The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Whew, am I glad the Closing Ceremonies are over. Finally.
I enjoyed the competitions and was able to watch many of the more obscure sports on Peacock. But between NBC’s telecasts — both live and replayed — and my viewing on Peacock, I often saw some events two or three times (at least until it dawned on me to change the channel). One way or another, I saw at least some of every sport I wanted to see.
Breaking? A sport? Hmm, not sure about that. But wait, esports are coming. How’s that going to work? And American gymnast Jordan Chiles being stripped of her bronze medal? Seriously? Seems to me the original error — not properly scoring the difficulty level of Chiles’s routine — was made by the judges. At this point I’d say give bronze medals to both Jordan Chiles and Romania’s Ana Barbosu. And in the future don’t do this to deserving young gymnasts! (Or old ones, either.)
With the closing of the Olympics, I suppose now we’ll be swamped again with political news. I did enjoy the two-week Olympic distraction but thought both the Opening and Closing Ceremonies were too long by half. The French must really love grandiose, outsized celebrations. Often I was torn between “good-grief-watch-something-else” and “but-the-whole-world-watching.”
This morning I learned that the dude in the mind-blowing gold costume was called the “Golden Voyager.” Maybe the press named him, or the NBC guys talked over his introduction last night, or maybe I was watching something else. But I did marvel at his fantastic sparkling costume. At least on tv we got to see him up close; surely the costume was lost in that huge stadium in the middle of everything else that was going on.
Yes, there’s a lot to be said for being there in person, but there’s also a lot to be said for watching on tv.
And all that additional time spent publicizing the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles? Yawn …
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I agree with all your comments. The sport I enjoyed most was, of all things, men’s basketball. The addition of professional sports stars to Olympic games seemed somehow unfair to me when it happened, but now, not. Basketball has become international. And, in a world of superlatives and excess, the Olympics, along with basketball and pro football, and soccer, are entertainment, nothing more, nothing less.
Hope you saw Tom Cruise’s stunts in the closing ceremonies. He’s in good shape for age 62! Now, back to “Jeopardy!” on NBC. I’ve missed it.
Yes I saw Tom Cruise. I’ve always liked him but I thought his appearance and everything that followed was almost more excess than I could stand. I will admit I immediately looked up his age! He’s like the Energizer Bunny. He just keeps going and going.
If basketball why not also football and baseball??
I went off looking for equestrian events, shooting, climbing, and canoeing. Kayak cross was new to me and interesting for a while.
I watch it off and on, and sometimes stumbled upon something fun or interesting. I saw some of the men’s and women’s gymnastics, highlights of the shooters, basketball final, the ill-fated pole vaulter, a bit of the breaking, and some of this and that. I agree with your ‘double bronze metal solution.’ it’s the only fair thing to do at this part. opening was over the top, I saw a lot of it but not all, and didn’t watch the closing – but I enjoyed a lot of what I did see.
I missed the shooters. Was really sorry to have missed the pistol guy who was shooting with his off hand in his pocket.