“Looking Back”

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The ‘thrill of victory….the agony of defeat”.
You remember the intro to Wide World of Sports on ABC.

Take that phrase and link it to this year’s just completed Tokyo Olympics.

Team USA finished strong with 39-gold medals and 113 in all to outdistance China.

Somehow the Covid-outbreak in Tokyo and Japan did not spill over into the Olympic village.  They gave out 610,000 tests in 6-weeks..had only 400 positive tests total.  The athletes did their job.

But it was such a fractured 3-weeks.

The NBC-Network coverage was disappointing.  They had too many channels…never properly promoted which events were where…and spent so much time hyping its new ‘Peacock’ network the broadcasts seemed to be infomercials.

The 16-hour time difference made everything a challenge.  You had to go search each Channel guide and hope you found your event. I never tracked down my favorites, the 800 and 1500M track events for men.

Ditto with the marathon.

The storyline early was the emotional angst of Simone Biles and her mental health.  To hear Michael Phelps and Ali Raissman go public as advocates for listening to those with mental health concerns was a great global message on TV.

We crowned the next Olympic gymnastic star in Sunni Lee.

Swimming has a new icon in the powerful Caleb Dressel and Bobby Fink in the pool

Thank you Katie Ladeck for all you have given us.

Peak respect too for the going out gold medal party for Alyssa Felix, coming home with her 10th and 11th golds..

The up and down gold run for Men’s Basketball was augmented by Greg Popovich’s  media feuds.

Brittney Griner and friends wrapped up their careers with another Olympic Gold for women’s basketball.

Some great efforts by USA track and its host of sprinters,even if the critics say Silver-is-not Gold.

The best event I watched was Norway’s high hurdler Karston Warholm win over Rai Benjamin in the 400 meter event in which they both broke world records.

Soccer had a great run, even if Meagen Rapinoe-Carli Lloyd and friends settled for a bronze medal in 3rd place this year.  What they accomplished over the last 3-Olympics put the USA on the global stage.  Now we await the next great group of players.

What a fun time to see Xander Schauffele win the Gold in golf, as we anticipate him taking the next step to win a PGA Grand Slam event. He is right on the doorstep.

I could never get amped up over Olympic baseball.

Disappointed with the story of the Mexican women’s softball team throwing all their Olympic gear in the garbage after they were eliminated.  it’s an honor to represent your team, and they left in disappointing fashion as ingrates.

And there were moments of sportsmanships.  Two track stars deciding to share a Gold rather than have a jump off.

2-fallen distance runners, both injured when they tripped, walked arm and arm across the finish line, arms linked finishing last in a show of unity.

Lots of storylines but we could not see much of it because of the TV and time zone issues.  The TV ratings were abysmal.  NBC means ‘Nobody Cares’.

And in an era of the loss of life and the collapse of the Global economy, I just have a horrible time accepting the IOC way of doing business…global greed.

Salute the athletes who got there, whether they came home with medals or not.  Just didn’t feel like the historical Olympiads we have come to know and love.

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