Saturday, July 24, 2021

XXXIII Olympic Summer Games, Tokyo 2020 (Days 1 and 2)

OK, so Team USA bounces back to clobber New Zealand, 6-1, in Group G women's soccer action. Nice work, everyone.
 
Comments flow.
 
Previous reports:
 

73 comments:

  1. It's at this point in an Olympics that I always wish I had spent the previous month taking time off from work to read my old Olympics posts and remember how I figured out how to do everything. But, instead, I always spend my first week in a frustrating scramble and then don't hit my stride until early in the second week--and then it's over. Indeed, this progression applies to just about everything in life as I've experienced it so far.

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  2. It occurs to me that, a few years ago, I was on the email distribution for the Team USA handball people because I was really bothered that we didn't seem to be much of a factor in this sport. I think I might've even gotten into the details of handball history in the United States in the HP comments.

    There's no way of keyword-searching the HP comments, is there?

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  3. Why don't at least the goalkeepers in team handball wear helmets with faceguards?

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  4. Men's handball: Denmark (gold), France (silver) and Germany (bronze) won the medals at Rio 2016, and those teams are all back for Tokyo 2020. Team USA did not qualify (again).

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  5. With about two minutes to go in a Group A game or match or whatever, the Spains trail the Germanys, 27-26, and gather around their coach, who looks like a younger brother of Mike Thibault of the Washington Mystics.

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  6. Spain comes out of the timeout to score, draw a charge and score again. It's 28-27, Spain, with 42 seconds to go, and now Germany calls timeout. Nice job, Coach Thibault.

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  7. The defending bronze medalists have pulled their goalkeeper. Another offensive foul on Germany! But then a turnover by Spain! But that's the end of regulation! What?!?

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  8. Untimed opportunity coming for Germany! It's 28-27, Spain.

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  9. OK, how this happens is all of the Spains line up like players might in soccer. They're at about the equivalent of basketball's free-throw line. And then one Germany dude has the ball at what would be the three-point line. The Germany guy dances and wiggles around, trying to get the Spanish defenders to dive and wiggle their way out of position. Finally, he fires toward the upper right of the goal (which looks like a soccer goal) ...

    IT'S WIDE!

    Final from Tokyo 2020: Spain 28, Germany 27.

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  10. Before you go all craycray out there, HP Handball Nation, let me just note that the USA Network commentator said earlier in this gamematch that this result was not likely to have terrific bearing on the medal round. She expects both Germany and Spain to fairly easily advance out of Group play.

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  11. The KHSAA should absolutely institute handball as a sport and enact a law that all of the basketball and soccer teams who lose in the first round of their regional tournaments over the next four years have to convert their programs to handball. That would pretty much wrap up the golds for Team USA at Paris 2024.

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  12. I will confess that I didn't much miss fans at yesterday's opening ceremonies. I was surprised. And even fans can't save soccer for me. And handball is so condensed on its court and continuous in its pace that I don't have much space or time to miss the fans.

    But now USA Network has gone to beach volleyball, and this ... wow. This is hurting. Virtually every frame, you see the empty stands, and three- to 10-second bursts of action are interspersed among 30- to 45-second pauses for high fives and dance music. Problematic.

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  13. I didn't know Terry Bradshaw has a reality show.

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  14. I've moved on to Channel 6: Team USA vs. France in men's volleyball.

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  15. Men's volleyball at Rio 2016: Brazil gold, Italy silver and United States bronze. All of these people are back at Tokyo 2020.

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  16. The men’s volleyball team has five guys from California, three from Hawaii and one each from Illinois, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The alternates also include fellows from Maryland and Utah. Brigham Young, California-Irvine, Long Beach State, Penn State, Stanford and UCLA each have multiple players on the roster.

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  17. Team USA beats France in two sets. The United States comes into this tournament ranked third in the world.

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  18. It's about 12:37 a.m. in Tokyo, by the way, so we've been watching tape-delay stuff.

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  19. Now we have women's water polo on Channel 6. This sport looks exhausting!

    Team USA won gold in this event at Rio 2016; Italy, silver. They gave the bronze to Russia, which was cheating at the Olympics. Italy failed to qualify for Tokyo 2020, but they've got Russian athletes without their flag in the same group with Team USA. What a rip!

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  20. Lilly with some powerful copywriting: "The health of America cannot be measured only by the fitness of our champions." That's good. But I'll bet they're a bear to write for.

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  21. OK, Team USA blasts Japan in women's water polo; I forgot the score.

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  22. And now Team USA beats Romania and Australia in a women's 8 rowing heat, advancing the Americans to the gold-medal race! Exciting.

    I think that must’ve been the “coxed eight” competition within women’s rowing. Team USA won gold in women’s coxed eight at Rio 2016; Great Britain and Romania won silver and bronze, respectively.

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  23. We have mixed-team archery on Channel 6 now. Clearly, Team USA didn't win this, or we'd be seeing it on the big prime-time show tonight. Indeed, it's South Korea and the Netherlands competing for gold. This is the first time we've had a mixed-team competition in the Olympics.

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  24. Lots of yelling in this match, even with the empty stands.

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  25. The NBC commentator says the South Koreans have been talking a lot of smack before Tokyo 2020, saying they would be going back to Seoul International (or whatever) with all five gold medals in archery. The Dutch, however, have taken the first (of some) sets.

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  26. South Korea did win all four archery golds at Rio 2016: men’s individual, men’s team, women’s individual and women’s team. They also got a bronze in women’s individual. Team USA scored silver in men’s team and bronze in men’s individual. France and Germany got silvers. Australia and Chinese Taipei got the other bronze medals. They also gave a silver to the Russians, who were cheating at the Olympics.

