SPORTS: The Olympics wrap-up
Aug. 8th, 2021 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllWhat I didn’t mention in my last post about the Olympics was that in the build-up, I was aware that the Japanese public were no longer keen on holding the deferred Games, given the situation in their country and in Tokyo in particular. I remember a lack of enthusiasm before the London Games in 2012, which transformed once they started, but that wasn’t during a pandemic with lives at stake. As I watched Japanese Olympians in sports were they hadn’t really registered before, and saw Japan soaring quite high on the medal tables, as host nations often do, I wondered if that feeling had changed. With the crowds nw being made up by voiciferous team members and coaches, that connecion wasn’t there. Speaking from the outside, I was mostly glad the Olympics were able to be held.
The event of the Saturday before last was the women’s 100m sprint in athletics, and I’m glad that this was seen as the blue-ribbon event, with Elaine Thompson-Herah coming through against a visibly disappointed, but still impressive, Shelley-Ann Fraser Pryce. I wished they’d been able to edit out Dina Asher-Smith’s interview about her injury troubles, because she clearly didn’t want her tears to be recorded.
Sunday’s athletics were overall more exciting, particularly the field events, with Rouas (sp?) finally pulling off the world record in the women’s triple jump. As it was never in question that she’d get the gold, it was nice that the silver was won by a PB and the bronze was competitive. I had second thoughts, after initially getting swept along, about the Qatari and Italian high jumpers getting a joint gold (I presume they must have spare golds because you can never tell how many people will qualify for relay medals.)
But it turned out to be a very good night (summer, really) for Italian men’s sports. Apart from DeGrasse and Zharnel ‘False Start’ Hughes, I hadn’t heard of any of the sprinters, but the men’s 100m was an exciting, competitive race.
In the afternoon, I caught a bit of the BMX tricks finals. Staggering, although the names for the tricks meant nothing to me (see also the skateboarding tricks) the commentators could well be entirely making them up as far as I’m concerned. But the slo-mos of people and their bikes rotating at these ridiculous heights was quite something. It’s another sport that could lead to horrifying injuries. Cringing at some of the inuries people have had was a big part of the Olympics experience this year.
Because the BBC seems to think I care more about boxing or golf than I do, I had to go and look up at the webstie to see what had happened in the tennis: Djokovic’s racquet throwing didn’t seem as bad as the headlines made out, although if Carreno Busta was the player he faced at the US Open last year, you would think he’d be expecting frustration. Part of the frustration sounds like it was because the Spaniard was better on the day. And it’s a real shame for his partner that Djokovic had to pull out of the mixed doubles and hand the bronze to Barty and Peers. (pontificates she, from a distance.) Still, the calendar grand slam is still technically on for him.
I’m glad the established Czech pair won the ladies doubles, and I’m sure Pavlychenkova (sp?) will be delighted to have won the gold in the mixed doubles after being the runner up at the French. What a year she’s had. Congratulations too to Bencic, who got two medals, one a gold (while Vondrousova won the silver, which might make Osaka feel better, because she lost to a player having a great run.)
Apparently Khachenov was Zverev’s opponent in the men’s singles gold medal match – not the Russian man you might have expected, but he wasn’t the Russian man expected to get through to the Wimbledon QFs either. Zverev thrashed him according to the score line, perhaps not surprising if he’d halted Djokovic’s golden slam. I don’t like what he’s accused of having done off the court, but he is clearly shaping up to be the tennis player everyone could see the potential for.
That night, I watched some of the apparatus finals (the women’s bars weren’t shown.) Very few gymnasts who’d appeared in the teams and the all arounds, with specialists from all sorts of countries. Nerves played their part in the floor and it took ages to get an explanation for how they ranked the two men with the same score for the floor – an important distinction between gold and silver. I discovered that I didn’t understand the vault as well as I thought I had (so long as you stayed within two lines you could land any old way???) but the Brazilian’s win after coming back from injury was heartening.
I got really snarky about these fantastic sportswomen being required to faff with make up – were any of the men in guyliner or warpaint or whatnot? No.
And then there was the high drama of Max Whitlock, defending champion, going first on the pommel horse, posting a higher score than we’d seen on the other two pieces of apparatus and everyone having to wait to see if anyone could best him. Thanks to a couple of mistakes and all the gymnasts knowing what score they had to beat, the answer was ‘no’.
I won’t get as detailed about what happened over the next few days – promise. I managed to watch the athletics ‘evening sessions’ over my lunchtimes, and the remaining apparatus finals on the red button at my leisure. I was really pleased that, after a horrible stutter on in the vaults, Jade Kelly won the floor, perhaps even more so than Biles being able to perform on the beam and win the bronze.
Thompson-Herah did it again in the 200m, while it was a shame that we didn’t see the men’s 400m hurdles live, but that and the women’s being record-breaking was exciting. I was far more interested in the jumps, incuding the pole vaults, than the throws. Hassan Sifan’s staggering triple attempt made for an interesting throughline to follow, though well done the two women who beat her in the 1.500m, and the British men’s 100m relay did lose the gold, rather than win the silver, let’s be real.
