Bobbing for Medals: 2024

We spend most of the day watching the Olympics, so you don’t have to.
 
Rowing events began yesterday, and I heard a great comment by the analyst.  She said that while there are superstars in individual rowing, “There are no superstars in team rowing.  In team rowing, you do exactly what the person in front of you is doing.  If you stand out, you’ll screw up the team.”  Rowing is an event I like, in notable part for the pastoral serenity of it.  The one problem is that it doesn’t translate especially well to television.  There’s no perspective on where the boats are in the race in relation to the finish, and depending on the angle of the camera, it can give a false sense of where each team is.  However, this year NBC got smart and did a couple of things that helped a great deal.  First, they added a box on the screen that show how far behind the leader each boat was, and second,  they added a “Distance to go” box that changed every second.  Those two additions were wonderful.  The only strange thing they don’t do, though, which is inexplicable, is that they don’t put both box on the screen for the full race.  They tend to kick in the second half of the race, which is okay, but still a poor decision, and the boat-order box only pops up occasionally, which is less okay.  I don’t see any significant reason to not have them on-screen the entire race, but at least especially for the second half.

It appears that NBC will be using that “How far behind” graphic in other races, because they used it in both the men and women’s 4x100 freestyle swimming race.  And if so, my sense is that it works wonderfully in a long, slow race like rowing, and it risks being a mess in a fast and short-ish race.  With eight teams in the race (more than in rowing), it was very difficult and extremely distracting trying to figure out who was in what place by the “How far behind” numbers (all the more so because the numbers kept changing fast) – all the while trying to watch the actual race.  Occasionally, the graphic would add “Leader-2-3-4-5” place marks which, in a race like this, was much more helpful.  (Though, adding yet another number to the screen, wasn’t ideal.)  The “how far behind” number isn’t as important in swimming (I don’t think) because the perspective and camera angle of following a swimming race is much better and more clear than in the long straightaway course of rowing, where (even in medium shots) you can’t see all the boats.  Just having what place each team was in would likely be best.  Importantly, though, I like that NBC has clearly been looking into how to make graphics more helpful in its coverage.  At the moment, it seems a bit trial and error, which is understandable, and very good that they’re trying.  Though maybe using the four years between Olympics to determine what works best might have been better.
 
On the positive side, the USA men won the Gold medal for their race, though the women got the Silver – though it was a great race for them, coming from third place on the final turn to end up second at almost the last moment.
 
I understand why beach volleyball is called “beach volleyball.”  Except that that’s really not where it’s played at the Olympics.  Or in most competitions around the world where there isn’t really a…well, beach anywhere near.  It’s more “sand volleyball.”  After all, the only thing you need to do is truck in enough sand to lay down for the “court.”  Honestly, any time you have the Eiffel Tower looming over your venue, you’re not at the beach.  And no, the Seine doesn’t have sand banks like that.  It’s fine, of course, just somewhat amusing.
 

It turns out that there as a hugely embarrassing, major glitch by the Paris organizing committee at the Opening Ceremony.  When the boat with the South Korea team floated by, they were introduced in both French and English as being from North Korea, their bitterly-divided enemy, the People’s Republic of Korea.  (South Korea is the Republic of Korea.)  The IOC said the mistake was “clearly deeply regrettable (no kidding), and the head of the Olympics called to apologize to the President of South Korea, who said his country was “very shocked and embarrassed.”  The IOC said steps would be taken to ensure the error didn’t happen again – it would seem that those steps should be incredibly easy.  Call the “Republic of Korea” the “Republic of Korea.  Problem solved!
 
