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I just love watching Katie Ledecky in the 1500m freestyle. (And not just for her swimming, but also her joyous, gracious, charming interviews after.) It isn’t just that she's so great, but she’s at another level. She has the top 20 times in the event!! She won the race today, and (like always) you see her swimming...and she's so far ahead -- no one else is on camera! What must it be like for other swimmers in this event always knowing that you’re competing for second place? This was her eighth Olympic Gold medal, the most ever by an American woman. And her 12th Olympic medal overall, the most ever by an American woman. No, this isn't Katie Ledecky practicing in the pool after everyone has left. This is what it's like when she competes in the 1500m freestyle in the Olympics against the best swimmers in the world.  Olympic organizers finally, apparently, got the Seine clean enough for the triathlon competitors. The goal was to have the swimming portion of the race take place on the river as a unique, majestic backdrop for the race. The challenge was that the Seine has been closed to swimming for a century. So, France spent $1.5 billion to make it safe enough for the athletes. But up until yesterday, it still tested too high for bacteria. (That bacteria, by the way, was…e coli!!) And so, the men’s triathlon had to be delayed, twice. However, organizers said it was now fine, so the women’s triathlon went on without a delay, and the men’s triathlon is back on the schedule. Whether any competitors come down with an illness remains to be seen… While it was fun to see the swimmers in the Seine, NBC did an awful job broadcasting it, since the whole point of being in the Seine was that you could see the athletes swimming through Paris!! Yet most of the camerawork was medium or close-up shots where all you saw were swimmers in water, which could have been anywhere. The most we ever got was an occasional shot like this --  It’s a nice look, though it doesn’t say, “C’est Paris!” And was only an occasional look. I only recall one or two wide shots that showed Paris, and had the Eiffel Tower in the background. But any Parisian landmark would have been good. Or anything Parisian. A baguette floating by with a beret, perhaps. The most interesting view of the swimming came at the end when the triathletes left to water to run to their bicycles for the second leg of the race, first having to run up the ornate stairs to get to the Alexandre III Bridge.  After that, the cycling did take the athletes through the streets of Paris, and it was fun too see. (Though if you’ve ever watched the Tour de France, that’s where the final day always takes place every year, for decades. So, it wasn’t a unique look, but a very good one.) The problem for the riders is that the streets were slick from the earlier rain, which is still coming down in Paris. And so bikes were sliding and crashing through this portion of the race. But at least it did takes us through Paris.  The race was very tight, as the last Olympic’s Gold medal winner, 36-year-old Flora Duffy from Bermuda (of all places, for a triathlete), and one of the sport’s legends, took a big lead in the one-mile swimming portion, though 25-mile cycling caught up with her, and about 10 racers all moved in contention. Eventually, as the six mile run began, she fell a bit behind, as did most of the others, and four competitors broke away for the three medal positions, with just one 1.5 mile lap – two of them French. In the end, the triathlon was won by Cassndre Beaugrand of France, to a roaring crowd, There seems no great need to have equestrian dressage. I get the show-jumping and cross country horse events, at least enough to get a sense why it’s an Olympic sport (though they should give some sort of medal or at least acknowledgement to the horse that’s doing most of the work), but dressage in the riders’ frou-frou attire seems something out of a Turner British landscape -- you expect a fox to jump out at any moment. It’s not really a higher-swifter-farther athletic competition at all, but more a “Who trained their horse the best” thing. A step up from making dog shows a competition, as in dressage it’s just about getting the horsies to canter, trot, jog to one side, then the next, and backwards and forward again. A USA Today article described dressage as “really more of a hobby than a sport – a niche within a niche – and those who participate in it or follow it regularly only do so because they really love horses.“ It’s very skilled, to be sure, but then so is getting your dog to roll over and play Frisbee. Further, it’s the horses that are doing almost all the work here – the rider has trained the horse, to be sure, and is giving commands, but it’s up to the horse to perform them. At least in horseracing the jockey has to maneuver through the race, and in show jumping, timing by the rider is critical. But I’m sure it will be in the Olympics forever, because it likely dates back to the first Games in 1896 and is too “traditional” to the IOC noblesse oblige past.  (That said, there actually was a scandal in dressage yesterday. Three-time Gold medalist Charlotte Dujardin of England withdrew when 2-year-old video came to light of her repeatedly whipping her frightened horse trying to get away while training. Another rider, Carlos Parro of Spain, got a formal warning from the Federation for Equestrian Sports governing body) for potentially causing “unnecessary discomfort” to his horse, though because it took place prior to the Games, no further action was taken. On the other side of the coin, when I was watching, an official noticed that a horse had cut itself on a gate, and the horse and rider were eliminated for safety)
