Bobbing for Medals: 2024 Edition

We spend most of the day watching the Olympics, so you don’t have to.

Oh, dear heavens, what a spectacular 1500m men's final -- won by the USA's Cole Hocker in a huge upset on an unbelievable final kick – runners were flying -- against the huge favorite, after first being blocked out. He had to maneuver out of the pack and reposition himself…then cutting through runners in front of him.  And in an Olympic record.  And all the more remarkable, USA's Yared Nuguse had a tremendous final kick, as well, and  got the Bronze medal, barely missing the Silver by .01 of a second.  It was the first time the U.S. had had two medal winners in the 1500m in 112 years!  (And back then, in 1912, it was for Silver and Bronze.)

And that came right after a phenomenally exciting semi-final game for the USA women’s soccer team against Germany.  At the end of regulation, it was 0-0.  In the 30-minute overtime, Mallory Swanson made a great pass to Sophia Smith who scored, giving Team USA a 1-0 lead.  Then, with only about a minute left, the American goalie Alyssa Naeher mad an absolutely remarkable save – facing a point-blank sure tying-goal shot and blocking by kicking out her left foot.  (They showed an isolated view of the German coach, who was certain they’d score on the shot and was in disbelief when it was stopped.)  And the U.S. held on to win and play in the Gold medal game.

By and large, I think the gymnastic commentary by Tim Daggett and Samantha Peszek has been very good, along with the always-excellent Terry Gannon.  So, I was surprised by a pretty big lapse by Peszke when commenting during Simone Biles’ floor exercise and letting her American fan support get in the way.  When both of Biles’ feet went far out-of-bounds, Peszek basically dismissed it an even a mistake, “But she has so much difficulty built into this routine, it shouldn’t matter.”  And I, who know next to nothing about what makes a good routine, thought, “Shouldn’t matter??? That was a huge mistake, and this is for the Gold medal, against one of the best in the world.  Of course, it matters!”  Sure, she might still win, but there was no way at that point of knowing if Biles would make another mistake.  She likely had to be perfect the rest of the way.  Of course, it mattered!  And sure enough, Biles made the same mistake later – and surprisingly Peszek was silent, not even noting that (again) both her feet went out of bounds.  Not a word.  It was left to Tim Daggett to point out the problem.  And in the end, Simone Biles, who gave an otherwise superb routine, missed out on the Gold medal by .033 points, getting the Silver.

In the same event, Team USA’s Jordan Chiles had a wonderful routine, and finished fifth, just out of the medals.  However – the team coach lodged a challenge, saying that judges had missed one of the maneuvers Chiles added and didn’t get points for.  The judges reviewed the video and agreed…and so, Jordan Chiles got enough points to be boosted to the Bronze medal.  When the change was announced, the expression by her teammate Jade Carey in the stands may be my favorite of the games.  I had to take a picture of it off the TV.

It was a great day at the track, beyond even the amazing 1500m, with several races of note.  The women’s 200m was won by one of my favorite athletes at the Games, Gabby Thomas.  The reason she leaps out for me is that she’s not only a great, graceful, powerful runner -- but also a Harvard graduate with a degree in neurobiology with a minor in global health policy!  What’s not to love?  She beat Olympic Gold medalist in the 100m race Julien Alfred, running away from her at the curve, as she exploded into the lead and almost seemed to breeze.  And better still, American Brittany Brown got the Bronze medal.

The other was the women’s 3000m steeplechase final, which I noted during the heats a couple days ago is one of the events I love – for the distance, and oddity of jumping over big hurdles and running through water.  It was a terrific race, with the two leaders -- Winfred Yavi of Bahrain and Peruth Chamutai of Uganda – literally shoulter-to-shoulder with about 20 yards to go.  (You may recall that Chemutai is the runner I said had a close heat, but was running so comfortably that, near the end, she turned her head and seemed to almost smirk at the others.)  In the final, though, Yavi pulled away at the very end to win the Gold.  And went leaping all over the track in joy, despite having just run for two miles over hurdles and through water pools.

I mentioned yesterday that I love the Velodrome cycling events.  There was an odd but wonderful occurrence in the women’s team sprint yesterday.  In its race, Germany set a world record.  In the very next race, New Zealand broke that time and set a new world record.  And in the next race after that – yes, Great Britain topped that and set a new world record.  Three races in a row.  But making all of this even more strange is that time matters in races, not just that you won – and so, even though Germany set a world record, they didn’t qualify for the finals and, instead, had to race for the Bronze.  Which they won.  The Gold medal race was won by Great Britain who defeated New Zealand,.  Oh, and in winning the Gold medal, Great Britain – okay, say it all together now – set a new world record!  By the way, I don’t exactly understand why it worked out this way.  I have a general idea, but my explanation would be really bad.

I watched the World Championships in track earlier this year and seeing Great Britain’s Keely Hodkinson, who runs the 800m.  She didn’t win the Gold, but at only 22, I thought, “Hmm, gee, she looks awfully good.”  So, it wasn’t a big surprise to see her win the Olympic Gold, going away.  At one point in the race, that wasn’t certain.  An Ethiopian runner put on a kick and moved up, the kind of thing that makes you think that this is the push to victory – except that Hodkinson held her off, maybe a yard or two ahead and keeping that distance steady, step for step…until she put it in higher gear, and everyone was left behind.  A great run.

Two wrestling matches worth noting.  Amit Elor, the youngest American wrestler ever at the Olympics, at age 20, won the Gold medal.  And Cuban Greco-Roman wrestler Mijain Lopez became the first athlete in Olympic history to win the Gold medal in five Olympics!

Let the Games continue…