And there was a second glitch at the Opening Ceremony, as well.  The five-ring Olympic flag was flown upside down, the international signal of distress.  That does not appear to be an editorial comment by committee.  The IOC spokesman said, “It’s regrettable.  In a four-hour show, occasionally things happen.  We can all move on from that one, it’s not the end (of the world).  And of course, he’s right.  There is no word on how the flag got flown upside-down, although Samuel Alito and his wife may be questioned to find out if they were anywhere near Paris on Friday…
 
As for events –
 
They had the synchronized diving competition which as was moderately enjoyable, but isn’t among my favorites.  That’s for two reasons – first, like most people I’m sure, I can no idea what exactly makes a good dive by the rules, let along differentiates it from a great one (though of course I can tell a really awful one…), and second, I generally prefer sports that don’t rely on judges.  Also, while I sort of like individual diving a bit (even though not knowing exactly why one dive is medal-quality better than another), I like it more than synchronized diving because you can focus on what the athlete is doing, rather than try to figure that out, and then try to determine if they did it well together.
 
You may recall that yesterday when writing about whitewater canoe/kayaking, I included a video of Australian great Jessica Fox.  She’s a legend in kayaking – however, although she’s won three Olympic medals in three previous Olympics, none were Gold.  One Silver, and two Bronze).  However, on Sunday, she finally won Gold.  It was a terrific competition, so fun to watch (for me), and her run was great.
 

I also enjoyed watching the women’s mountain bike competition.  It is so rugged what they do, the terrain they go through is pummeling – up steep grades, through forestland, across rock beds, downhill around sharp curves.  Why everyone doesn’t crash or at least blow out a tire is beyon me.  It’s seven laps of about 2-1/2 miles each.  The leader, Pauline Ferand-Prevot from France was so far in front that after a while, there was no competition for the Gold.  However, the American rider, Haley Batton, came from behind to make it to third place and a chance for the first-ever U.S. medal– but then the rider in second place, her friend Jenny Rissveds of Sweden did blow out a tire and lost enough time for Hetton to catch up, and the two were neck-and-neck for the Silver, with one lap to go.  At the time, though, I couldn't tell you the result, but that’s because of a stupid error on my part --
 
The race had been on during the middle of the night, and I recorded it.  But I didn’t do what I know to always do when recording a live sports event – and I didn’t add extra time.  So…the recording ended with the two riders almost wheel-to-wheel on the final lap!  That cry of angst you may have heard was mine.  Happily, the Peacock streaming service has massive Olympic coverage, including replays.  And I have an account – but they hadn't put up the race’s replay yet.  It kept showing “Replay available soon.”  So, I had to wait.  And wait.  Yes, I know I could have just checked online, but I wanted to watch the exciting conclusion to find out.  And happily, Haley Batten did pull away, and won the Silver medal by a whopping five seconds!
 
I watched a little of the surfing, which is being done on the French island of Tahiti, about 10,000 miles away.  SNL’s Colin Jost is the host there (apparently he surfs, and told an amusing story – amusing after-the-fact – about surfing once with Jimmy Buffet who had to save his life, cutting his cord after it got caught on some rocks), and does a solid, and not surprisingly amusing, sardonic job.  He’s not the play-by-play guy or analyst – that was two others who were dismal.  One was straightforward descriptive for a sport that cries out for “What is going on??!!), while the analyst reached the level of annoying.  It wasn’t that I had no idea who won – I had no idea who was competing.  What I did get was things like, “He already has two exits from the tunnel” and “He grabs for the rail.”  The only think missing was ending with “…dude.”  What I did after a while was watch, but turn off the sound, because the views were other-worldly spectacular, not just the scenery but watching them surf massive 20-foot waves.
 
In women’s team archery Mexico won its first-ever team Gold in the sport – but what made it particularly interesting was that they did so by shooting bullseyes in a row on its final four shots.

The U.S. women's soccer team won a big match against Germany, 4-1, and once again  -- with my Cubs' hat on -- Mallory Swanson (wife of the Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson) scored another goal, giving her three for the Olympics.
 
And the Team USA men's basketball team had a big win over what was thought to be a tough opponent in Serbia, in fact falling behind 10-2 at the start, but the pulled away to roll 110-84.

​Let the Games continue...