But dressage looks substantive when it comes to a new Olympic event added this year. (I don’t have it in me to call it a sport.) Up to now, there are two Olympic events that I find ludicrous and can’t bear to watch. One is synchronized swimming (or “sync ‘R swim” as I refer to it) and rhythmic gymnastics – the one where they run around waving ribbons and tossing rubber balls in the air. I can now add a third. Break dancing. Yes, really. Honest. Break dancing is now an Olympic sport!! Though they call it “Breaking,” because apparently that makes it sound legitimate like it’s an actual higher-stronger-swifter Olympic sport. For years, I’ve been uninterested in ice dancing, since (to me) any event that has a required rhumba, waltz, and tango is artistry, not an Olympic sport. And I’ve wondered why, if you have ice dancing, why not make ballroom dancing an Olympic sport? They actually do have ballroom competitions, after all. And they are pretty, physical and skilled. They just aren’t a sport. They’re artistic competitions. Having a competition doesn’t make something a sport. The Oscars are a competition. Why not make Moviemaking an Olympic sport? Chess has competitions – but it’s not an Olympic sport. (Yet.) But if they’re going to make “Breaking” a sport (because calling it break dancing, which is what it is, would probably get it laughed out of the Olympics…), then ballroom dancing may be next. Though I don’t care much for ice dancing, I semi-understand it as an Olympic sport (sort of) because it so closely overlaps with figure skating, and the ice and need of skates does at least lend a sport aspect to it. But “Breaking” (sic) makes ice dancing look Olympian at a level of the original Greeks. Yes, I understand that “Breaking” is very physical, difficult, and skilled, but so is ballet, and that’s not an Olympic sport. Yet. For that matter, so too are road construction, roofing, and hand-picking raspberries, saffron and cocoa beans. And farming isn’t an Olympic sport. Yet. Furthermore, great physicality isn't a requirement for being a legitimate Olympic sport (let alone how pretty it looks...) -- consider riflery and archery: the competitors basically stand there under great pressure, timing and aim, and then eventually shoot. At the moment, NBC hasn’t yet aired break-danci – sorry, “Breaking,” yet, they only had an interview with an American participant. And I’m sure it will be fun to watch, and I’m sure it’s very difficult. And very physical. And very skilled. There is just one thing it’s not (to me) – an Olympic sport. Let the Games continue...
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Jon Stewart and The Daily Show were off last week and so didn't get a chance to deal with President Biden dropping out the race, Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic nominee, Republicans not knowing how to deal with it -- and more. And as much as I missed seeing Stewart last week commenting on all this, man, did he ever make up for it on Monday night. It's wonderful. And we have a Daily Show bonus, just for you! Usually, I only post the Main Story that Jon Stewart does on his one night hosting, and leave out his interview. But tonight, I'll make an exception. Because it's very good and a lot of fun. And because it's -- -- okay, sit down and take a breath. It's...Pete Buttigieg! Yes, again. The interview really is good. And all other things being equal, it deserves being a stand-along posting. But I felt, much as I like the guy, I didn't think I could foist him readers here three times in five days, and two days in a row. However, as a bonus to go along with the Daily Show Main Story, it would fit. And it's worth it. Even for all that. For starters, the standing ovation cheers he gets when he comes on is loud, long and overwhelming -- and no, that isn't hyperbole. I don't want to give away how long, but it shocks both Buttigieg and Jon Stewart. Check the clock on the media player for the final tally. More to the point, his conversation with Stewart is pure Buttigieg -- it's smart, thoughtful, polite, graceful, sharp, and since he's with Jon Stewart, often very funny. And remains interesting and fun for the full 19 minutes. (One oddity -- in both Stewart's introduction and in the chyron graphic on screen, Pete Buttigieg is identified as a former 2020 presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Both true, and both former. But inexplicably, no mention by either that, currently, he is the United States Secretary of Transportation!!) We spend most of the day watching the Olympics, so you don’t have to. And sometimes spending the day this way, you come across some unexpected gems. Bear with me. This is the Bronze medal women’s rugby match, USA against Australia. The U.S. has never won an Olympic medal. They are losing 12-7, with only 30 seconds left. A score needed to tie, and conversion to win. I shall say no more, just watch, trust me. This is recorded off my TV with my phone, so the audio is a little tinny. The video is fine. It doesn’t matter, it’s worth it. Again, trust me. Okay, so was I lying? Amazing. Not just the play -- and watching the clock run down to zero as she races down the field -- but the context of the game. The Bronze medal game, with a chance for the first Olympic medal ever for the women's rugby team. France must have been thrilled by the women’s all-French sabre finals for fencing, won by…well, the French. Though the Gold was officially won by a score of 15-12, my personal belief is that points had nothing to do with it. Rather, it was because if you’re going to award the Gold medal between two French women, it shouldn’t be one named Sara Belzer, but rather Manon Apithy-Brunet. As it happens, while watching the match, something struck me, and I think I figured out why (maybe) the weird phantom-like character running throughout the Opening Ceremonies had that odd headgear. It was the very same thing the fencers wear! While that could, of course, be just a coincidence, I prefer my guess.  