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  27. South Korea takes the second set. We're tied.

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  28. OK, apparently, it's not that there's a lot of yelling in archery; rather, it's that this one South Korean archer--a 17-year-old boy nicknamed "The Prodigy"--does a lot of yelling. (And then that whips up the coaches or other few South Korean people at the stadium to do some yelling.)

    South Korea has now moved ahead, 4-2. It looked to me like that was a third set, so I don't understand how we got to 4-2. But, whatever, it's 4-2.

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  29. If The Prodigy ends up winning this gold with his female partner, I predict we're going to see The Prodigy in one of the first montage sequences NBC rolls out during these Summer Games.

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  30. South Korea wins gold in mixed-team archery!

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  31. Thomas Bach attended this event. He looks a little like Paul Tagliabue.

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  32. Mexico got the bronze in this event, so these are the first medalists I know of.

    The yelling 17-year-old Prodigy is Kim Je-deok of Gyeongbuk Il High School.

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  33. OK, cycling fans, Channel 6 sees you ...

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  34. One of my favorite things in cycling is when a leader turns his head back to see where the competition is. It's more dramatic than in running races because the bike always leans a little.

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  35. This is the men’s individual road race, and, at Rio 2016, the medalists were Belgium gold, Denmark silver and Poland bronze.

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  36. OK, wait, an American named Taylor or Tyler McNulty and a guy from Ecuador (Karapaz?) are leading this race. There's a little more than 15 kilometers to go. I can't afford to look up any of these names, because the race is tape delay and I'm afraid I'll see who won.

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  37. The margin between the two leaders and the second group continues to grow as we get under 14 kilometers to go!

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  38. Richard Carapaz and Brandon McNulty--they just put their names on the screen. COME ON, MCNULTY!

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  39. I guess I just thought I'd heard them call the American "Taylor" or "Tyler" because it seemed like every American cyclist for a few years there seemed to be named Taylor or Tyler.

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  40. I have no idea where my main man Brandon McNulty is from, and I can't look it up right now. I hope he's from Madisonville.

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  41. Six kilometers to go and the second pack is closing!

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  42. 1. Carapez or Ecuador
    2. McNulty of probably Madisonville
    3. Some guy from Belgium

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  43. Carapaz/Carapez has left behind McNulty!

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  44. Richard Carapaz finished third in the Tour de France, and, apparently, he was disappointed with that finish. So he must be great.

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  45. Oh, no, McNulty is being overtaken by two other guys.

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  46. There are 3 kilometers to go, and Carapaz is 33 seconds ahead of the pack.

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  47. McNulty is from Arizona. He's now at the back of the group far behind Carapaz.

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  48. Carapaz's lead has swelled to 48 seconds. The NBC guys surmise that the group behind him have all decided to compete for silver and bronze because trying to chase down the leader would likely jeopardize your position for any medal.

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  49. This is Ecuador's third-ever Olympic Summer Games medal.

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  50. There was a giant charge at the end for silver and bronze, but they are still sorting it out. McNulty swung out from the back way to the right, and then he veered back left and tried to push up through the middle into the front of the pack. I don't think he made it, but you couldn't tell how the camera was positioned from ground level in front of the finish line.

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  51. Overhead shot seems to show McNulty finished fifth or sixth.

    Riders from Belgium and Slovenia claim silver and bronze.

    Well, darn.

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  52. NBC commentators note that Carapaz's performance was even more impressive given that he was one of only two riders from Ecuador in the race. Some of the other top riders were part of maximum complements of five riders from single countries, which meant they would've been able to attain more help from teammates. Interesting point for a cycling novice like me--thanks for the 411, Channel 6.

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  53. Turkish Airlines commercial airs on Channel 6. Apparently, this means we could now fly direct from Barkley Regional to Ankara.

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  54. How did Team USA not qualify in men's 3x3 basketball?

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  55. Team USA looks strong in women's 3x3 basketball and swimming.

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  56. Also, head bands, long hair and big beards tend to signal which guys are the best handball players. Denmark appears to have a few more of those guys than anyone else I've seen, so, at this point, I'm predicting Denmark will repeat as gold medalists.

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  57. I had no idea that Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird are engaged.

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  58. Now we have men's singles table tennis on USA Network. Nikhil Kumar of Team USA and Alberto Mino of Ecuador are in Game 6. Kumar leads the best-of-seven match, three sets to two, and he's up, 3-0, in the first-to-11-by-two game.

    Do it for McNulty, Kumar!

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  59. Nikhil Kumar is an 18-year-old from San Jose, California. His mom is a software engineer.

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  60. Channel 6 with a Pizza Inn commercial! Pizza Inn opened on Joe Clifton Drive in Paducah 50 years ago. I just looked up its grand opening in the June 2, 1971, Sun-Democrat, and it billed itself as "Kentucky's most beautiful pizza house."

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  61. Wowwee! Men's 400-meter individual medley:

    -- Chase Kalisz of Bel Air, Maryland, gold!
    -- Jay Litherland of Osaka, Japan, and then Atlanta, silver!
    -- Brendon Smith of Australia, bronze

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  62. We're on Day 2 now, of course. I really should've changed to a new post before the prime-time Channel 6 show. I'll get my act together soon.

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  63. So a teen-ager from Tunisia--only the second Tunisian to make an Olympic swimming final--wins gold in the 400-meter individual freestyle. He qualified eighth for the eight-swimmer final. Stunning.

    -- Ahmed Hafnaoui of Tunisia, gold
    -- Jack McLoughlin of Australia, silver
    -- Kieran Smith of Ridgefield, Connecticut, bronze

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