1. United States 27 gold, 35 silver, 32 bronze (94 total)
2. China 25, 23, 17 (65)
3. Australia 18, 12, 11 (41)
4. France 13, 17, 21 (51)
5. Great Britain 12, 17, 20 (49)
6. South Korea 12, 8, 7 (27)
7. Japan 12, 6, 13 (31)
8. Italy 9, 10, 8 (27)
9. Netherlands 9, 5, 6 (20)
10. Germany 8, 5, 5 (18)
Previous reports:
I don't know Kendall Baker or Jeff Tracy. I imagine they are both significantly younger than me. Because in the same way that I devoured and studied newspaper sports sections of the 1970s and '80s (still do) and had a very confident sense by the 1990s of how I wanted to emulate and augment what I knew to be out there, Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy seem to totally know what they're doing with a type of media artifact that still did not exist during the short time I was in the field ...
ReplyDeleteI have so much fun reading the Yahoo Sports AM newsletter that shows up in my email. Here's the browser version of today's edition ...
ReplyDeleteIt reads that Baker and Tracy "produce" the daily newspaper. I don't remember us ever saying that we "produced" anything at any of the newspapers I worked at. We reported, wrote and edited stuff. We photographed it, cropped it and laid it out. We pasted it, and then we paginated it. We rolled it. And maybe we thought to ourselves that we had participated in "producing" the whole, finished edition of the paper that showed up in a rubber band or plastic bag at our homes when we working.
ReplyDeleteThat is, if the bastards who ran the joint weren't so cheap to deny those of who actually did the work to get a free copy at our homes, because certainly not one of the bastards who ran any of the joints paid any of us nearly enough to reasonably afford to pay for a subscription. It felt to me the industry was about 60/40 when I was around--about 60 percent of the newspapers still gave their employees free subscriptions, and about 40 percent did not. I worked mostly for 60s, but I worked for some 40s, and I would be surprised if it's anything less than a literally 0/100 split today.
I meant to type that Baker and Tracy produce the daily newsletter not newspaper, but now I can't go back and fix it because I'm already a handful of more comments deep, and it would be out of order. So, whatever ... I meant newsletter them, newspaper me.
DeleteBut that was then, and this is now, and even I from the then can see that the correct verb of what Baker and Tracy of the now are doing is "producing" Yahoo's newsletter. It's its own thing, and there are decisions to be made at every turn in terms of when to talk and when to shut up, what to put in and what not to, how much to include and when to cut it off. It's a job.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Kendall Baker and Jeff Tracy are my age. Maybe they just simply stuck with it from the then to the now and rolled with all of the changes. Maybe they were simply better than I was at the then. Certainly they are better at the now than I would be. I know a couple of people did the then and do the now--both well.
ReplyDeleteBut I'll bet not. There's a fun to their email newsletter that feels like it directly tracks to that particularly sweet and unconscious fun of falling in love with sports as a child--like these two were consuming early versions of what they would do once they had a chance and the capabilities and tools had matured.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm sure thankful they produce it and that I get to gobble it up now.
ReplyDeleteIn today's edition, you're not going to find a more thrilling recap (with Jeff Eisenberg) of the amazing men's 400m comeback by Quincy Hall of Kansas City, Missouri (U! S! A! ... U! S! A! ... U! S! A! ...) or genuine depiction (with Lars Baron) of the bronze-medal-winning lift in men's 61kg by Hampton Morris of Marietta, Georgia (U! S! A! ... U! S! A! ... U! S! A! ...) or helpful and thorough explanation of what's coming next (all-time medals leaders in modern pentathlon Hungary 9-8-6, Sweden 9-7-5, Great Britain 4-2-3). Plenty more, too.
ReplyDeleteBut not too much. Just the right amount. It's really, really well done.
It's tied at a set apiece in the live Team USA-Brazil semifinal in women's indoor volleyball on Channel 6, but I'm not going to ruin another day trying to process Fédération Internationale de Volleyball jive. Good luck, U.S. women.
ReplyDeleteThere's live women's beach volleyball on E, but my wife is always mad when she comes through and that's on the TV--not mad at me specifically, just the world generally. Anyway, I'm not going to ruin her morning either.
There's wrestling on USA Network, but watching wrestling always makes me smell the gym.
So I think I'll rock some Peacock GoldZone on my phone ...
GOLD MEDAL ALERT advises the upper right of the screen ... women's weightlifting of some weight class ...
ReplyDeleteWell, I think I might've just watched China win a gold, but I didn't pay close enough attention. Now either Scott Hanson or Andrew Siciliano--I can't keep them straight by voice--has thrown us to some indoor cycling stuff, which is always so futuristic and slick to look at ...
ReplyDeleteConfirmed in 59-kilogram women's weightlifting: China gold, Canada silver and Taiwan bronze.
ReplyDeleteOh, great, now GoldZone is making me watch the volleyball ...
ReplyDelete11-6, Team USA in the third set ...
DeleteIf GoldZone had been available in 1976, 1980 or 1984, I would've been *furious* with my parents the moment either of them walked into my room and said one word during any of those six Olympics.
