Bobbing for Medals: 2024 Edition
We spend most of the day watching the Olympics, so you don’t have to.
I’m not completely sure why I like cycling – and most especially indoor Velodrome cycling – so much (particularly because I only partly understand the rules and tactics), but I do. But they held the finals in the women’s team pursuit today, and in a big upset, the USA won, beating New Zealand, their first-ever Gold medal.
By the way, on the team was Kristen Faulkner, who shockingly won the Gold medal the other day in the outdoor road race that I wrote about. She only took up the sport seven years ago, and only began professionally a mere three years ago – after quitting her job as a venture capitalist. Her parents were in the stands, the first time they’d ever seen her in an indoor Velodrome race. So, in four days, they’ve seen her win two Gold medals. I can only imagine their reaction three years ago when she told them, “Mom, Dad, I’m leaving my job as a venture capitalist to become a professional bicycle rider.” But I’m sure that seeing her win two Gold medals has been a massive comfort…
As I’ve noted, I also love long distance running, and especially the odd 3000m steeplechase. The was a tremendous race today that I’m sure will be highlighted on NBC Primetime. That’s because the USA’s Kenneth Rooks came from seventh place with just two laps to go – and fourth place on the final lap – (as a runner trips on the hurdle and dropped hard to the track) to actually take the lead, as he and two others, one of them the defending Olympic champion, pulling away from all the others. The question then became, okay, he's going to get a medal, but which one? Finally being passed by the defending Olympic champion, and running out of gas about to be passed near the very end by the third-place runner…except that you could see him literally put his head down and find some buried energy, crash forward, digging hard to end up in second place. Only America’s third Silver medals for the race in over 100 years. With a personal best by nine seconds, in just his second international race, having finished 10th in last year’s World Championship.
I was going to embed a photo of his reaction after the race – but I found a video of the very end. Which is so much better. He's just taken the lead, and you can see from it that I wasn’t a-lying. What was going to be my photo comes at the very end, the :39 mark.
The other day, I mentioned that Jordan Chiles of the U.S. women’s gymnastic team finished fifth in Floor Exercise, but a challenge by coaches moved her up to third and the Bronze medal. However, now the Romania them coaches have challenged the results, as well. And if upheld, their gymnast will move up the third and get the Bronze. So, at the moment – who know?? Watch this space.
They held the mixed team race walk, which is an understandable, but not totally necessary way to expand the sport, which is weird to begin with. Yes, it’s a legitimate sport. Yes, it’s a legitimate Olympic sport. But it’s also a counter-intuitive one. If you want to race, it would seem that you run. If you don’t want to run, fine, but then why make it a race. Because if you want to race…well, y’know. I bring this up, too, because it reminds me of the first doggerel I ever wrote. I think I was about 12, and had heard a radio interview with the great lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, who wrote the musical Finian’s Rainbow and the movie The Wizard of Oz. He’d been talking about doggerel, and I think maybe even had written a book of them, and read some. So, being inspired, I wrote –
One runs ‘cause one hasta
And to get somewhere fasta.
Running is harder,
Walking is smarter.
The finals were held in the 10m diving, and it’s a nice event. I don’t love diving because, like with most of the sports that are judged, I – like most people, I suspect -- don’t have a clue what judges are looking for in being a good dive. As little splash as possible is pretty much the only thing I’ve sure of. And not doing a belly flop. But there’s one thing about the event that bothers me – though it’s about the TV coverage, not the sport itself. And I don’t really fault TV for it. But I wish they showed this one thing more often, because it’s why I’m in awe of divers in this event, and it’s too easy to overlook without them periodically showing it. Okay, this is what I’m referring to: the dives look great, and the athletes do them with such ease. But 10 meters, which doesn’t sound too bad, since it’s in meters, is really, really high. It’s 30 feet up in the air! And they jump off a platform to plummet that far all the way to the water. But the side angle the camera shows dives from doesn’t have the proper perspective to really make clear how high it is. Happily, every rare once in a while, they do have a camera shot from the platform looking down, down, down to the water – and it’s terrifying. I wish they’d show that more often to remind people that, oh, my God, this is really dangerous and incredible what they’re doing. So, when someone makes a dive – like last night with Caeli McKay of Canada – and the announcer says, “It was a good dive, but she made a slight splash, so they’ll take off a few points for that”…I want to yell at the TV, “a slight splash??! She dove 90 feet into a pool! And then did a double somersault with three twists. It’s amazing she didn’t create an Old Faithful-like gusher. It’s amazing and lucky she didn’t die! A slight splash?!!! Give her points for not looking down, screaming in horror and running back off the platform to safety.”
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won her semi-final 400m hurdles race in the best time ever for a semi-final. What I find so meaningful about that, an otherwise odd, meaningless number, is that she was so far ahead that it looked like she almost jogging the last 300 meters – and, almost more notably, won by about 15 yards. Granted, it was a semi-final, but still. (Femke Bol of the Netherlands also seemed to breeze through her semi-final, though the race was much closer.)
Same thing for Rai Benjamin in his heat for the 400m hurdles. It looked almost like he was jogging for the last 250 meters. Again, still just a heat, but this lets a runner use less energy for later races.
Hurdles are not my favorite of track races. I like it and admire the skill, but it always seems a bit odd to me to have a race, but then put up objects in the runners’ way to slow them down. Long races like the 400m are more interesting to me than the short ones. At this distance around the track, the hurdles are spread far enough apart to let the runners handle their speed pretty well. It’s the short races – especially the 110m hurdles, with the barriers packed so close together – that are too jumbled for my taste. Besides, when I watch a race, I want to focus on who finishes where, not who doesn’t crash into a gate and faceplant.
More Synch ‘R Swim. was held. Sorry, I mean Synchronized Swimming. Ack, no, sorry, they changed the name this year. I mean Water Nymph Ballet. That’s it. No, wait, it isn’t. It’s…what?? Oh, right, “Artistic Swimming,” its new, frou-frou, deceptive and inappropriate for what’s supposed to be an Olympic sport name. I again didn’t watch. So, you’re on your own. Though ideally you had a better use of your time.
Let the Games continue…
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