3 August - Day 8 - Paris Summer Olympic Games
It's Gold Rush weekend with 51 Gold medals up for grabs! Today proved to be a day of surprises! Let's get into it.
Men's Cycling Road Race: Now I don't know much about these type of races. I know OF the Tour de France but I've never been really interested in it. What I do know is that you have different packs of riders and multiple riders per your team/country. You work together to make your way through a really long course. I found out today that a "peleton" is a group of riders. Well...you learn something new every day, eh? So...this road race was a nice way to see some of the French monuments and countryside. It lasted about 6 hours so you got a good long look! The Cycling fans and Announcers seemed to expect the results they got. So I guess there weren't many surprises here. Belgium won Gold and France took Silver and Bronze. It was neat. I'm glad that they had good weather! If you really like races like the Tour de France, you would like this race.
Flatwater/Sculls - Men's 8 Boat - It's been a while since Team USA has done really well in Flatwater sports. I'm not sure why but I hope that our teams continue to develop so that we can have a good showing in LA 2028. Team USA's Men's 8 boat did well today. They were able to keep pace with Team GB and Team Netherlands to grab the Bronze. Team GB, who have had an excellent time in the flatwater events, won the Gold. Team Netherlands won the Silver. Well done boys!
Women's Field Hockey: I haven't reported much on Women's Field Hockey. It's a neat sport on a large blue field. Unfortunately, Team USA hasn't been winning...at all! We didn't even had a team qualify for Tokyo. Well....today we won our first match against South Africa! Well done ladies! I will endeavor to learn more about this event!
Women's 25M Sport Pistol: This is the only event that exists for women and not men in the Olympics at the moment, I'm told! Indoor Shooting events tend to be a bit hard to get into because you end up looking at a screen and being told where someone hit. Yo barely hear the guns click. Well....these are not air pistols. The are real guns and instead of some abstract computer target, you watch to see if your athlete hits the target or not. No weird match needed! It reminds me a lot of how they show Biathlon shooting. Anyway, Team USA had a shooter get to 8th place! Yea! France and South Korea were the last two shooters standing though and France's nerves got to her in the last round. South Korea took Gold, France took Silver and Hungary took the Bronze!
Men's Skeet: Team USA had two shooters in the finals where the shooters move to different shooting stations and have to hit a different number of clay targets. The last two standing were two Americans: the veteran, Hancock, and the youngster, Prince. This is Hancock's 4th Olympics and he has won the Gold in this event in each of those showings! Today was no different. Hancock took the Gold and Prince took the Silver. Bronze went to Taiwan (a.k.a. Chinese Taipei).
Men's Basketball: Team USA started off slow but ended up dominiating Team Puerto Rico. Anthony Edwards took the lead of the game.
Boxing: All of Team USA's boxers have been eliminated but one: Omari Jones. Jones faced off against a Bulgarian opponent today and had this wrapped up from the start! Jones moves onto the semifinal rounds!
Women's Soccer: Team USA faced off against Team Japan today. The match went scoreless through normal time and went into a second extra period before Team USA scored and won the match. Team USA moves on to the next round.
Kayak-cross: I only got to see a little bit of a repechage round of this sport and it looks really nifty! You have multiple kayaks on one course at the same time. The gates are more like big punching bags in green and red that you have to go around and there is even a barrel roll marker where you must do a barrel roll. With 4 guys on the course all trying to get through gates at the same time, elbow are thrown, paddles are clashed, boats are pushed into the wall....rubbin' is racin'! I can't wait to see the actual event!
Men's Water Polo: Team USA actually won a match against Montenegro 12-7! They haven't been doing well. I hope they can keep this going!
Women's 3 X 3 Basketball: Team USA has strung 3 wins together with a win over Canada today! Hopefully the men can get things going as well.
Golf: Team USA is at the top of the leader board. Sunday will hold the final round.
Tennis: Men's Doubles - Australia won the Gold over Team USA. Team USA took Silver and Bronze.
Men's Beach Volleyball - Lucky Loser round - Think of this as a repechage for Beach Volleyball. Each of these teams had lost a game. Winner of this match would move onto the elimination rounds. It was a scrappy match but Team USA was able to pull out a victory in 2 sets over Team Australia! This is the Team of Evans & Budinger, who had that hard night the other night. They put in a good showing today!
Swimming: In the qualifiers, Walsh qualified for the Women's 50 but we lost Simone Manual. In the Men's 1500M, Bobby Finke qualified but we lost Johnston. Our Men's and Women's relay teams both qualified for the 4 X 100 Medley relay finals. In the semifinals, Walsh moved onto the finals for Women's 50M Free.
Men's 200 Fly Final: No one from Team USA made it through to the finals and I find that really sad! I think Phelps does too. Keep an eye out to see if he gets back in the pool and tries to get ready for LA 2028! If he moves to Arizona, where his old coach works, then you KNOW he is serious! He's made a few statements about races and how he was faster "back then". I think he also is a bit jealous of Marchand being able to win in front of a home crowd. I know that I would love to see Phelps and Lochte back in the pool! In today's race, Hungary's Milak won the Gold and Canada took Silver and Bronze.
In the Women's 200M IM, Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh gave Canada's McIntosh quite the fight but McIntosh pulled out the win. Douglass won the Silver and Alex Walsh came in 3rd place. About a minute after the race was completed though, Alex found out that she was disqualified because she did an illegal turn at the end of the Backstroke leg; she started her turn over to her belly too early. Alex lost the Bronze. Australia was awarded the Bronze instead.
In the Women's 800 M, Swim God Katie Ledecky got faster and faster and pulled out the win! Titmus of Australia won the Silver and Team USA's Madden swam 5 seconds faster than her personal best and won the Bronze! Katie got to do the "wiggle 4 fingers" move that Phelps and Marchand have both done. Well done, Katie and Paige!
