Bobbing for Medals: 2024 Edition

We spend most of the day watching the Olympics, so you don’t have to.
 
Simon Biles winning her second All-Around Gold medal in gymnastics – separated by an Olympics -- is a tremendous accomplishment.  But so, too, is Suni Lee getting a Bronze medal overcoming two serious kidney illnesses.  I'm impressed by both.  Though what may most impress me is the 4’9” Biles is able to leap in the air to almost 12 feet!!!  I’m also in awe of all gymnasts who are able to leap in the air, do a somersault…and land on a 4”-wide balance beam without falling off.  I’m not sure if I could carefully walk across the balance beam without falling.  Also, in the “non-winning a Medal moment” of the night, that has to go the Kaylia Nemour of Argentina who completely lost her balance on the balance beam and by all rights should have fallen off, by somehow – in what analyst Tim Daggett wonderfully called a “Jedi trick” was able to stay on.
 
The other day, after the women’s Triathlon swim in the Seine, that got an “all clear” for e coli bacteria, I wrote that it remains to be seen if anyone gets sick.  Still no reports, though I did see a comment from one of the athletes, Jolien Vermeylen of Belgium who said that will swimming under a bridge, “I felt and saw things we shouldn’t think about too much.  She said that she (and likely all those swimming) ingested a lot of water.  “We’ll see if I’m sick tomorrow.”
 
In other medical news, there have been several cases of COVID, including a couple in the Australia village facility.
 
The USA women’s fencing team won the team Gold medal.  It was not only the first time they’d done so, but was the first time any American team had accomplished this in Olympic history.  This is saying a lot, since the sport dates back 120 years to 1904.  When the American women won, the look of stunned surprised on their member fencing at the was the definition of the term.  Though it may have been topped by how pissed off the Italian who lost looked.
 
Colin Jost had another funny piece for his hosting duties of surfing from Tahiti, this on the great hair of one of the competitors.  Honestly, there isn’t all that much all that you can do a surfing report on – though the story could have been less whimsical in someone else’s hands, ending with him being thrilled at the end of the piece when the surfer in question walked away from Jost, but then stopped, turned and said “Nice hair.”
 
I still have a hard time watching surfing.  It’s gorgeous in Tahiti, but I have zero idea what made a good surfing run.  To me, surfing a 20-foot wave and surviving is a win.  Plus, the announcers remain awful – dull and uninteresting.  As I noted before, I find it best to watch with the sound off.  By the way, there actually was a surfing scandal.  A judge was removed for taking a photo with one of the competitors.
 
I love watching the Olympics, which I know is an understatement, even the minor sports – some of which I love.  But track and field started overnight (I recorded it), and it was on much of the day, and even though for the most part these are just early heats, I was reminded of what a total joy it all is.  Among the stories so far –
 
One of the leading women high jumpers is 19-year-old Angelina Topic (pronounced top-itch) of Serbia.  And on her last warm-up, she pulled up short, apparently injuring her ankle.  She got it taped up, but had to clear a certain height to qualify for the finals.  On her first two jumps, she missed – but on her final jump, she made it.  Same thing on the next height – she missed her first two tries, but clear the bar on her third attempt.  Only the top 12 jumpers qualified for the finals.  She squeaked in at #12.
 
There’s a new rule in the Olympics that I like.  In the non-long distance races (including hurdles), they’re borrowing the “repechage” rule from rowing.  This gives athletes who fail to qualify a second race to get in the finals.
 
The mixed 4x400m relay was amazing.  This is a race with two men and two women.  And though it was just a heat, when runners usually hold a bit back for the finals, the USA team set a world record, blowing away all others.  But there was another story -- it seems that Americans (more than other teams) tend to have a horrible time passing the baton.  And it almost did them in here, which would have disqualified the team, even being so far ahead.  What happened is that the American runner on the second leg of the race lined up in the wrong spot.  And as her teammate neared the hand-off, it took a track official to wave her to the right location, and she sort of “hopped” down her lane to get in place for the hand-off.  This could have thrown off her concentration and focus, but ran a great final 400 meters, and helped get the world record.
 
This event led to a pretty funny story (though not to those involved, I’m certain…)  The announcers brought up the world championship race in the event in 2023, when Norway was leading, on the way to the Gold medal.  The finish line is about only four yards away -- when the anchor runner, Femke Bol…started stumbling, trying to catch her balance and then face-planted on the track.  As the second place runner passed her for the Gold, and then the third place runner for the Silver, while she struggled to get up, she finally hobbled across the line to barely win the Bronze medal, just before the runner behind her could pass.  What makes the story funny, though, is not that – but the punch line at the end.  Rather than tell you, I’ll show you the footage I recorded off the TV with my phone, which includes the NBC announcer explaining comments afterwards from Norway’s team members. (The volume is a little soft, so you might want to turn it up.)
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I just find Norway’s response and that nickname they've always had for Femke Bol to be absolutely spot-on perfect -- and hilarious.  But also, watch the video again with your eyes on the woman analyst, because I love her reaction when learning that Norway calls the runner “Bambi.”  
 
Finally, I love long distance running, for reasons too difficult to explain, including that I’m not sure of all the reasons myself.  And one of those long-distance races I love is the 10,000m – which to my surprise had it finals today!  All I can say is…watch it.   You don’t have to watch the whole thing, it takes about 25 minutes, but watch the last two laps.  They’re amazing.  Not just because after six miles, the leaders kick it into high gear and are tearing around the track.  But also, one of the five or six contending at the end is the USA’s Grant Fisher, and only one American has gotten any medal in the 10,000m race in 56 years.  And only two in history.  And in a superb last lap, Fisher not only finishes third for the Bronze, but is passed at the wire by a half-stop for what would have been the Silver.  It’s a great race, won by the Uganda legend Cheptegei.
 
Let the Games continue…