Wednesday, August 11, 2021

My Olympic Highlights



I spent more time watching and reading about the Olympics in the past three weeks than any other thing I can think of ever having consumed in such a short time. So I thought it might be worth writing down some of my favorite memories. This is something I want to start doing more in my life, mostly with things I actually participated in, but the Olympics seems like a good place to start anyways. It is both good to reflect on things as they happen, and very nice to have written memories to look back on. 

These are extremely me-specific (i.e lots of Israel, Croatia, and whatever I happened to be watching) so I'll probably miss a few of the "big moments". And while I don't really know what the point of writing most of what I've written on here is, this one in particular has no point or intended audience beyond future me. 

It sucks that the Olympics are insanely controlling with media content, so it's hard to find videos of most events, which would make this much more interesting but oh well I'll make do. I'm just putting everything in chronological order based on the day I watched cuz why not. My tense is out of wack because I wrote this at random times but again, who cares.

But first, some great montages (including a Sigrid song from the BBC!). If you only watch one, watch the first:



And also my favorite commercial (sorry Mike and Maya), that I saw 5 million times:



Day -2

Was this the only day that the NBA Finals and the Olympics have ever overlapped? The only things I remember were that I really liked the Japanese softball catcher's helmet and Italy had an 18 year old pitcher who just graduated high school in New Jersey.


    Day -1

     

    • USWNT losing 3-0 (!) to Sweden; can't say I was disappointed watching that
    • Insane 10-3 Netherlands-Zambia Women's Soccer game. The first goal was quite sad:


    • I'm a big fan of having more stuff before the Opening Ceremony to spread it out a bit more

    Day 1
    • Sad but unsurprising to see StatistaGilfix Featured Athlete (and youngest Olympian) Syrian Hend Zaza lose in the first round of table tennis
    • Learning the judo and taekwondo rules was pretty fun and confusing. Little did I know I'd be watching them everyday for the next week
    • Shira Rishony choking out her opponent with her robe (to make the QFs) was wild and not something I would have thought would be legal: 







    • Rishony went on to lose the QF, win her repechage match, but then lose the Bronze medal match which was quite a ride with a sad ending.
    • I watched like 5 minutes of field hockey and happened to catch this goal. Hey Brother (which they played after every Men's goal) has been stuck in my head ever since







    Day 2
    • My first time watching surfing and wow is it not a spectator-friendly sport
    • I didn't realize the repechage system was different for Taekwondo so I went to bed thinking Avishag Semberg was out after she lost to the #1 seed in the Round of 16, but turns out she made the repechage since Pannipak made the Gold Medal Match (which she won; go Thailand). But Avishag won the repechage and then had a big lead in the Bronze Medal Match, blew that lead, and then came back in the last minute to get the first Crosraeli medal of the Games in dramatic fashion.
    • 18 year old Tunisian guy (Ahmed Hafnaoui), who wasn't even expected to make the finals, wins the 400m Freestyle. Especially cool since it doesn't seem like swimming has a lot of big upsets or African medalists (besides South Africa)





    Day 3
      • Baruch Shmailov becomes the second Israeli judoka to lose a bronze medal match (pretty exciting though)
      • US Men's Basketball lose to France to break a 24 game win streak (love it)
      • Crazy women’s road race where a random woman in the breakaway (Anna Kiesenhofer) who races as an amateur (and has a math PHD!) and is probably not considered top 100 in the world, stayed away (despite looking completely gassed) and won by a couple minutes. And then Van Vleuten got second but thought she won because she didn’t know anyone was out in front still (they aren't allowed radios in the Olympics)


      • Korea wins 9th straight (they've never lost!) Women’s Team Archery Gold
      • The Israeli badmintoner Misha Zilberman lost his second match, after an upset win in the first, which knocked him out (darn). But I found out his mom is his coach and 3 years ago they won a bunch of mixed doubles tournaments together when she was 60! Pretty insane
      • Also found out that some of the very best badminton players make millions of dollars a year which blew my mind



