Bobbing for Medals: 2024 Edition

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...