Five-ring circus: The Thread of the XXXIII Olympiad

From a practical standpoint, this would be so much better. You can more easily slot in sports where they "should" be, like beach volleyball along the shores, 3x3 hoops at Rucker Park, and so on. Have the opening and closing ceremonies at a central location. (As is, not all athletes go to the opening ceremonies.) However, the IOC is usually about as proactive as the NCAA when it comes to innovation, so I doubt we see that until there's nobody willing to get into the "sure we'll build X new facilities to host the Olympics" game.

 

Speaking of announcers ... they kept it in the hockey family with Kenny Albert, even in Stamford, but water polo isn't the same without Doc.

 

It's early, but there's a decent shot 2036 is when they start going for goofy shit again. The Saudis are all but guaranteed for the World Cup in 2034 (ugh) and a bid for them is not off the table, especially if they start writing checks.

Other places in the running but weird are the new capital of Indonesia, the new capital of Egypt, Istanbul, the India thing I mentioned and Santiago, Chile. It looks like Seoul might make another run at it and it appears that Chengdu (the capital of Szechuan) might be the focal point of a Chinese bid. Canada is apparently kicking around a joint Torontreal bid for 2036 as well.

 

Yet another swim race in which the leader with 20 to go gets caught (and she was in an outside lane to boot), and another swim race in which the USA is close but no cigar, though Sarah Sjostrom is a legit champ.

 

Maybe it's just my market, but the local NBC affiliate has lost its feed from Paris.
It's gone black, but local weather scroll is still running.

 

Tatum's starting. Interesting.

 

Onscreen graphics not showing is an interesting choice by NBC.

 

No scoreboard bug for USA-South Sudan hoops on USA.

 

There. And gone again.

 

And there it is. Just a reminder of the power of sj.com. Use it for good, not evil.

 

Natalie Coughlin sighting! Hubba hubba.

 

When the U.S. is playing defense, they look unstoppable. Just too much god damn length, and it leads to so much easy offense.