      Day 4
      • Tohar Butbul was set to face the winner of a Algeria-Sudan fight for judo, but the Algerian guy withdrew to avoid facing an Israeli a few days earlier. And then right before the next round, the Sudanese guy also dropped out! Wow. Too bad he didn't end up doing better and medaling.
      • Judo with someone to cheer for has been super fun (it's generally true that every sport is 500x more exciting when you're cheering for someone, at least for me). Its so intense and can end so quick and I still don’t ever know what’s going on.
      • Bronze (Toni Janaet) and Gold (Matea Jelic) in Taekwondo for Croatia! First medals in Tokyo. Jelic was down 4 with like 10 seconds left and pulled it out which was amazing. 




      • In other Taekwondo news, this was my favorite out of context bit from the Olympics:




      • Men’s Mountain Bike race was pretty crazy, Van Der Poel crashed and dropped out though which was sad


      • Men’s Canoe Slalom was very fun despite the Croatian doing bad. I can't believe they're sitting on their knees doing all that



      Day 5
      • Swiss sweep muddy women’s mountain bike. The mud made the race much more entertaining and is proof that cyclocross should be in the Olympics
      • USA men’s rugby blow 21-0 lead to lose in QFs to UK
      • #60 Itay Shanny takes down the #4 Japanese guy in the Archery Round of 64 and then wins shootoff in the second round! It's crazy how much luck the archery format brings into the competition. Might write a post sometime on which sports seem to have too much luck by using a bad format, and sports that have too little entertainment by using a longer, less luck-inducing format (cough Indoor Volleyball)


      Day 6
      • Fiji wins men’s rugby again! It's so crazy such a small country, which had never medaled before in anything, can dominate a TEAM sport that is played all around the world



      • Sinkovic Bros with another gold (this time in pairs instead of sculls)! Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls had an INSANE finish


      • I was excited for BMX racing but the prelims were pretty lame because there are so few passes after the start and the races are so short
      • As expected, StatistaGilfix featured athlete Karma got crushed in the first round of archery. Oh well, cool she made it. There's a new movie about Bhutanese Archery called Kingdom of Archers that looks great




      Day 7
      • Peter Paltchik became the 4th Israeli judoka to lose in the repechage or bronze match, sad
      • Israel loses exciting (for baseball) back and forth baseball game to Korea but they mention Macalester and Rabbi Cytron (who did my parents wedding and my baby naming) when Mitch Glasser batted which was crazy 



      • Cilic and Dodig make the Men's Doubles final! And Pavic and Mektic! First ever single country tennis final
      • Damir Martin comes back from the dead in Men's Single Sculls to take the bronze by .13
      • BMX SFs and Finals were more fun than the QFs, still think it should be longer and/or changed somehow so there are more passes and excitement
      • Doubles badminton is amazing! So fun to watch. Doubles table tennis on the other hand seems a little less exciting that singles.



      Day 8
      • Lots of almost highlights: USWNT almost lost to Netherlands? Men's 10k was kinda fun? Cro won the Cro vs Cro doubles final? Korea wins another archery gold?
      • Fiji Women’s Rugby upset #1 Aussies to make SF!
      • NZ Women's Rugby also makes the SFs and now I have someone to cheer for:


      • Kevin Cordon from Guatemala unexpectedly makes Men’s Badminton SFs (ranked like 50th)!



      • Israel beats Italy in a golden score for team judo in the round of 16! Thanks to Gili Sharir beating the bronze medalist in her class two times! So exciting! It's fun that you can see all the team members (and hear them cuz no fans) in the background of the fight. Not many sports where the camera angle ends up like that.
      • Ooooooof then they lost an amazing one in golden score to #2 France (a heavy favorite, along with Japan). Despite losing 4-3, Timna Nelson-Levy beat a silver medalist and Li Kochman and Gili Sharir both beat World Champs bronze medalists. They're on to the repechage on Day 9!







