The eight year old me chose my Obscure Summer Olympic Sport. The eight year old me saw a water park on steroids and imagined how much fun it would be to ride down that thing on a raft. Or without a raft. Truth is, I made a bad choice. Kayak, like badminton, is fun to watch for a while. Then the novelty wears off. Plus, kayak takes forever. One racer goes at a time. The average racer, from what I saw, took more than a minute, and there were over 30 competitiors. Take into account start time and random lollygagging between racers, and the qualifying heats lasted for hours. In the words of the Grail Knight in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "[I] chose pooorly."
So, I am giving myself a mulligan. A do-over for you non-golfers. It's my Blog, I can do what I want. Plus, when you see elements of the Perfect Storm developing again, you don't sit around because you have already seen rain today, you run to that storm and see what it brings you. This year, it brought us a derecho. Not as devastating as a hurricane, but still packs a mighty punch.
So, for this year, I am amending my Obscure Summer Olympic Sport to Judo. Nothing will ever match Nordic Combined in 2010 for the elements of the Perfect Storm, but judo has many elements: 1. US success is limited - i.e., never won a gold before; 2. It is an obscure sport; 3. It doesn't require a great time commitment (matches are 5 minutes); and 4. The US was on the brink of a breakthrough. It misses on the easy to understand thing, but it certainly was interesting to watch. At the end, there is a score, so you know who won. You just may not know how they got that score.
The emerging US success is Kayla Harrison. She is quite a story. To begin with, Kayla was sexually abused by her judo coach as a child. She told a friend about the abuse, who told her mom, who smashed the coach's car windows with a baseball bat. (GO MOM!!) Despite this early tragedy, Kayla continued with judo, and yesterday became the first American to win gold in judo. This is the tragic, but inspirational story. But we need to move past her history to her present, because the competition was awesome.
My introduction to judo was watching Travis Stevens heroically fail to win a medal in the Men's Half Middleweight (WHAT?) competition. I saw Stevens lose the semifinals in extra time and the bronze medal match. I watched about 15 minutes of judo and saw one point scored. As I have already written, I also saw a couple guys repeatedly grab each other, roll around on the floor, stop, start over, and never score. Stevens was exhausted and devastated. In many ways, he represented what the Olympics is. But this was baffling.
I still watched Kayla. Kayla walks onto the judo mat like she is prepared to destroy you. In the first match I saw, her quarterfinals, she won in 56 seconds. Think about that. Two days before, I watched two men's matches and approximately 15 minutes of Judo and saw one point. Kayla won, with 100 points, in 56 seconds. Now I was even more confused, but intrigued. In her semifinal match, she fell behind 10-0. I had seen one point scored. I had seen 100 points scored. And now I had seen 10 points scored. I figured a great story was killed right then, because I don't know how you get 10 points, but it has to be hard to beat. Kayla eventually got a point to make the score 10-1. Then, with about a minute and a half left, she got 100 points and the match was over. 101-10. Huh?
So I had to learn about judo. Judo translates to "gentle way". If you read the Wikipedia article, this MIGHT make sense, but if you watch a judo match it is baffling. Each little scuffle begins with the competitiors trying to grab each other. They reach for the other's robes and simultaneously try to slap the other's hands away. They look like two little kids trying to poke each other, and more importantly trying to stop the other from poking them. Once they get a grip, the goal is to throw the opponent to the ground on their back. There is nothing gentle about this. If they throw their opponent onto her back with the right amount of force and technique, they get 100 points and win the match. If they throw their opponent on her back without the right amount of force, they get 10 points. If they throw their opponent onto her side, they get 1 point. At least as far as I can tell and read. Also, if they get on the ground and strangle their opponent (I am not making any of this up) into submission or unconsciousness they win the match. If they can force their opponent to submit by hyperextending a joint (this is how Kayla won her quarterfinal), they win the match. There is also something about pinning an opponent for 25 seconds. Each competitor is allowed 2 medical visits (again, not making this up). This is...the Gentle Way.
I have found no rule, but it also appears that either for strategy or intimidation, the competitors don't straighten themselves up during the match, even though the first thing that happens is both robes are dishevelled and eventually hang loosely, untied by their belt. The men wear nothing underneath, so they look like they are about to go for a steam.
