Unless we have already reached our dotage, many of us will have no problem remembering this particular summer in the future. This is a Leap Year, an Olympic year, and a US Presidential election year. When one candidate gets shot at and the other party’s candidate is summarily replaced by, yet another stump it tends to grab one’s attention.
Can we say historic?
Talk about…
The Spin Cycle
We all notice how much of a welcome distraction the summer Olympics was from the political gymnastics. No worries. They’re back.
Our summer experience reminds me of the apt recent tv ad where the guy accidentally tosses his cell phone into the washing machine with his dirty laundry. Dooh.
You saw the ad?
Interesting marketing that.
For the life of me I really don’t want to remember what product or service the ad was there for. Do you?
Ok. Maybe it’s just me.
The fact the ad may have been sandwiched between the many qualifying heats for the Men’s and/or Women’s 1500 events in Olympic track and field might have distracted me.
Did you count the number of male competitors who competed with times below that once famous 4-minute mile mark? Whoa.
Speaking of spin cycle…
How about the rookie US woman bicycle substitute who won the Women’s Paris road race?
We All Expect Fast Women
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya won her second gold medal of the Olympics, running 30:43.25 in the 10000 meter race. The 5’ tall woman finished with a final lap time of 57.4 seconds. Chebet set an even faster World Record time back in May. She won her first gold of this Olympics in the 5000 meter race a couple of days before. Yes. They run heats. OMG.
We were all blown away. The camera had to pan back out to catch the other runners in a 400 meter hurdles sprint race. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won the gold in the 400m hurdles in 50.37. She beat the nearest competitor by a second and a half. Crazy. For sure the lady has serious tv product endorsements. Even I want to wash my face more often.
As we all expected for the second Olympics in a row Katie Ledecky delivered double golds in both the Women’s 800 and the 1500 freestyle events in swimming. It was her third straight gold in the 800 freestyle. In the 1500, the camera once again had to pan back out to catch the other swimmers. She holds the current world record and - what did they say? - The top ten or maybe twenty best times in history? OMG.
The Olympics must have GOATs
We must suffer the ads and the reruns of the feature pieces.
Why I tended to play hooky and watch real events in the daytime instead of the nightly rehash.
Team USA
I believe we were all pleasantly surprised by the sportsman-like behavior of most of the USA competitors in most of the sports. I doubt anyone sent a memo.
Maybe the lure of better endorsement money penetrated this time around. No one appeared to be interested in a Bud Light moment.
Some USA teams were noticeably more gracious. Thank you - Women’s soccer.
Other teams not so much. Possibly because the members didn’t care or need to be from their perspective.
I will admit that when I saw that I changed the channel and watched anything else.
In Closing
I decided well in advance to avoid both the opening and closing ceremonies. I understand I didn’t miss much, and I was spared the worst of it. It was in Paris after all.
We do get what we deserve from spectacular television events.
LA is guaranteed to be worse or better depending on what you prefer. California often falls into the pit of its own making. I hear the City and County of LA will only spend 100 million in tax dollars once again retrofitting the LA Collesium. Such a deal.
My big (and hopeless) wish for all future Olympics.
Please, put an end to the one media network winner gets all the marbles practice. It would be nice to see some healthy media competition that might improve the coverage.
Coverage Competition? That would be too difficult I guess.
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