TIme Out with TANY • Summer Olympics Spotlight

THIS COLUMN WAS WRITTEN IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE

QUICK QUIZ

Who is the most decorated American athlete in the Summer Olympic Games history?

A.   Simone Biles

B.   Michael Phelps

C.   Matt Biondi

D.   Katie Ledecky

E.    Dennis Krafft

QUOTABLE QUOTES

“Winning doesn’t always mean being first. Winning means you’re doing better than you’ve ever done before.” – Bonnie Blair, American speed skater and five-time gold medalist.

“There is a popular fallacy that falling down is the mark of a poor skater. But the truth is that when one stops falling, he has probably stopped improving.” – Dick Button, American figure skater and two-time gold medalist.

“The world never puts a price on you higher than the one you put on yourself.” – Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater and three-time gold medalist.

IDLE THOUGHTS

I’ve watched my share of previous Olympic Games – both Winter and Summer. The only reason I tuned into Friday’s opening ceremonies was to see how over-the-top France would be as the host-country. They obviously missed the boat during the four-hour spectacle. Athletes and spectators were drenched by the summer rain but it didn’t dampen their spirits. Paris organizers ditched the traditional parade of athletes marching into a stadium for a waterborne procession along the River Seine. Individual vessels of varying sizes ferried athletes from each country to the main staging area at the glittering Eiffel Tower. They looked like passengers on party boats competing to make the most noise and to signal that their country was having the most fun. I kept waiting for the Princess Wenonah to arrive.

Standing on the balcony of the Eiffel Tower, the Olympic rings affixed to its iron sides, singer Celine Dion serenaded more than 300,000 spectators, including an estimated 6,800 athletes, in an emotional comeback from being diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome in 2022. The rare neurological disease causes muscle spasms and rigidity in the torso and limbs. The disease has also made it hard for the Canadian singer to control her vocal cords. I think they should look at the actual scheduling of the events. A number of athletes couldn’t attend the opening ceremonies because their event was schedule early the next morning.

One of the opening ceremonies highlights was Juliette Armanet’s rendition of John Lennon’s song “Imagine,” performed on a barge with a piano which looked like it was on fire.

According to The Guardian, Paris 2024 organizers have apologized to Catholics and Christian groups angered by a kitsch tableau in the opening ceremony that parodied Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting. The segment, which resembled the biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his Apostles sharing a last meal before his crucifixion, featured drag queens and a singer made up as the Greek God of wine, Dionysus. This drew dismay from the Catholic church and the religious right in the United States. The creative director of the opening ceremony, Thomas Jolly, said: 'I did not intend to be subversive or to mock or shock … In France we can believe or not believe, in France we have a lot of rights and I wanted to convey those values throughout the ceremony.'

The flag bearers for the United States, as voted upon by the American athletes, was basketball superstar LeBron James and tennis great Coco Gauff. They took their job seriously and mentioned to the media how proud they were to represent their country.

The Olympic Village has been a hot topic because of cramped conditions and no air conditioning. Paris organizers didn’t put air conditioning units inside rooms in the village. A cooling system was put together, using naturally cold water from 70 meters deep that is circulated in the flooring of the buildings to reduce the temperature in the apartments. The decision is part of the organizing committee’s goal to cut the carbon footprint of the Paris Games by half. Beds were made out of cardboard.

Nothing beat the smile on Simone Biles’ face after she nailed her first event of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the balance beam.

I watched a Women’s Water Polo match where it seems a foul is whistled down every 10-15 seconds. When a foul is called, players have to swim to a designated area at the end of the pool. It looked like a watery time-out.

I really enjoy watching the Olympics without Bela and Marta Karolyi being involved.

USA’s basketball team’s opening game of pool play came against Serbia and Luka Doncic, who has won the last three NBA Most Valuable Player awards. The American team, led by LeBron James and Kevin Durant, disposed of Serbia, 110-84. I don’t want to say the USA team is loaded, but Durant actually came off the bench. Every time teammate Joel Embiid touched the basketball, he was mightily booed by the partisan French fans. That’s because Embiid was born in France, but opted to play with Team USA.

Former NBA player and two-time Olympian Dwyane Wade did a nice as color commentator. Wade returned to the Olympic stage as the main analyst for U.S. men’s national team games alongside play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle. Wade did mention his alma mater Marquette University too many times. He must be getting a stipend every time he mentioned the word Marquette.

During basketball reviews, two referees had to go behind a table and look over the shoulders of two men running the review monitors. Referees did let the teams play aggressively. One of the Olympic rules that played into USA’s favor was being able to grab the ball off the cylinder and no defensive 3-second area was used. I’m not sure who designed the Olympic basketball arena but the seats were quite some distance from the floor.

NBC and Peacock are televising the Paris 2024 Games. It seems every commercial was either a political advertisement for a national or local politician (and some were downright nasty), or for Dick’s Sporting Goods.

I can do without the antics of Snoop Dogg and Flavor Flav. And even though I’m a Saturday Night Live fan, comedian Colin Jost was neither entertaining or funny. There are enough distractions for the athletes with the likes of Dr. Jill Biden, Spike Lee, Tom Cruise, Nick Jonas, Queen Latifah, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Serena Williams, Peyton Manning, Jessica Chastain, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, and Lady Gaga in the crowd.

For the record, there have been five people from Saginaw County who have represented the USA in Olympic Games: Howard Patterson (swimming), Jerry “Petey” Armstrong (boxing), Daryl Szarenski (pistol shooting), Draymond Green (basketball), and Dr. Kent Timm (trainer).

Whatever happened to Ben Johnson?

QUICK QUIZ ANSWER

B. Michael Phelps. Phelps is not only the most decorated American Olympian in the summer games, but he’s also the world’s most decorated Olympian with 23 gold medals. Phelps qualified for his first Olympics in 2000 at age 15, and by 2004 he was tying world records, winning eight medals at a single Games with six gold and two bronze. In 2008, he won his most medals yet, taking home eight golds, breaking another Olympic record. Phelps continued to rack up gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics for a total of 23. Two athletes – Carl Lewis and Mark Spitz – are a distant second with nine gold medals each.