Kayla's gold medal match was against Gemma Gibbons of Great Britian. Gemma is surprisingly attractive for a judo competitor. She had the home crowd support, but no chance. Kayla walked with purposeful intent. She had a mission and no one, not the least Gemma Gibbons, was going to stop her. At the beginning of the match (which starts at about 1:59.00 here), Gemma looked a little scared. I would have been terrified going into a judo match against Kayla. About halfway through, Gemma started slapping away Kayla's hands in a way that looked like she was whining "Leave me alone!" Towards the end, though she gave it a good fight. The match as a whole was good. But you have to watch the not straightening up thing. Gemma's hair slowly disintegrates into a floppy mess until she looks like a homeless person. She makes no effort to do anything other than sweep a few strands out of her eyes. Kayla's hair was a little bit more tightly bound, so it didn't collapse quite as much.
Then I saw the late night interview with Kayla. This intimidating, focused, downright scary woman became this bubbly, smiley teeny-bopper. (She is 22, but she looked like a teeny-bopper.) I tell you, the woman who won that gold medal was not the woman who did that interview. She must send her unknown twin sister out to do interviews while she fights bears for raw meat in a cave to prepare for her next conquest.
Today's Olympic Story Line - is Kayla. My last comment was for fun, and I hope you realize that. Kayla is a tremendous story and one NBC should milk for all it is worth. Her ability to overcome tragedy should be an inspiration to anyone, and sad as it is, hopefully this can be a small source of comfort to victims of sexual abuse. Her focus is incredible and the fact that she is one person on the floor and another in the interview studio is a good demonstration of what it takes to be a world class athlete. I am glad I found Kayla. Just like I am glad I found Bill Demong, Johnny Spillane, Todd Lodwick and Brett Camerota.
Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and
medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits) -
1. Ryan Lochte finished his Olympics with 5 medals: 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. About 140 people in the history of the Olympics have won 5 or more medals in their careers. Lochte did it in a week. (He now has 11 career Olympic medals.) But 2012 was a disappointment for Lochte, who came in with a realistic chance at 6 golds. I think he has the mindset to understand that 2012 was a great accomplishment. But this had to be a little tough.
2. Michael Phelps proved he is the best swimmer ever. As someone said to me earlier today, Lochte is Alydar, Phelps is Affirmed.
3. US Men beat Brazil in Volleyball in remarkably dominant fashion. Let's hope this continues through the tournament. (My Volleyball Insider had a comment about this which I will save for another day, and another subject matter.)
4. Rebecca Soni is awesome.
5. Missy Franklin is still my hero.
6. Gabby Douglas is the pride of Virginia Beach. And America.
Predictions Wrap Up -
1. Lochte and Clary go 1-2 in 200 back. - WRONG - Lochte falls to bronze. But Clary takes gold.
2. Phelps and Lochte go 1-2 in 200
IM. - Correct
3. US women get 1, and only 1, medal in 100 free. I'll say silver. For
Missy. - WRONG - but Missy gave it a good show. And will be back tonight (see below).
4. Judo Breakthrough - Gold for US, and I will change my Obscure
Summer Olympic Sport. - Correct - See above.
5. US Men's basketball team beats Nigeria by more than
40. - Correct - It does seem wrong to take credit for predicting a 40 point win when they won by 83!
6. US Women defend their gold in Women's 8 rowing. Mary Whipple
screams the National Anthem during the ceremony. - Correct - Yeah, baby! Those are my girls. Well, they were last night. And Mary was belting that anthem.
7. I will be back on my
game tomorrow. - Correct - At least I feel like I am.
What to Watch For (I am reversing this and predictions, because predictions often come from what to watch for) -
1. Women's soccer v. NZ. Knock out rounds begin.
2. Still lots of sailing.
3. Trampoline begins. How many other backyard activities can we turn into Olympic sports?
4. Track and field begins.
5. Beach volleyball knock-out rounds begin.
6. Another weekend - how much stuff can we cram into two days?
7. Tennis - who knew it was in the Olympics? (More on this later.)
8. Track Cycling -you have to watch a little, it is crazy cool to watch.
Predictions -
1. Franklin-Biesel 1-2 in 200 backstroke
2. US wins 2 medals in men's 100 fly. Gold for Phelps.
3. 15 year old Katy Ledecky wins a medal in the 800 free. I'll say bronze.
4. US wins one medal in men's 50 free. Not sure who or what color. This is a crapshoot anyway.
5. US wins 2 medals in men's discus.
6. US wins 1 medal in women's 10,000.
7. US wins gold in both beach volleyball competitions. (My Volleyball Insider will like the optimism, but may question the judgment.)
Fat Old Man Update - 2000 meters in the water yesterday. Focus was on building endurance. At times, I feel like a real swimmer. These are rare and short lived, but they do happen.
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