Olympics Day 1: Variety!

I have four monitors going, so I opened up several streams as I worked.  Also, the DVR helped me to catch a few events without the commercials.

I was a bit surprised at how difficult and technical the cycling course is.  The commentators (who also announced the Tour de France) were remarking on how hard and dangerous parts of it were, particularly the downhill stretches in rainforest (= wet roads).  Sure enough there were a bunch of nasty crashes in descents which blew away some major figures.  Too bad.

Anyhoo…

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Team handball… very cool.

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Epee… one of my weapons along with sabre.

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Field hockey… oh well.

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Volleyball is great.  It was fun to play and it’s fun to watch.  I don’t care much about the beach thing, but the court version is great, either male or female.

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I also saw some of the swimming prelims.

A highlight of the morning was seeing the young lady from these USA win the large bore air rifle medal.  Apparently the bullseye isn’t much bigger than a pencil point.  Remarkable concentration and discipline.

Following the events with DVR and on-demand stream and highlights has really made it easy and more time-efficient.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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9 Comments

  1. Andy Lucy says:

    Loved the women’s epee final…. especially the come from behind win… epee was my weapon back in college. As for the 10m air rifle, the x ring is the size of the period at the end of this sentence. From 10m away. No magnifying equipment, simple a peep sight on the back and a hooded sight on the front. I shot 3-position smallbore at 50m, but I never got the feel for air rifle. I am looking into getting back into shooting with either air pistol or free pistol… I miss the discipline.

  2. Geoffrey says:

    I missed fencing. I guess I need to “get with the times” when it comes to my Olympics viewing and not rely on network and cable television any longer!

  3. Rob in Maine says:

    Grrrr,

    I upgraded to full cable and DVR for the Olympics. I set the DVR to record Judo and got basketball ?!

  4. John Grammaticus says:

    I’d be interested in the table tennis… if only because at work we take it VERY seriously :)

  5. Cajetan says:

    With the expanded coverage offered, you can watch many non-mainstream events. Father pointed out several in his post. I also enjoy watching the archery, badminton, and track cycling. I’m also glad to see rugby has returned the the games. But there’s nothing quite like curling in the winter games, am I right?

  6. hwriggles4 says:

    I watched some of the swimming yesterday at a diner while having a late breakfast after attending the Sacrament of Reconciliation (the lines were long, and the Parochial Vicar commented that he was pleased to see a lot of sinners this morning), and running a few errands. I still lap swim, and in my mid 40’s now. I can no longer flip turn, and my fastest mile swim doingfreestyle is 42 minutes. Boy, those swimmers – a 100 metres of butterfly stroke as part of the 400 metre individual medley is quite a bit of work, and 53 seconds for 100 metre freestyle takes quite a bit of conditioning.

  7. hwriggles4 says:

    I did see some of the male gymnastics last night. Alex Naddour seemed like a pretty good guy – he and his wife just had a baby, and I think his dad was a coach. I saw him compete last night on the rings, which is a tough event. Gymnastics gives quite a bit of exercise, and takes quite a bit of discipline.

    I liked gymnastics, and I remember going to the recreation center in the mid-1970s for gymnastics class with my brothers and my other friends. We pretty much lost interest by the age of 10 because gymnastics was seen more of a “girl sport”. That was not in the case in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, where gymnastics was popular among men, particularly shorter men, who have an advantage in the sport (same with the shorter women). My dad was a gymnast in the 50s, and was on the Pep Squad at his public high school, where he did flip flops, etc. Also, a few of the old Apollo astronauts (i.e. Walt Cunningham and Al Bean) were gymnasts.

    It’s a little disappointing that male gymnastics hasn’t been that popular, and very few schools today have programs for male gymnasts. I remember Bart Conner competing, He seemed to stay out of trouble, and he married Nadia Comenechi, the Russian gymnast who I believe won in either 1976 or 1984.

  8. MikeS says:

    I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many athletes are talking about their faith. Last night, when asked how they handled competition nerves, the American synchronized diving silver medalists said it was because their value/self-worth is in Christ.
    Katie Ledecky prays a Hail Mary before each race, and Simone Biles carries a rosary in her gym bag.

  9. MikeS says:

    And it was great to see Lily King back up the finger wag.

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