Of course, as could have been predicted, these Games came at the wrong time for some athletes in their careers, while coming at the right time for some others, particularly younger sportspeople. The commentatrs got a litte more ragged by the end of the meet, partly beause the time difference demanded so much of them.
Finally, I apologise for butchering names, but I'm too lazy to check them.
The event of the Saturday before last was the women’s 100m sprint in athletics, and I’m glad that this was seen as the blue-ribbon event, with Elaine Thompson-Herah coming through against a visibly disappointed, but still impressive, Shelley-Ann Fraser Pryce. I wished they’d been able to edit out Dina Asher-Smith’s interview about her injury troubles, because she clearly didn’t want her tears to be recorded.
Sunday’s athletics were overall more exciting, particularly the field events, with Rouas (sp?) finally pulling off the world record in the women’s triple jump. As it was never in question that she’d get the gold, it was nice that the silver was won by a PB and the bronze was competitive. I had second thoughts, after initially getting swept along, about the Qatari and Italian high jumpers getting a joint gold (I presume they must have spare golds because you can never tell how many people will qualify for relay medals.)
But it turned out to be a very good night (summer, really) for Italian men’s sports. Apart from DeGrasse and Zharnel ‘False Start’ Hughes, I hadn’t heard of any of the sprinters, but the men’s 100m was an exciting, competitive race.
In the afternoon, I caught a bit of the BMX tricks finals. Staggering, although the names for the tricks meant nothing to me (see also the skateboarding tricks) the commentators could well be entirely making them up as far as I’m concerned. But the slo-mos of people and their bikes rotating at these ridiculous heights was quite something. It’s another sport that could lead to horrifying injuries. Cringing at some of the inuries people have had was a big part of the Olympics experience this year.
Because the BBC seems to think I care more about boxing or golf than I do, I had to go and look up at the webstie to see what had happened in the tennis: Djokovic’s racquet throwing didn’t seem as bad as the headlines made out, although if Carreno Busta was the player he faced at the US Open last year, you would think he’d be expecting frustration. Part of the frustration sounds like it was because the Spaniard was better on the day. And it’s a real shame for his partner that Djokovic had to pull out of the mixed doubles and hand the bronze to Barty and Peers. (pontificates she, from a distance.) Still, the calendar grand slam is still technically on for him.
I’m glad the established Czech pair won the ladies doubles, and I’m sure Pavlychenkova (sp?) will be delighted to have won the gold in the mixed doubles after being the runner up at the French. What a year she’s had. Congratulations too to Bencic, who got two medals, one a gold (while Vondrousova won the silver, which might make Osaka feel better, because she lost to a player having a great run.)
Apparently Khachenov was Zverev’s opponent in the men’s singles gold medal match – not the Russian man you might have expected, but he wasn’t the Russian man expected to get through to the Wimbledon QFs either. Zverev thrashed him according to the score line, perhaps not surprising if he’d halted Djokovic’s golden slam. I don’t like what he’s accused of having done off the court, but he is clearly shaping up to be the tennis player everyone could see the potential for.
That night, I watched some of the apparatus finals (the women’s bars weren’t shown.) Very few gymnasts who’d appeared in the teams and the all arounds, with specialists from all sorts of countries. Nerves played their part in the floor and it took ages to get an explanation for how they ranked the two men with the same score for the floor – an important distinction between gold and silver. I discovered that I didn’t understand the vault as well as I thought I had (so long as you stayed within two lines you could land any old way???) but the Brazilian’s win after coming back from injury was heartening.
I got really snarky about these fantastic sportswomen being required to faff with make up – were any of the men in guyliner or warpaint or whatnot? No.
And then there was the high drama of Max Whitlock, defending champion, going first on the pommel horse, posting a higher score than we’d seen on the other two pieces of apparatus and everyone having to wait to see if anyone could best him. Thanks to a couple of mistakes and all the gymnasts knowing what score they had to beat, the answer was ‘no’.
I won’t get as detailed about what happened over the next few days – promise. I managed to watch the athletics ‘evening sessions’ over my lunchtimes, and the remaining apparatus finals on the red button at my leisure. I was really pleased that, after a horrible stutter on in the vaults, Jade Kelly won the floor, perhaps even more so than Biles being able to perform on the beam and win the bronze.
Thompson-Herah did it again in the 200m, while it was a shame that we didn’t see the men’s 400m hurdles live, but that and the women’s being record-breaking was exciting. I was far more interested in the jumps, incuding the pole vaults, than the throws. Hassan Sifan’s staggering triple attempt made for an interesting throughline to follow, though well done the two women who beat her in the 1.500m, and the British men’s 100m relay did lose the gold, rather than win the silver, let’s be real.
Of course, as could have been predicted, these Games came at the wrong time for some athletes in their careers, while coming at the right time for some others, particularly younger sportspeople. The commentatrs got a litte more ragged by the end of the meet, partly beause the time difference demanded so much of them.
Finally, I apologise for butchering names, but I'm too lazy to check them.
