Some thoughts on the Rio Olympics from a guy who is two years away from being eligible to compete in the 55+ BC Games (cribbage, one-act plays), and who has watched, approximately, 4.7 hours of coverage on TV…
…Let’s start with coverage. CBC 1 NBC 0. Canada’s Olympic broadcast host, with help from TSN and Sportsnet, has absolutely put the American giant to shame. Everyone in Canada knew Andre de Grasse won bronze in the men’s 100-metre final, finishing behind Jamaican legend Usain Bolt and American Justin Gatlin, because Canadians got to see the race live. Over on NBC, news anchor Lester Holt was giving us the latest on the upcoming election. Edge: CBC.
…Usain Bolt is amazing. Being 6-foot-5 and the fastest man in the world is not fair (says a guy 5-foot-7 and timed with a calendar). He is someone I’d love to interview over a beer. Maybe two. I’d love to see him win two more golds in Rio. Unless, of course, de Grasse beats him.
…Andre de Grasse is only 21. He will, one day soon, usurp Bolt.
…Derek Drouin of Corunna, Ont. (rhymes with Toronna) looked like he could have gone over the pole vault bar without the pole in winning Canada’s first high jump gold medal in 84 years. Drouin’s pre-jump routine and bar approach brought back memories of watching Vancouver’s Greg Joy leap to an unexpected silver medal in the same event 40 years earlier in Montreal.
…Vernon’s Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe didn’t win a medal but she should be a fixture with the Canadian women’s basketball team for the next four years.
…Really wanted Vernon’s Vasek Pospisil and partner Daniel Nestor of Toronto to win the bronze in Olympic men’s doubles tennis. They were so close to being guaranteed a medal, losing the semifinal in straight sets in tie-breakers to eventual gold medalists Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez of Spain. Pospisil and Nestor, who turns 44 in two weeks, lost the bronze-medal match to Americans Jack Sock and Steve Johnson. Sock, Pospisil’s partner on the tennis tour, won gold in mixed doubles.
…Love the return of golf to the Olympics. I still have mixed feelings, though, about professionals being able to compete in the Games.
…So why did the diving pool water turn green?
…Here’s hoping Penny Oleksiak, she of the four medals won in the Rio swimming pool, keeps her Canadian colours (she has dual Canada-U.S citizenship) for Tokyo in 2020 when she will be 20.
…Olympic stat of the week: 450,000 condoms handed out in athletes’ village, more than three times as many as London 2012. Almost as many zeroes as Olympic rings.
…How in the heck do those gymnasts do those things they do, especially on that thin piece of wood?
…The guy from Georgia (country) who won the 105+ kilogram division in men’s weightlifting set a world record with 473 total kilos lifted, which included a 258-kg lift in the clean-and-jerk. That’s 568 pounds in one lift. He’s 346 pounds. Wowzers.