      Day 9
      • Israel>Brazil in the Team Judo repechage! 
      • VICTORY OVER RUSSIA IN THE BRONZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE MEDAL MATCH. A 4-1 win too! Sagi Muki, who didn't fight in the previous three rounds comes in and beats the 2-time European champion. Peter Paltchik beats the bronze medalist in his weight class. And then Timna Nelson-Levy finishes it off!






      • I'm not sure how it happened, but this Team Judo competition was the most emotionally invested I've gotten in a sport/team for quite a while (probably since Tottenham were actually contending for things). It was fun to see them all compete individually and learn about them and then get a chance to see them again in the team competition. Whereas in most Olympic sports you learn about someone and then never see them again, or at least not for four more years. It was also fun because the individual Judo was a big disappointment for Israel and people were questioning the whole program, so it was cool for them to put it all together and get at least one win from pretty much everyone on the team.

      Love the ref telling them to stop celebrating

      • Fiji Women's Rugby get the bronze! So impressive





      Day 10
      • Two Crosraeli medals in events I wasn't planning on watching: Israeli gold in men’s floor routine, Croatian silver in the Men's Laser
      • Men’s high jump was crazy, 7 cleared 2.35 and then Barshim and Tambieri (pyscho) agreed to split the gold. 
      • The Men’s 100m was also wide open with an unexpected ending. Unfortunately another win for Italy

      Day 11
      • USWNT loses to Canada in the Semifinals what a shame
      • India Women’s Field Hockey makes the semifinals for the first time!
      • Amazing Men’s 400 Hurdles! Warholm takes almost a second off the WR and Raj Benjamin also smashes the WR




      Day 12
      • Spain was up at halftime against the US Men’s BB but then the US pulled away despite an amazing 38 point game from Ricky Rubio :(
      • Another big day for Mitch Glasser, but Israel go from up 1 into the bottom of the 9th to losing on a walkoff



      • Sport climbing (Men's prelims) was fun to see for the first time
      • Another 400 hurdles race that smashes the WR! Not quite as exciting as the men’s but still crazy




      Day 13
      • I hate everything about skateboarding, sorry
      • The Kata karate is absurd and not a sport (but whatever, it's only here for the one Olympics)

      • India gets the bronze in men’s field hockey! First time medaling since their crazy dynasty ended in 1980
      • US men miss out on 4x1 final hahaha (haven’t medaled since 2004)


      Day 14
      • USWNT gets the bronze in a hectic 4-3 win over Australia (sorry Sam Kerr)
      • The Men’s Omnium was pretty fun and hectic. I wish track cycling was more popular
      • Men’s Climbing final was also fun (but too long)
      • The Men's Handball Semifinals were exciting, though the favorites (France and Denmark) both ended up winning
      • 50km race walk was crazy, especially in the heat. I used to think racewalking was the dumbest thing but especially for 50km its pretty impressive (too bad they're getting rid of the 50km event though)
      • India women lose 4-3 to GB in the field hockey bronze medal match :(
      • Gopher wrestler wins gold in the last second!




      Day 15

        • Cheptegei FTW in the 5k, Chelimo steals 3rd on the line! Fun race
        • Kipyegon>Muir>Hassan in the Women's 1500. Another very fun race
        • ITALY wins the Men's 4x1?!?
        • Japan Women’s Basketball to the Gold Medal Game! They're so short, but you've gotta love them
        • Canada>Sweden in PKs in Women's Soccer Final for their first ever win in WC or Olympics (also Shelina Zadorsky becomes the first Spurs Women's player to win an international tournament)
        • Women’s Madison was very fun. I almost wish they made the scoring even more hectic
        • I’ve tried watching Kumite Karate twice and still haven’t got into it. The scoring is weird and I don’t really get what’s going on.
        • I’ve never watched Modern Pent before today and it’s kinda interesting (But oh man SO MUCH WASTED POTENTIAL with this being the only multi-event at the Olympics). They changed the run and shooting to be combined recently and also the point system to make it so you get a head start based on your score in the first 3 events and then the places are based on the places in the run which makes it much more exciting. Also the horse part is INSANE. They get randomly assigned a horse and the leader’s horse just wouldn’t do anything so she just sat there crying and got taken completely out of the running for the medals (edit: some people seem to think she was partially at fault for not showing the horse she was confident or something). How about we don't have horses in anything at the human Olympics.
        • The Women’s climbing final was also pretty fun (the multiplication scoring is hectic)
        • Amazing women’s marathon in the heat, Salpeter and Seidel stuck in the lead pack as it dropped down to 4! Then Salpeter had to stop with 4k to go SADDDDDD. Seidel dropped back with Salpeter initially but then held on to get the bronze pretty crazy and unexpected and very cool.
        • Brazil guy with crazy life story wins C1 1000m






