart went on -- “Unfortunately, we’ve seen this horror film already – where the Russian state-sponsored doping program walks free and Russia wins while the IOC and WADA leaders attempt to pull the wool over the world’s eyes by claiming Russia is 'banned’,” he said, referring to the World Anti-Doping Agency, in an email to Reuters that was published Saturday. "It is barely a 'rebrand' and will do nothing to stop the corruption in Russia and likely will embolden others willing to win by any means.” You can read the full article here.
More to come...
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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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