Bobbing for Medals: 2024 Edition

​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...