        Day 16
        • Ingebritsen 3:28 (OR) FTW in the 1500! Love a fast final
        • Indian guy (Chopra) wins the Javelin! Somehow only India's second ever individual gold


        Wow not sure I would try to medal in my event if this is the result

        • I tried out diving for the first time this year, I can’t tell how well they’re doing at all so it's not very fun
        • Karate is still weird and confusing but makes a bit more sense and was somewhat fun to watch Croatia guy except he’s the world champ and went 2-2 in pool play and missed the SFs. Definitely worse than taekwondo and judo by quite a bit for me. In the Gold Medal match though, one guy knocked the other guy out which you can't do so the knocked out guy got the win!
        • I wish I had given myself more time to watch handball instead of saving it for last every day (I should have thought of watching things at faster than 1x on my computer before yesterday!!!)
        • Kipchoge with an easy marathon win. Still a good race and close for the rest of the medals. The highlight though:

        • Israel got a gold in rhythmic gymnastics which I didn’t watch or find out about until like 12 hours later (failure on my part, tisk tisk)
        • Japan’s women basketball was way too short and got destroyed by the US who weren't even trying
        • The Women’s Omnium was great and a surprise win for the US that put them above China in the gold medal count!


        Day 17
          • The Rhythmic Gymnastics Team competition was way more entertaining than I expected. I thought I'd watch for a minute and be bored and annoyed but ended up being very impressed by all the throwing and catching they were doing. But it still seems like not a sport and I had zero idea how each team would be scored after watching them.

          • Was hoping to finish off the Olympics with some exciting handball, but both women's medal matches ended up not being too close.


          Lastly, some of my favorite Olympic TikToks:










          @ljstew

          It’s honestly more trouble than it is helpful sometimes. #fyp #olympics2020 #speedwalking #polite #go

          ♬ BEE GEES VS 50 cent - Eric






          That's it! All in all I probably watched around 300 hours of sports in a 20 day period, which was as absurd as it sounds. I basically watched two events at once from 7pm-11pm every night and then woke up (avoiding spoilers), watched two events concurrently from 6:30am-9:30am, and then watched one thing at a time (often in the background) from 9:30am-3:30pm-ish. Sooooo... I guess that is 20 hours of sports a day.

          I managed to watch at least a bit of every sport besides Golf and Equestrian (I did watch the Equestrian portion of Modern Pentathlon so that kinda counts). I found some good Olympics-related Twitter accounts and an Olympic podcast (Keep The Flame Alive) which made it all much more fun, but I wish I knew more people also watching what I was watching that I could have talked to (though realistically, with watching everything on replay at different times it's hard to really talk too much anyways). Oh well, life isn't perfect.  

          Now that I got into some sports I haven't followed much (Judo, Canoe/Kayak Slalom/Sprint, Archery, Track Cycling, etc), I'm gonna try to keep up a bit over the next 3 years (I followed a bunch of people on Instagram and marked down when World Championships are). It's so much more exciting to watch when you know what's going on and have people to cheer for (semi-related: they should show the betting odds for each event on TV so that people can have a better idea of who the favorites are and how strong of favorites they are. It makes things so much more interesting). 

          Can't wait for Paris 2024!


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