By the way, as long as you’re going to have fencing in the Olympics, they really should do their best to make it more like the great swordfighting scene in The Great Race, between Tony Curtis and Ross Martin. And each match should be required to end the same way for whoever loses. Though I don’t dote on gymnastics like some, I do like it – I even went to the men’s competition at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, when the USA won the team Gold. It’s just not my favorite of major Olympic events. (As I’ve noted, I prefer events that don’t rely on judging.) But I thought last night’s men’s team finals was very exciting, with the USA team winning a team medal for the first time since 2016, a bronze here. The personal stories of some of the members were particularly interesting, and several of the rotations stood out. I thought Frederick Richards was terrific – aggressive and energetic. And Stephen Nedoroscik competing in only one event, the pommel horse, his specialty, but having to wait all evening to be the very last member to take his turn, with the Bronze medal on the line, was fascinating. The pressure must have been intense. I also have to admit that I liked finding out that Paul Juda was from Deerfield, Illinois, which is only about a 10-15 minute drive from where I grew up. Hardly a major Olympic Moment, but it makes things fun, and is the sort of thing my folks especially loved. The women’s team final earlier today was very entertaining, as the USA squad won the Gold medal. It was great seeing the brilliant Simone Biles back, as well as Suni Lee who had recovered from a serious kidney illness. For both competitions, play-by-play announcer Terry Gannon did his strong, solid job as always (he handles figure skating in the Winter Games and manages to keep order there with the traveling vaudeville act of Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir). Analysts Tim Dagget and Samantha Peszeck were very good, as well…mostly. Peszeck unfortunately too often lapsed into gigly xenophobia, a shame because otherwise she did a nice job. Okay, in an Olympic Flashback, here’s a photo I took at the 1984 Games at Pauley Pavilion, where UCLA plays its basketball games.  The USA women’s basketball team beat Japan, which increased their Olympic winning streak to 56 games. The final score was 102-76, which suggests a blowout – and by final scores, it was. But the game was pretty close for the first half, with Japan only down by 11 points, thanks to strong 3-point shooting, Perhaps most notable about the game was that it was the first international game by Britney Griner since her arrest and prison sentence in Russia. Since getting released in a prisoner swamp, Griner said she would never play in international competition again – unless it was for the U.S. at the Olympics. She scored 11 points and had nine rebounds. Speaking of basketball – sort of – they’ve added a new sport to the Olympics this year, 3x3 basketball. It’s a sport that’s grown in popularity, but still very low level. (They carry occasional games on ESPN, but they also occasionally show bean bag competitions on ESPN, too. Really.) It uses three men on a side and played half-court. It’s not bad, just sort of stupid as an Olympic sport. It looks sort of like a schoolyard pick-up game because that’s pretty much what it is. Hey, as long as you’re doing this, why not have a second soccer event with half as many players who only compete on half the field? Let the Games continue... As readers of these pages know, I like Pete Buttigieg. I think he answers opponents in a way that is unique -- smart, thoughtful, respectful, deeply polite, quiet, graceful and withering. There are other people who do a great job answering critics, but I know of no one who answers them that way. It's a rare skill. Even if one doesn't like what he says -- and there are a great MAGOPs who I am certain passionately hate everything that he says -- I think it's hard to not accept his ability at this. And that's separate from when he simply is discussing his views on a range of topics. Including politics, answering a child asking about being bullied, and discussing his love of Star Trek. In up to 10 languages. (Yes, really, though not all fluently, as I posted in this video.) We're going to turn things today over (again) to Buttigieg and his appearance with Jen Psaki over the weekend. He popped in here the other day, but this is a Masterclass and covers much wider ground, as he discusses not wanting to need to interpret the dangerous things Trump says so often, J.D. Vance's strange worldview, the bizarre GOP agenda, expanding what he believes should be thought of as issues of freedom, Kamala Harris's vision for the country, and more. The warm, blunt, involving conservation lasts 12 minutes. (And good news, it's all in English...!) But to me, 12 minutes of Pete Buttigieg fly by. At one point there's an odd "jump," but that's when they cut away for a commercial. We spend most of the day watching the Olympics, so you don’t have to.
