Bobbing for Medals: 2024 Edition

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...!