a video of the two silver medalists I just blogged about meeting on my Instagram feed. I know I should be more concerned that my every move is being tracked but if it gives me things like this…I’m ok with it.
Author: adroyer
Archery Final
Another post where I wish I was writing about a gold medal instead of a silver, this one for Brady Ellison in Men’s Individual Archery. Brady has the honor of being in one of the physical Olympic scrapbooks from 2008. That year I picked an athlete or team from every sport to follow. See that newspaper cut out of his results? Dedication to crafting.
But here’s Brady today in his 5th Olympics!! He already has 4 Olympic Silver and Bronze medals, won bronze in the mixed team these games and then made it to the gold medal match against Kim Woojin.
They tied after 6 regular rounds and in one of the most amazing finale formats in sports, they go to a single arrow shoot-off. Robin Hood style of whoever gets closest to the middle wins, and I’m assuming gets a parcel of land in the English countryside to lord over. I wish they shot at the same target and could split the other person’s arrow, just like our underappreciated girl Merida from Brave.
Kim shot first and was at the edge of 10 close to 9 leaving a window but Brady landed his in 9. It was close but not enough for the gold. Kim did not let Brady leave without raising their hands together in a delightful show of sportsmanship. That had to be so exciting for both of them, a single arrow shoot-off in a gold medal final.
I also love how the coaches are such a part of the match. The South Korean coach looks like he would be amazing at telling grandchildren funny stories, but always a little bit of magic in it and the kids go “oh grandpa, there weren’t dragons when you were a kid.” The US coach seems a little more quiet, more of an uncle who always does the grilling at family functions to avoid small talk and has a lady friend named Tina who makes a great hot dish.
I hope this isn’t the last time we see Brady Ellison, he’s been such a big part of my Olympic watching journey. So I hope he also has LA2028 circled on his calendar. Archery is a sport where athletes can stay in the game longer than others so fingers crossed!
And with this Silver medal Brady Ellison now has 2 posters in a box, you go Brady Ellison. I bet he could trade one of them for some interesting and rare pins in the Village.
Thoughts on the 100M Final
This one is tough. I think we all wanted Sha’Carri to win. She’s come so far since Tokyo and had some amazing races leading up to the Olympics. But she didn’t look great in the semifinals and she seemed to have a slow start in the finals and couldn’t recover.
It’s also hard to not be happy for Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred. The US currently has 2,629 medals in the history of the Summer Olympics, with 1,061 gold. Saint Lucia now has 1 medal ever and it’s gold. As much as I want us to win every gold ever, this gold medal is going to mean so much to that small, beautiful-looking island and change Julien’s life forever.
And can we talk about Melissa Jefferson for a second? She was also overcome with emotion and so frickin excited to win the Bronze which is a nice reminder that just getting to the podium is such an accomplishment.
So, it wasn’t Sha-Carri’s gold medal day, but it was still a great day and I’m going to ignore the chatter that is already happening on the garbage pit that is the internet. She’s still got the 4×100 relay and I’m sure she’s got LA2028 100M final circled on her calendar already.
Also, love how Adele stopped her concert to show the race in Munich. She’s the best.
Beware the Peloton
I watched an unnecessary amount of the six-hour men’s cycling road race yesterday morning. But that’s the beauty of the Olympics, you turn something on thinking you’ll watch a few minutes, and then suddenly you are two hours in and they still have 87 KM to go and you’re in it to win it. Just like Remco Evenepoel.
The race coverage was split between 3 things:
- The leader out there doing his thang and maybe a few guys trying to chase him down
- Beautiful French countryside ariel shots of historic villas, rolling hills and French patriots cheering on the racers
- THE PELOTON TRYING TO CONSUME ALL
The way the announcers were talking about the Peloton it sounded like an alien blob rolling over the countryside trying to catch the leaders so it could continue to grow and take over the world. Here are some of the more terrifying updates I saw online:
And there were so many spectators! Were they taken by the peloton? Or is it a T-Rex situation and the Peloton only sees people when they are a on bike and moving so people cheering with their feet on the ground are safe?
But we know one person who successfully escaped the Peloton, Remco Evenepoel of Belgium. He almost didn’t escape when his tire went flat with less than 5k to go in front of the Louvre. My favorite part was the announcers saying “he’s probably going to be the only person from the Olympics who doesn’t have fond memories of the Louvre.” Can you imagine announcing a six hour race? I can’t imagine what weird things would come out of my mouth after hour 4.
But back to Remco, he celebrated escaping the Peloton with a badass picture on the finish line with the Eiffel Tower in the background. I wonder what part of the 6 hours he thought of that idea, did he workshop it for an entire hour in the middle or did it come to him at the very end.
I’m sure either way he was thinking “not today Peloton, not today.”
(but the women’s road race is soon so the female peloton is about to start its rampage, watch out everyone!)
Social Media Dump
Here are some of my favorite social media things I’ve seen recently. Like this video of a football player for Navy finding out his sister won a gold medal!
Have you seen videos about the all the houses the different countries have and all the cool things you can do in them!?
Some hometown humor for Stephen with the glasses.
DOG
And because how could I not….
Yes, his Olympic dreams have ended, but he’s the hottest meme at the moment with what appears to be the largest baguette so….go get em tiger.
Power of the Crystal
So I got a crystal in a mystery bag at an art/antiques barn in Asheville during a brewery canoe tour while wearing a bucket hat, which also sums up my life perfectly. I tried to use it for Sha’Carri and it didn’t fully work but it did work for Katie Ledecky. So maybe it’s a water based crystal?
Jumping on a trend
I’m sad to report I was not selected for the 2024 Olympics.
But would like to submit this even older video for consideration because I do feel like this could have been turned into something athletic.
MORE Breaking News
I need that croissant real bad.
Breaking News
Two More Medals I want to celebrate today
Women’s Gymnastics All Around
Don’t have much to add here from what you’ve probably already seen or read. So happy to see Simone complete the redemption tour from Tokyo. I really enjoyed watching Rebecca Andrade and happy to see her get silver. And of course Suni Lee, so exciting she came back after all her health challenges to win another medal in the all around competition. They showed so many pictures of her sitting on the sidelines at Auburn with her feet elevated that I’m hoping pictures like the one below will wipe out all the other ones.
Men’s 20km Race Walk
Race Walk continues to be such a fascinating sport. If you watched the full broadcast you probably also saw a lot of close-up, slow motion thigh action which was a very interesting choice. And I feel like it actively showed everyone have a little bit of airtime. But I wanted to celebrate the gold medalist, Brian Daniel Pintado Álvarez of Ecuador, for his fashionable finish line lewk. Bringing back ascots to the Olympic games, love it.
Royer's Olympic Blog 