Then came the Mixed 4 x 100M Medley Relay: This race is 2 women and 2 men with each swimming a different stroke. It doesn't matter when each man or women swims, as long as you keep with 2 of each. We started with Murphy in backstroke which was really smart! Most teams put women into the backstroke so Murphy gave us a little bit of a lead. Then we went to Breaststroke and Nic Fink! Fink face Marchand for this lap and hit the wall in Second. Next was Butterfly and Gretchen Walsh was up for the task, catching us up and hitting the wall in First! The last leg was Freestyle and Tori Huske swam her heart out.....winning Team USA the GOLD! WooHOO! Way to go TEAM!
Gymnastics Event Finals - Day 1
Women's Vault: Vault is Simone's best event! Today was no exception. Her first vault (a triple!) was sooooo awesome and she didn't bounce all the way off the mat like she usually does in practice! She did have a small hop but it was a phenomenal vault. Then she did a Biles with a small hop. She scored so high that no one could catch her! Jade Carey also participated in this event and stuck both her landings but her start value wasn't as high as Simone's. Brazil's Andrade turned in a great score as well but still not as good as the GOAT! Simone wins Gold, Andrade Silver, and Jade Carey wins Bronze.
Men's Floor: Team USA didn't have anyone make this final but I wanted to mention this because Gold was won by Yulo of the Phillipines. The first medal every for the Phillipines in Gymnastics. It was a wonderful routine! Silver was won by Dolgoyat of Israel. He had a lovely routine but had a little time fault. Great Britain's Jarman, just took one step too many. He won the Bronze.
Men's Pommel Horse: I saw THE BEST pommel horse routine I've ever seen, with the exception of Kurt Thomas's pommel routine in the 1976 Olympics. Yeah...I'm old. I was 7 years old and I still remember his routine and Nadia. People use to call these Thomas Flares, as he's the guy who invented "flares". Today though, McClenaghan of Ireleand pulled out all the stops and won Gold on pommel. He was a swinging stick! No leg breaks and so fast! It was great! Kazakstan put in a Silver winning performance and Team USA's Nedoroscik pulled out a wonderful routine but had a few little break, so he won the Bronze.
Great gymnastics were performed today!
Track & Field
Decathlon - Day 2: So the day started off with a run of the hurdles and then moved onto Pole Vault and this proved to be a great separator of the field. Then they moved onto Discus and the separation continued. The favorites (Canada, Germany) started falling back in the standings and Norway started climbing. Puerto Rico, who was one of the leaders on day 1 fell far back. Team USA's Williams started climbing. Javelin....yup...this really set up the standings moving Norway's Rooth into a top slot and moving Germany down one. The defending Gold medalist was down in 4th and Grenada moved up to 3rd. The last run of the day settled everything with Norway's Rooth taking the Gold, Germany's Neuberger taking the Silver, and Grenada's Victor taking Bronze. Team USAs Williams came in 7th place. ZZ did finish the Decathlon and becomes the first to ever compete in 4 different Olympic games in Decathlon.
Qualifiers:
Men's Pole Vault - Sam Kendricks is the only American to move to the next round
Men's 100 M - Lyles, Benarek, and Kerley all move onto the next round
Semifinals: Women's 100M - all three of our runners made it through to the next round but Jamaica and St. Lucia looked REALLY GOOD and REALLY HUNGRY! I hope Sha'Carri and the others can pull this out!
Women's 800M Repechage - Team USA's Wilson did not finish well and her Olympic games are done
Men's Shotput Final: Team USA came in with the expectations of getting at least one medal. Crouser who is world-ranked as #1, did not disappoint. He threw a monster throw of 22.90 M which was one of his early throws and no one could catch him! Kovacs warmed up to his best throw but was in pretty good form and won Silver. Jamaica just edged out Otterdahl from Team USA to win the Bronze. Well done guys!
Women's Triple Jump: Team USA's Moore stayed present and in the mix until the end but the jumpers from Dominica and Jamaica jumped just a little further and Team USA took Bronze. Dominica took Gold. Jamaica took Silver.
Women's 100M Final: Remember I mentioned Jamaica and St. Lucia in writing up the semifinals of this race? Well...St. Lucia's Alfred DOMINATED this race. She made Sha'Carri look SLOW! I didn't think anyone could do that. St. Lucia wins the Gold and got ring the bell, which will go to live in Notre Dame after the games! Sha'Carri settled for Silver and Team USA's Jefferson just pulled out the Bronze.
Mixed 4 x 400 M Relay: Team USA set a world record in qualifying for this race. They were dominant until the last 20 M when Bol from The Netherlands came out of nowhere and sped to the finish. The Netherlands take Gold. Team USA settles for Silver. Team GB wins the Bronze.
Judo: There are some rumors flying around that the Japanese are really upset about "their cultural sports" being "bastardized" by the Olympics. I find it interesting that this is coming out now. Judo is the only event that could be considered a "martial arts" sport at the moment. Judo was contested in Tokyo. Paris isn't contesting Karate but Karate was a Tokyo Olympics sport and is set to appear in LA 2028.
Also....Team Japan just lost the Team mixed event to Team France in Judo when the randomizer that chooses the weight class of the fighters chose the heavy-weight class, which is where France's Teddy (their champion) fights! Teddy wiped the floor with his Japanese opponent, winning Gold for France. This sounds like there are some very embarrassed Japanese representatives that are acting very childishly! I mean, really?!?! You didn't win so you are are going to pick up your toys and go home?!?! Strange how NONE OF THIS WAS MENTIONED WHEN YOU! YES YOU! HOSTED THE GAMES....TOKYO JAPAN! I hope this talk dies off soon.
rant complete....
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