Personal Thoughts on The Tokyo Olympics

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics arrived a year late and finished up a week ago amid questions as to whether or not they ever should have been staged in the first place.  We all know that the Games were postponed a year due to the COVID pandemic, and that they were staged a year later even though that country of Japan was experiencing rising COVID numbers and was in a state of public health emergency.  The fact that they took place anyway showed us, as if we needed any further proof, of what the "Olympic Movement" has become - an outrageous money grab by perhaps the most corrupt and uncaring sporting organization in the world, the International Olympic Committee.  And in a world where both FIFA and the NCAA exist, that is really saying something.  The Games went on, despite the will of the people and even the government of the host nation, and without any fans in attendance.  It was television show played out in empty studios, but the IOC oligarchs got their cash from NBC, and that's what really counts.

However, I still watched and that makes me part of the problem, I guess, if not an abject hypocrite.  Still, the competition itself was fun to watch, and here are some of the memories that I will take away from these games.

• Seventeen year old Lydia Jacoby from Seward, Alaska winning a Gold Medal for the USA in the 100m Breaststroke event, and the celebration at the watch party in her hometown (population: less than 3,000) of Seward.   If any one thing in these games defined "Olympic Moment", this was it.

• The American Women's Silver Medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay.  Out of medal position after the third leg, the great Katie Ledecky swam an amazing anchor leg to secure the silver for the USA, and had the race been five meters longer, she'd have passed the winner and the USA would have won gold, that's how strong she was.  This race was all the more memorable for us because the opening leg of the race was swum by Allison Schmitt, that's her on the right below, who is the niece of one of our neighbors.  Schmitt has represented the USA in four Olympiads and has now won ten Olympic medals overall.

• The great Allyson Felix competing in her fifth Olympics and winning her tenth and eleventh Olympic Medals.  She is now the most decorated American track athlete in Olympics history, man or woman.

• The mental courage of gymnast Simone Biles.

• When they lost in the soccer semi-final game, instead of pissing and moaning, the US Women's Soccer Team issued a statement to the effect of...."disappointed, but still one more game to play and a chance to win a medal", and that is exactly what they did.  A 4-3 win over Australia with two goals apiece from veterans Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapine, who were probably playing in the last significant game of their careers.

• Gold Medal wins for the USA Men's and Women's Basketball teams....

• ....which culminated the careers of these two greats:

There were other moments to be sure, and we did enjoy the competions that we saw, despite searching for the right NBC platform to view and trying to overcome that thirteen hour time differential.  For sure, it wasn't the same without fans on site for the competition, but it managed to be a pretty good television show after all.