Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

TEAM HANDBALL, BABY!!!!!!

 

Surfing joins the Games this time around. Competition will be in Tahiti.

 

We should keep our eyes on the "freelancers wanted" section of this board.

 

As someone whose relationship with the Olympic Games borders on unhealthy, I'm probably going to be polluting these environs for some time.

Here's an update of sorts:

1. Katie Moon, the defending Olympic women's pole vault champion, explains that the unusually-cut briefs are just one of a handful of options Nike provides. IIRC, in the rollout press conference Sha'Carri Richardson was wearing bicycle-length shorts.

https://twitter.com/ktnago13/status/1778891893415215241

2. Moon speaks a little in there as to why some female athletes wear the briefs, saying that she wants to have a minimum of fabric clinging to their skin when they are sweating and exerting themselves. As a dude, asking about volleyball shorts is one of those places which I dare not tread. I would hypothesize that, in addition to the above, not having dangling fabric that could cause a net violation might also be a motivation. I have seen an increasing number of players at the college level that wear full-length pants, and at least one Muslim player who played in pants and hijab. Obviously spandex might not work as well for the guys for anatomical reasons but even men's volleyball shorts are fairly snug, IIRC.

3. I think the biggest reason for the lack of perceived buzz is that, compared to nearly every Olympiad for the last 20 years, there are very few outstanding issues. All the venues are built on time, the Olympic Village was finished by Christmas, the people of Paris seem to be as excited about this as they are about anything, France hasn't invaded anyone. As far as I can tell, the delivery of this Summer Games is probably as solid as any since Sydney in 2000. But to some degree, that's the point. After the organizational and social chaos of Athens, Rio, etc., the IOC needed to spend some time not doing "missionary" shit and get back to basics. And with Paris, LA and Brisbane lined up, there are relatively few surprises in that side of the process likely. It sounds like the IOC is going to hand out the 2030 and 2034 Winter Games to the French Alps and Salt Lake City respectively this summer, so they basically have their ducks in a row for a decade. My only complaint is that the mascot, an anthropomorphic hat, is really stupid.

FYI, if you're into that sort of thing, the Olympic Torch is scheduled to be lit in ancient Olympia on Tuesday.

4. I highly recommend @TeamUSATracker on Xitter (and Substack) for updates on qualifying and the general run-up. Among the goofy details of people already booked for Paris:

• The US men's 3-on-3 basketball team (which IIRC, didn't qualify in Tokyo) features none other than Jimmer Fredette.
• Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda are already on the US golf team, which will play at Le Golf National, where the Ryder Cup was.
• In terms of the team sports, the US made it in everything except men's field hockey and both handball tournaments.

 

I like the Olympics fine, but I’m damn glad I don’t have to deal with the time element when putting those stories on the page. Of course, Paris is better than when it’s the other side of the globe, where you can’t tell if something happened yesterday or tomorrow.

 

All I know is that I've been looking forward to the Olympic Trials for wrestling, which start next weekend.

 

Volleyball pants are a continuing source of drama in and around HS and youth teams particularly, because there is a contingent of hardcore volleyball mavens/coaches who swear to high heaven that vacuum-snug bikini bottoms are an absolute must for functional volleyball reasons and anybody who contends otherwise has to be some kind of silly dilettante fool who knows nothing about real volleyball.

Well of course in real life, there are some players who are just fine with that, but there are some others who aren't, they think the panties pinch and bind, etc etc, or they're a little self conscious about running around in skimpy scanty panties, or they think (correctly or not) that they empathize parts of their anatomy they don't want to emphasize. Or they get a little irritated about crowds of spectators (usually male classmates) who crowd up for rear views (although others very consciously enjoy that attention).

My volleyball nieces just thought they felt funny during match action. They all tended toward the skinny side so they didn't care that much themselves, but they said probably half the team utterly hated them. (One or two players might have quit at least in part as a result.)

For two years their former coach had an iron rule: bikini bottoms only during matches. This past year they voted to go to mid-thigh length compression shorts.

For my part -- spectator and journalist only -- I was always careful to express no opinion whatsoever: "whatever feels best for you guys is what you should wear." End of commentary.

 

I see the quadrennial "why doesn't the US dominate in handball?" discourse will be right on time, then.

 

I will say a lot of the "drama" of the Olympics has been seeped out due to pros being allowed. Used to be an Olympic athlete really had one good shot at an Olympics before having to get on with their life. Now they can be career Olympians, making enough from endorsements over three or four Games to be set for life. You mess up at your "one shot" - something you'd been training for your entire life and its brutal. Dan and Dave? Dan Jannsen? Mary Decker? The figure skaters? Now its like college kids and pro athletes coming back every four years to compete against high schoolers.
About the only plus is that with NIL, I think you will see more Olympic athletes really boost those more minor college sports. They don't have to choose.

 

Not true. Gold medalists at Tokyo were Italo Ferreira (BRA) and Carissa Moore (USA).

 

We don’t hand the ball like we used to. Sad! Sleepy Joe created a handball gap.

 

I wonder if the fact that the vast majority of viewers know the results immediately has resulted in the Olympics being less of an event. The more casual viewer was fine with being spoon fed a prime time night of track or gymnastics. Now, if it isn’t live, you know what’s going to happen.