Yes, I even watched equestrian for a while. It was different from the show jumping that gets most of the sports Olympic coverage. This was cross country, which turned out to be a bit like watching a rider and horse taking a nice jaunt in the forest o’er streams and hedges – far less formal than the more common show jumping and another level of normal from the frou-frou “dressage.” I think equestrian is a completely valid Olympic sport. Just (to me) one of the weakest of the completely valid Olympic sports. After all, it’s a pairs competition where one of the pair has no idea it’s at the Olympics or that if it knocks off a bar that will be a deduction of seconds of its time. Or what its time is. Why the Olympics doesn’t have horse racing instead – or at least alongside “dressage” is another question… For reasons unknown, NBC has decided to show the heights of basketball players in meters. While I assume their feed gets picked up in some other countries, I know that its base is the United States. By the way, if you’re interested, LeBron James in 2.06 meters. Helpful? You’re welcome. There was an incredibly tight race in women’s air riflery, with South Korea and China tying on the last shot, the first tie ever in the Olympics. South Korea won in the “shoot-off” by .1 point. I mention this in particular because air riflery has a place near to me – I ran the air riflery project at Camp Nebagamon for three years…though it was more commonly thought of as BB guns. Why me? I never knew exactly, but mainly I think it because no other counselor wanted to be in charge of it, and also unfortunately I did a good job, so there was no reason to ever swap me out. (Very briefly I was assigned to help out on the athletics projects, which I loved, but they couldn’t find anyone to take over air riflery, so I got moved back. The BB guns were overwhelmingly-less impactful than what they use at the Olympics. On a windy day, it would blow the BB’s off course. I once did a test and put a blown-up ballon against the muzzle of a BB gun and shot, but it didn’t break the balloon. (That said, I wouldn’t want to get in the way of one at a distance, since – as they said in A Christmas Story – it “will put your eye out.”) For a very long story I won’t go into, though it’s somewhat amusing, I thought it wasn’t great form that there were campers higher ranked than I was, so I decided to bear down and in one long, very intense period of time (that’s the long story part…) I bore down and actually passed nine levels and reached Expert, the second highest rank below Distinguished, which is so much harder and time-consuming. So, I figured that Expert was good enough. Because I flip around channels, I often miss names, and so I don’t know (yet) all who are doing the analysis/color commentary (separate from play-by-play), but I’ve done some research and among those I’ve seen so far who I’ve especially liked are the experts doing gymnastics (Samantha Peszek and Tim Dagett), women’s soccer (Julie Foudy), cycling (Bob Roll), mountain bike (Bob Roll -- yes, I really like Bob Roll, he's done analysis commentary on the Tour de France broadcasts for years), beach volleyball (Misty May-Treanor), rowing (Lindsay Shoop), and whitewater (Eric Giddens). That isn’t always the case. Because analysis requires experts, networks generally have to hire those who work within the fields, and those people tend to be very connected with the participants involved. So, their commentary risks being like PR supporters and often xenophobic. But so far, that hasn’t been the case as much as usual. It’s shown up more in the “lesser-known” events. Michael Phelps has become a pretty good swimming analyst. The other main swimming analyst for NBC is the well-named Rowdy Gaines, also a former Gold medal-Olympian, who is very knowledgeable and has always been…well, “enthusiastic.” And I’m certain his enthusiasm is real, he just really loves the sport, though mainly Team USA. It has also crossed the line after all these years and become annoying. When watching a race, I want to hear the play-by-play and analyst, that’s the point, IDON’TWANTSOMEONE-OH-MY-GODDDDD-YELLINGATMETHEWHOLERACEBUT-OH-MY-GODDDDDD-IFIT'SANEXTREMELYTIGHTRACEHIMBEINGSOPIERCING-OH-MY-GODDDDDDDD!!!-THATHE’SALMOSTUNINTELLIGBLEANDALSOTOTALLLYDROWNSOUT-OH-MY-GODDDDDDDDDDDDDD-THE ANNOUNCER. Let the Games continue...! |
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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. 
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