2020, uh, 21, uh, who knows Tokyo Olympics thread

Thank heaven for Title IX. Our contingent of women athletes carried the US all two weeks, but especially to gold medals in track, beach volleyball, water polo, volleyball and basketball in the final two days, just enough to edge the Chinese, 39-38.

 

Don’t forget women’s omnium!

 

Can we even say that in mixed company?

There was a massive pileup in that race, around 22 seconds into this video:

I watched the "men's Madison" yesterday and it looks like a combination of Talladega and tag-team wrestling. How anybody can figure out who's leading the race -- and who's leading the sprint points -- is like NASCAR stage racing at its worst.

 

Taurasi playing playground ball.

 

Even the ref is laughing.

 

The Japanese were extremely well coached and executed some amazing pick-and-rolls and back-door cuts, but the American women had such a height advantage. It was Princeton-Georgetown, except in this case, Georgetown was a team entirely made up of veteran WNBA stars.

Japan would have needed to shoot the lights out of the gym -- and did in the first quarter. But the height advantage eventually wore them down. Griner was unstoppable down low. Fifty-five wins in a row. Taurasi and Bird now have five gold medals -- that's 20-plus years of playing for the national team, unlike back when the American men were putting together a college all-star team every four years.

The only real comparison I can think of right now is the dominance of the Soviet hockey team during its heyday, in which the core of the team stayed intact Olympics after Olympics. And they still lost five times (hello, 1960 and 1980!) and tied twice in their seven gold medal run.

 

It's actually possible to follow the Madison in person, though it's still pretty confusing at times. On TV it's virtually impossible.

 

I knew Japan wouldn't win but it was fun to watch them execute and keep it close for really more than a half before they just wore down and couldn't handle the height. They way they played inside offensively was remarkable given the size disadvantage. But even then they missed some open layups that could have kept it even closer. You have to respect the effort. They had no answer, and how could they, for Griner and then the U.S. hit some 3's to really seal it. For a no-doubter, not really close in the end game it was pretty entertaining.

 

Also, not sure how many stayed up to watch it, but the U.S. wiping the floor with Brazil to finally get that women's volleyball gold was quite entertaining.

 

So I guess from now on we'll have to rely on the marathon to provide us moments like this:

Olympic speed walker collapses in sad puddle of his own poop

In terms of sports souvenirs, that's not quite on the level of catching a foul ball or a John Cena T-shirt.

 

I watched it. I didn't let the commercial breaks ruin it for me.

Amazing how they carved up the Brazilians. The big hitter, Bartsch-Hackley, started hot while the lefty, Annie Drews, couldn't do anything. Then lefty heated up when the big girl slowed down. The libero, Justine Wong Arantes, was all over the place and never let up. And Jordan Larson is someone to really admire. She should have been born in California, not Nebraska (haha). Finally won gold after earning silver and bronze previously.

Seeing Karch crying in the post-match interview was startling, considering all he has achieved in volleyball. And the girl with him, Haleigh Washington, said her feelings are just what she thought they would be, except wetter, as she wiped her eyes.

 

It was all pretty amazing. I enjoyed it very much.

There are not a lot of remember whens from my sports journalist days, but I covered Jordan Larson when she was in high school. She was a ridiculously sized fish in a very small pond and she was going to go to Nebraska, but I covered other dominant small-town athletes that went to big schools and good ones that didn't amount to much. To see her these past few Olympics it's impossible to not go think about that and where she came from. I know those stories aren't unheard of, but it is fun.