The Rio Olympics - Seven Days In

I have been watching a lot of the Olympics.  Not as much as my friend Fred Shugars has been watching, to be sure, but enough to ensure that I haven't been to bed before midnight all week, and it's killing me.

Anyway, here are some Kwick Komments from this part of The Grandstand.....

• Michael Phelps.  The guy is 31 years old and in his FIFTH Olympics.  I never would have thought that what he has done in Rio would have been possible.  It is simply amazing.

• Ryan Lochte may be one of the greatest swimmers of all time.  Wonder if he ever says to himself, "Why did MY prime have to coincide with Michael Phelps' prime?"
• When I watch Katie Ledecky swim her events, I think of Secretariat at the Belmont Stales in 1973.  Another simply amazing athlete.

• Staying in the pool, HUGE props go out to American Gold Medalist Simone Manuel for all kinds of reasons.  Hers was a landmark performance in a lot of ways.  Her emotions after winning and in post-swim interviews last night was one of the highlights of the Games.

• Allison Schmitt, the great-niece of one of our Stonebrook neighbors, Barb Meyer, won a gold medal in one of the swimming relay events the other night.  This goes with four medals that she won in London in 2012.  Here's to a little reflected glory for our little neighborhood!

• Female beach volleyball players high five and hug each other after every point.  Talk about slowing up the pace of play.
• I watched the final set of a men's beach volleyball match last night between the USA and Italy, and found it to be totally and completely compelling.
• Saw the last ten minutes of the USA-India field hockey game last night, won by the USA, 3-0.  Isn't that a sport that has historically been dominated by India in the past? (That's a serious question.)  Anyway, that USA team is now either 3-0 or 4-0 in pool play, so when did the USA become a power in field hockey?
• I am not sure if I have ever seen ten minutes of field hockey, total, in my entire life before last night, but, hey, Let's Go USA!!!!
• When Australia gave the USA men's basketball team a bit of a scare on Wednesday night, it produced the best quote of the Games so far.  Kyrie Irving said that the Aussies gave the USA a great game and forced them to "play with our backs to the ropes" all night.
• I applaud the skill sets of the female gymnasts, and I am glad that they are producing a haul of medals for the good ol' US of A, but something about watching those young girls (and, yes, they are for the most part, still girls) makes me a little uneasy.  Too many stories from the past about abusive coaches (that means you, Mr. and Mrs Karolyi) makes me squeamish.
• The maniacal husband/coach of Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszu is far and away the most annoying character to emerge from these Games.  Does he ever wash that green t-shirt he's always wearing?
• Team handball.  I never see this enough to really learn the rules and the intricacies of the game.  It seems to combine basketball, hockey, and soccer all in one sport.  It seems intriguing and looks like something that I might actually like watching, if given the opportunity to learn more about it.  It doesn't seem to be a sport that is played with any great seriousness in the USA.
• Of the sports contested in this first week, I am glad that the scheduling was such that most of the final swimming events have been contested live and in prime time.  Those are the ones we have most enjoyed seeing.  I hope that the same will be true of some of the signature track and field events, which begin today.

That's it for now.  More to come in the week ahead.

The Olympics Conclude....Some Thoughts

For all I know, the closing Ceremonies of the London Olympics are no doubt already taking place, but why wait until the torch goes out to clean out the Mental In-Box, Olympics Edition....

• I actually didn't watch as much of the Games as I anticipated that I would going into it.   I blame that on a couple of things, including interest in the Pirates taking precedence, knowing the results of many of the events before NBC chose to show them, and the fact that it seemed that every time I tuned to NBC in prime time, either gymnastics or diving was on.
• This morning, I did see the one event live, as it was happening, that I most wanted to see - the Men's Gold Medal Basketball game this morning.  USA 107 - Spain 100.  A terrific game that would have been much, much better had the refs not called so many fouls.  Of course, if they weren't slowing the game down with so many fouls, the margin of victory would have been a lot more than seven points.
• Kevin Durant was tremendous with 30 points in the game, but when it was really down to crunch time in the fourth quarter, it was LeBron James who took over and sealed the deal for the USA.
• I also saw a lot of Women's basketball games during the Games, and that really was a walkover for the USA.  I enjoyed seeing their Gold Medal victory win over France yesterday, but what was with head coach Gino Auriemma?  During the final quarter of that game yesterday, he looked about as happy as a guy going through the prep work for a colonoscopy.  Geez, Coach, can't you at least pretend that you're having a good time?
• I really found myself getting completely caught up in the Women's semi-final soccer game on Wednesday between the USA and Canada.  The fact that there were actually seven, count 'em seven, goals scored in this game probably revolted the soccer purists, but, hey, call me an Ugly American, seeing teams actually take shots and score goals, coupled with what was at stake, made this one of the more exciting events of the Games for me.  And good for the USA ladies that they avenged last year's World Cup final by defeating Japan for the Gold Medal.
• Another memorable Olympic moment for me was watching the Men's 10,000 Meter Final, won by the home country gent from Great Britain, live last Saturday afternoon in the Grill Room at the Pittsburgh National Golf Club with friend, Dan Bonk.
• Unfortunately, I missed Usain Bolt's victory in the 100 Meter race, but I did see him win the 200 on Friday night.  It wasn't live, but I didn't know the result ahead of time.  The guy is amazing.
• I also saw very little swimming and that disappointed me, because I do enjoy those events once every four years.
• Speaking of swimming, we here in Stonebrook Village were quite excited over the performances of Allison Schmitt (2 Golds, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze) as her great-aunt Barb Meyer is one of our residents.  Yeah, Allison!!!
• It seemed that I watched more events live four years ago in Beijing with a 12 hour time difference - and while I was working -  that I did this year with a five hour time difference.  Not sure how that could be.
• I am a big fan of the Trib's Dejan Kovacevic, but early on I got so tired of his complaining about the "news embargo" that the Olympics and/or NBC was putting on him and his fellow journalists, that I pretty much stopped reading him about halfway through the first week.   Hey, DK, it's not like were on the front line in Afghanistan.
• Not sure how your cable TV system set it up, but Verizon FiOS had two separate channels that NBC dedicated to basketball and soccer, and that was great.  Today, the Gold Medal game was on both the Basketball channel and the main NBC network over the air channel.  If you watched on the dedicated channel, there were no commercials!
• Even with all the fouls, the USA - Spain game was played in two hours of real time.  Why does a 40 minute college basketball game seem to last about seven hours?  I think I heard that there is a rule in International ball that prevents coaches from calling times out whenever they please.  I didn't get all the nuances of that rule, but it is surely one that the NCAA should consider adopting.  Today.

That's about it for now.  Two more years until the winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and you know what that means.  CURLING, BABY, CURLING!!!!!