As I indicated in a previous entry, I watched a lot of Olympics this year. I've also been listening to a lot of commentary about the games, and the consensus seems to be that this was the best Olympics, from a viewer-experience perspective, in a very long time, possibly ever. I concur with this sentiment, and I think there are three main reasons for it.
1. The contrast with the previous Olympics. The 2020 Olympics were delayed a year due to COVID, and the disease was still very much wreaking havoc on society in 2021. Shut downs were largely still being enforced, and the mood of the world was not very celebratory. High stakes sporting events lose a lot of their luster when they're played in mostly empty arenas. COVID is obviously still around -- in fact, American sprinter Noah Lyles competed while infected with the disease -- but this is the first Olympics in what feels like the post-COVID era.
2. NBC did a truly commendable job of covering the games. The advent of Gold Zone, the streamable Peacock channel was a total game-changer. No longer do you have to bounce around from subsidiary channel to subsidiary channel, trying to maximize your sports viewing, convinced that you're still missing something really cool. No longer do you have to endure the long commercial breaks and schmaltzy vignettes of prepackaged human interest stories just to watch the top events that often aren't even shown live. You can just put on Gold Zone, and be confident that you are getting all the best athletic action going down at that moment streamlined right into your veins. It might not be great for the casual fan who likes the curated prime-time Olympics show, but it is a godsend for the sports junkies like me.
3. The competition was spectacular -- so many amazing comebacks, so many razor thin margins, so many all-time greats being great when the stakes are the greatest. And if you are an American, like me, more times than not your countryman or countrywoman came out on the winning side of things.
Let's look at a few of the highlights.
Katie Ledecky wins the 800m freestyle. I mentioned in a previous entry that Ledecky may no longer be the best female swimmer in the world because an Australian named Ariarne Titmus is faster than her. Well, Titmus is indeed faster in sprints, but Ledecky is faster at long distances, so the 800m acted as a good "tie-breaker," and Ledecky won. So, she's the best in my book for at least one more Olympics.
French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati's sizable dingus* costs him a medal. On the one hand, for God's sake, wear a tighter jock; on the other, dude is gonna be an Olympic folk hero forever now.
*I'm reading Lonesome Dove (total dad book), and the author uses that euphemism in it.
Noah Lyles wins the closest 100m race -- nay, the closest race of any distance -- I've ever seen. The announcer complete botched the call on this one, but that's the only demerit against this race. Amazing. And it's possible Lyles won with COVID. He was positive a few days later when he took bronze in the 200m .
Femke Bol runs down the field in the 4x400 mixed relay. This event was bittersweet for the Americans. They set the world record in the qualifying rounds, but were denied the gold by Bol's incredible dash. What makes this clip even better is hearing Bol give an interview. There might not be a bigger disconnect between how you expect somebody to sound and how they actually sound this side of Rick Astley.
Underdog American Cole Hocker kicks his way to gold in the 1500m. As good as the races above were, the best of bunch, in my opinion, was the 1500m. Remarkable finish by Hocker, who looks like my stereotype of an American distance runner. Like, if I was the director of a film about a high school cross country team, I would cast a guy who looks like Cole Hocker in the lead. He might even be named Cole Hocker -- that just sounds like a runner's name, doesn't it? Dude was born to run, I guess, and not in a Bruce Springsteen way. Kudos too to American Yared Nuguse who won bronze. And a hat tip to Jakob Ingebrigtsen. He ran out of gas at the end, but he went for it. He was going for the world record on the biggest stage, and I appreciate that.
Rai Benjamin and Sidney McLaughlin-Levrone win gold in the 400m hurdles. These races weren't super close, but it was cool to see Benjamin avenge his loss in the last Olympics and beat his arch rival Karsten Warholm. (Also, if you watch in the background, near the end, you see somebody fall on their face, which makes any race a little bit better.) And I always enjoy watching McLaughlin-Levrone compete in this event, just for the sheer dominance on display.
Simone Biles wins three more golds (individual all-around, team all-around, vault), cementing GOAT status. Here's a question for you: Is Simone Biles the greatest female athlete of all time? She's on the short list, and being in gymnastics helps her cause. One of the big things you want as a spectator of sport is to watch people do things that are seemingly superhuman, and you don't always gets that. Like, when I was watching the women's soccer team win gold, I was intrigued and impressed, but I wasn't jaw-on-the-floor wowed the way I am when I watch gymnastics. I can kick a soccer ball, and it doesn't look that different than when Trinity Rodman does it. But I would struggle to climb over the vault, let alone handspring onto it, do a bunch of backflips, and then land on my feet. That shit is literally unimaginable for me.
USWNT wins gold in soccer. Back on top, baby! The team had a little dip a few years ago, when the mid-2010 stars like Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe got old and retired, but they're champions once again and looking as good as ever. The "Triple Espresso" front line of Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman, and Sophia Smith scored a baker's dozen goals throughout the Olympics, but the real stars of the tournament, in my opinion, were the last line defenders. Crystal Dunn and Naomi Girma shut almost everything down, and on the rare occasions they faltered, Alyssa Naeher bailed them out. She made a couple of huge saves in the gold medal game and the semi-final game. The only thing I didn't like in the gold medal game is that the broadcast never displayed the graphic showing Swanson was onside when she scored her goal. The thing is, Sophia Smith is clearly offside, but she never touches the ball, and if you look at the cut of the grass, you can see Swanson is probably onside. But I had to break this all down on my own. The broadcast totally dropped the ball on this one.
Lebron, Steph, KD lead US to gold in men's basketball. It was close. The team easily could have lost to Serbia in the semifinals, but they pulled off a semi-miraculous comeback, after being down by double-digits in the fourth quarter. Then they dispatched a game French squad, with Steph sealing the deal with four three-points in the game's final few minutes, including one ridiculous moon ball.
The women win gold too. I meant to watch this one live this morning, but I didn't because I got roped into building an Ikea desk. S was working on it, and it was not going well, and I could tell we were not going to have a happy household until that thing got finished. It was brutal. I don't blame S at all for struggling. I wasn't much better, but we muddled through. The problem is that nothing was labeled. They didn't have those stickers on the pieces -- no A, B, C, etc. There were no "Left" and "Right" indicators, no "Front" and "Back" or "This Side Up" labels. You had to infer everything from the tiny diagrams. It was so ridiculous. But it's done now and not totally messed up. So, I missed the game, which is a shame as it looked awesome from the highlights. Crazy ending and major kudos to Gabby Williams, valiant effort in defeat.
Alright, that's all I have to say about that.
Until next time...
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