ReplyDeleteBut it doesn't work for me how I'm rigged to consume these Olympics--live stuff in the daytime, in the background when I'm working. I cannot keep up with what's going on, and then they jump away too quickly for me to figure it out. I'm moving to the continuous Peacock feed of some competition.
ReplyDeleteOK, men's "formula kite," which is a deal where the competitors ride on a surfboard-ish thing while controlling a big kite sail overhead. They are somewhere outside the Marseilles Marina, presumably on the Gulf of Lion, which is part of the Mediterranean Sea, near the mouth of the Rhône River. They're having problems. Some kites are down in the choppy waters.
ReplyDeleteThis whole event appears to have been having problems all week. Per Wikipedia: "Races 8 to 16 were cancelled due to inadequate wind speeds ..." I think this means that the pairings for the semifinals and finals, which is what I've been watching, were going to be based on the results of only seven of 16 scheduled races.
Anyway, it appears an American, Markus Edegran, made it to the medal competition, but, as per the Peacock broadcast just seconds ago, now this is being postponed.
Well, we may or may not eventually figure out what's goes on in formula kite. This is the first Olympics in which kiteboarding has been an official event, and it doesn't appear to have gotten off to an exactly smashing start.
Oh, now Peacock is showing commentary-less footage overlooking sunset over the Mediterranean, and this is, of course, beautiful. I think they might be getting ready to show us a medals ceremony for women's formula kite, which I think they did get in today. A U.S. competitor, Daniela Moroz of Berkeley, California, finished third after the seven preliminary races, so I'm going to chill here for a while and see what happens.
ReplyDeleteI would love to go to France some day!
Nope, Peacock has concluded its coverage from Marseilles, and now it's just giving us a still shots of the Champs-Élysées, the Eiffel Tower, etc. "Enjoy views from Paris, France," Peacock suggests. I'm working back in our bedroom today, and my phone is positioned on a cats and next to my chair, right below a painting of the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile on the Champs-Élysées.
ReplyDeleteI bought this painting twice in about 1993. I was driving south from Louisville back home to Bowling Green one morning after something or another, and I discovered it in an Elizabethtown junk store. I paid $30 for it, but I didn't have room to carry it home in my little car. So I told them I would come back for it some day.
And I did--about five years later. I had completely forgotten about the painting. I was back in Etown, saw the junk store again and remembered. I went in, and, at some point, they'd put the painting back on the wall where I initially discovered it. I thought about telling them the story, but, by this point, I could actually afford to pay $30 for a painting on a lark and just decided to buy it again.
Which I did. And here it is in our bedroom all these years later.
On a catstand and next to my chair.
DeleteSTUPID PEACOCK AUTOMATICALLY SWITCHED ME BACK TO THE VOLLEYBALL, AND NOW I'VE LEARNED IT'S 6-5, BRAZIL, IN THE DECIDING, 15-POINT THIRD SET!
ReplyDeleteNow I feel like the U.S. women need me to stick with them ...
6-6!
ReplyDeleteObviously, I was right.
ReplyDelete7-6, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete10-8, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete11-8, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete12-8, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete13-10, Team USA ...
ReplyDelete14-10, Team USA ... first match point ...
ReplyDelete14-11 ... second match point ... I should've called it "match point," not "first match point" ... now I might've jinxed them ...
ReplyDeleteNO, I DID NOT! I DID NOT JINX THEM! TEAM USA WINS! TEAM USA WINS!!! THEY'LL PLAY FOR GOLD, AND I DID NOT JINX THEM!!!
ReplyDeleteYes!
ReplyDeleteSports is awesome.
ReplyDeleteReminder that Team USA won its first gold medal in women's indoor volleyball at Tokyo 2020. Now it'll play either Turkey or Italy for Paris 2024 gold on Sunday. Brazil was the Tokyo 2020 silver medalist; Serbia won bronze. Neither Turkey nor Italy has ever won a medal in women's indoor volleyball.
ReplyDeleteIt's liberating to conclusively prove that I cannot jinx any of Team USA's results. Liberté! And, absolutely, égalité and fraternité, too. All three of them are great!
Wowwee! Team USA, 95-91 over Serbia, in the men's basketball semifinals!
ReplyDeleteI was on a call this afternoon and missed it--looks like a terrific game. So happy for Steph, LeBron, K.D., et al.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first episode of Prime Time in Paris that I've sat down to from the start, and it's quite thrilling--the John Williams "Olympics on NBC" theme bringing us to a dusk live shot of the Eiffel Tower and now Mike Tirico.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter at dinner tonight said, "I'm going to miss the Olympics so much," and I could've cried.
ReplyDeleteThe athletics coverage makes miss Lexington's too-smooth Tom Hammond.
ReplyDeleteThere are now four countries that have at Paris 2024 won their first-ever Olympic gold medals, one more since yesterday.
ReplyDeleteJust a little back toward Florida from Saint Lucia on that arc of Caribbean islands is Dominica, ...
ReplyDelete... but in the time since I typed that, the daughter wanted to go kayaking, and the dog got sprayed by a skunk, so there went three hours (happily and then not so much). We'll have to get back Dominica tomorrow.
ReplyDelete