I was watching the swimming prelims this morning. Amy Van Dyken was doing the expert commentary. During Katie Ledecky’s heat (women’s 400m freestyle), she was saying that Ledecky was smart to just finish seond behind her main rival, earn her way into the final, and not waste too much energy. Well, in the second half of the race, Ledecky caught up and won the heat. Suddenly, that was the right strategy, because it’s always good to beat your competition and go into the final on a high note.
Well, that didn’t work this evening, bronze. Never had a chance
Spoilered in case others in different time zones.
She also made a point of saying how important it was to get your booty close to the wall when making the turn. Her word, not mine.
I didn’t see the evening session, but looked up the result before you posted. The 400m isn’t really Ledecky’s event. She’s stronger at the longer distances, 800m and 1500m,
I’m watching the rerun of the evening’s prime time coverage. Leslie Jones just asked Katie Ledecky how she avoids peeing in the pool.
I wish I was making this up.
She’s a comedian. I suppose it was joke. That’s what you get when you hire non-sports folks interviewing athletes.
Some of its cute. Sometimes it’s silly.
I don’t mind it to a point.
Not only that, they also gave medals for poetry, painting and music, even in ancient Greece!
The arts medals were eliminated after 1948, but for the worst of all reasons. The modern Olympics originally focused on amateur competitors—with professional athletes disqualified from participation—but most of the artists involved were professionals.
According to critics, this undermined the integrity of the event.
What a joke that is. Just imagine—painters and composers make too much money to compete alongside athletes.
(Copy&paste from When the Olympics Gave Medals to Artists - by Ted Gioia)
And today? At least the athletes themselves seem to wish they gave medals for good meals. The French cuisine, it seems, is not up to its reputation:
BBC cite, Indian Express cite, Mexican complaint in Spanish… I could go on!
Lots of tickets still available - the resale site has over quarter of a million tickets available including some for the 100m final. People are complaining they are unable to sell tickets they no longer want. Not only that there are plenty of flights and rooms available.
Perhaps this is no surprise as at this time of year Parisians tend to flee the city and spend their summers further south and Paris becomes noticeably quieter. So there may not be as many locals about to snap up the demand. I’m sure many decided to stay this year to enjoy the events, but I’m also willing to bet a great many left the city as normal and perhaps more than usual.
performing that flawlessly in front of the world, especially under those weather conditions, is nothing short of astounding, and my hat is off to whoever that was since NBC certainly couldn’t be arsed to tell us
BBC did - Alexandre Kantorow
But just to be cantankerous, I got irritated by just how much the BBC commentators were telling us - in full “I’ve researched this so you’ll damn well sit and listen” mode, all through the river procession. Hats off for all that research though - for each country a bit of geography and history, who was carrying the flag, maybe a bit about their best-known performers past and future prospects, and on and on - and bits about what the different showpieces were there for. They calmed down a bit for the final lighting and Celine Dion (and while we’re at it, a small cheer for her accompanist - did you see the rain on that piano lid?)
She’s been really bad. I wish they would have found someone else to do the commentary.
I looked earlier this year at tickets, I’m not surprised they have a ton of tickets. The swimming tickets were hundreds of euros and you only got one session, so basically 1-2 hours at most. I wouldn’t pay that much to see so little.
Noted on Xitter this morning:
Some Americans are shocked that French children took part in a drag performance at the Olympics.
All French are shocked that American children take part in active shooter drills at their schools.
Dopey me - last night I wondered why they were having folk like her and Colin Jost participate. But I guess I realized all of them are likely on NBC shows. I assume the same is true for the singer and NFL QB they had on. So, NBC is using the Olympics as slef promotion MORE than showing sport?
I watched - I dunno - maybe an hour yesterday from 7-8 on Peacock. Turned it on and saw Germany vs Japan playing basketball. Looked like a decent enough game, but if I want to watch hoops, I have plenty of opportunities.
There were (I think) 3 channels, so I switched to one showing womens’ surfing. For maybe 10 minutes they just showed 3 women bobbing up and down. No one surfed - apparently one surfer had bounced off a reef.
My wife came down and we switched back to the main channel, and they were advertising mens’ gymnastics and swimming. They showed a promo on the mens’ gymnastics team, then (what seemed like) 5 minutes of ads. I’m used to Peacock’s 45 second ad breaks. These breaks were AT LEAST 3 minutes, often followed by aerial views of Paris.
Then they showed IIRC 2 US men performing routines. Then another long ad break. Then 2 more routines. And another long break.
Then they switched to swimming. That embarrassing interview by LJ, then one race, and ads. Then 1 more race, and when they broke to ads, I could not stand for any more.
Add in that the Australians were commenting on how boorish the Americans were ringing cowbells and chanting “USA” - with shots of the Americans apparently revelling in their boorishness.
Not sure I’ll be able to stomach any more. Yeah, I’m sure I could find somewhere to watch it on line or something, but doubt I care enough.
I didn’t see any children. Young adults, perhaps.
USA up at the half vs Serbia in men’s basketball… but it’s a good game. The days of the dream team and constant blowouts are long in the past.
Well, Germany are the current WC champions, so they’re no slouches.
I’m watching skateboarding and am amused by how young the competitors are. I remember watching the event in Tokyo and one kid had earbuds in while competing. No idea how these competitions are world class compared to the kids at my local park.
Crowd control is quite different from premeditated criminal offences.
When something like that happens at a sporting event, the main concern for police and security is to keep the mob under control, calm them down, and prevent any serious injuries or even fatalities. Get them off the field and calmed down is the priority, not trying to arrest everyone. If the police get the situation under control without injuries or deaths, they’ve done their job.
Premeditated criminal acts are different. If there is someone who is consciously breaking the law, and there are text messages showing that it was part of a conspiracy to do so, charges are potentially in order.
I seem to remember that when the Iran and Iraq athletes were shown they were in separate boats, and there was a comment made to the effect that “of course they had to be kept apart”. Like the athletes were expected to start fighting if they got to close to each other.
I don’t disagree. But I am talking about the teams. Their control over their fans is very limited, but fans would be more respectful if they knew teams had a degree of responsibility for their actions. When the team itself enters the bleachers to fight, this is much less indirect.
I understand a team is a team, but it is unfortunate dedicated players have to suffer for the actions of coaches or even those less affiliated. I think what is known about Canada’s actions is shameful. This does not mean uninvolved players don’t deserve sympathy. The people involved should answer. Does removing funding from youth soccer help meet the need for justice?
I cannot begin to adequately express my disappointment that they added “breaking” - break dancing - to the Olympics but not parkour, a sport that was literally invented by the French, and derives from a French word. It’s also awesome. I’m sorry, but they had the chance to just let these people looses in the streets of Paris, clambering and jumping over buildings like Spider-Man. That, folks, is appointment television. You wouldn’t have even had to build any facilities. Just give the athletes two addresses and they have to get from one to the other without touching the ground. Come ON.
Instead we get the best of a 1983 dance craze.