GOAT

Once upon a time, being the goat wasn't a good thing.  If I asked you whether you saw the goat in last night's 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay, you would have assumed someone had an early take off, or swam a particularly bad leg, costing his or her relay a medal.  That is after you wondered why I asked such a stupid sounding question.


Some time over the last, I don't know, 5-15 years, the title, Greatest of All Time, which is a completely subjective and unofficial title, was reduced to GOAT.  I don't remember the specifics of the first time I heard someone referred to as the GOAT, but I do remember being confused.  Like the example above, I assumed the person referred to had done something bad.  Eventually, I figured it out.


I may have been confused because GOAT is a terrible word.  Sports has some great words and some bad words.  Dormie is a great word.  So is peleton.  Twizzle is simply fantastic.  GOAT, not so much.


I am not the czar of all sports, so I can't do anything about GOAT.  Except, I can appreciate when I am watching the GOAT, or anyone in the discussion.


This year, we have several opportunities to watch someone in the discussion of GOAT.  The most obvious is Michael Phelps.  Everyone knows the numbers, so we won't dwell on them here.  We will just appreciate him for what he is and how he does it.  As much as the Michael Phelps Face meme provided us all with some enjoyment, whether it was used to complain about slow golf, stop your spouse from taking a bite of your food, getting the fake Slim Shady to sit back down, or one of the other thousands of jokes applied to that picture, think about why he looked so, so, so mean.  Chad Le Clos seems like a reasonably fun person in sports.  He is very good and he is brash.  In some ways, he is like Lily King, who all fans of US swimming love because she is very good and brash.  If Le Clos were American, everyone would love him.  He's fun.


But you don't poke the GOAT.  Of all the things people said about Michael Jordan that made him as great as he was, the most significant was that he would use anything to give him extra motivation.  Anything, real or imagined.  Michael Phelps has a ton of natural talent.  He works really hard.  So do a lot of other people.  In a sport where medals are decided by hundredths of a second, when facing a guy who always seems to be on the right side of those hundredths, it is probably not a good idea to give him a little more motivation.  Le Clos was obsessed.  He play boxed in the waiting room.  He talked trash.  He stared Phelps down.  He looked at him during the race, which is a 7 year old move, by the way.  My 9 year old lost a race a week and a half ago because he was looking at the competition, rather than the wall.  I yelled at him.  Someone needs to yell at Chad Le Clos.  He did everything he could to let Phelps know that Phelps was all he cared about.


Phelps already had that loss in 2012 to motivate him.  Did Le Clos really think it was a good idea to pile on the motivation?  Did he really think that constantly reminding Phelps that he was there was the best plan?  There are people you taunt and people you don't.  You need to know the difference.  Phelps always ends up on the right side of these things, even when he isn't in the water (see, Lezak, Jason, 400 Free Relay, 2008.)  You don't poke the GOAT.


Two more gold medals to an already ridiculous number.  Three more possible gold medals.  Claims that he broke a record more than 2000 years old.  GOAT.


Today's Olympic Story Line - Zahra Nemati.  Nemati is an Iranian archer.  She grew up competing in Taekwondo and had dreams of competing in the Olympics.  At the age of 18, she was hit by a car and her spine was shattered.  Three years later, she started competing in archery.  In 2012, she won gold at the Paralympic Games.  This year, she is competing in Rio in the Olympics and the Paralympics.  Not only that, she was the flag bearer.  For Iran.  Think about that.

 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.  I watched a US competitor in kayak who was not doing his second run and had not already qualified for the semifinals.  That was weird.  We'll ignore that it was the finals.

 2.  Too.  Much.  Rowing.

 3.  I'm a little sick of the "information age".  I don't need The Washington Post to send me a news alert email that the Women won the Gymnastics Team Competition.  I'd like to find out in front of my television at home, not in front of my computer at work.

 4.  A Qatari team made up of a guy from Brazil and a guy from Senegal advanced out of the beach volleyball group.  I'm sure those Qataris are proud.

5.  I let the boys stay up to watch Ledecky in the 200 free.  Good move.

 6.  We watched a little rugby yesterday.  Eldest kept yelling at the TV, "I'm so confused!"  I was fine until the end, when the clock ran out, but play continued, and then we lost.  I don't get it and I'm not sure I want to.

 7.  Giving yourself, or your team, a nickname is not the best move.  Yelling it as a cheer during competition is even worse.

 8.  If NBC is doing the gymnastics on tape delay, do they really need to spend so much time showing the girls sitting around doing nothing?

 9.  Some big names out of tennis already.

10.  Not a good day to do the Cycling Time Trial.  Weather was brutal.


11.  Got to see some judo yesterday.  Life is good.
 
Predictions Sum Up -

1.  Brady Ellison wins his Round of 64 Archery match.  Yup. Then he defeated fellow American Jake Kaminski in the next round.  That sucked.
2.  Women win Gymnastics Team title by more than 10.  WRONG! Only 8.
3.  Women's Soccer wins 4-0.  WRONG!  And wow a bad performance by Hope Solo.  Maybe those ZIKA! calls are getting to her.
4.  Ledecky does what Ledecky does, but no World Record.  Yup.
5.  Phelps wins 200 Fly, then dunks Chad Le Clos, gives him a white wash and has Lily King run out on deck wagging her index finger at him.  Yup. That was the most arrogant celebration I have ever seen from Phelps, so I was pretty close, even without Lily King.  Phelps did the finger himself.
6.  DiRado bronze in 200 IM.  Yup.
7.  US Men win 4 x 200 free relay.  Yup.

   Predictions -

1.  US Men win basketball by, by, by 1000.  1000!
2.  Women's Field Hockey continues the dream against Japan.
3.  Walsh-Jennings/Ross don't lose a set.  Again.  (This is going to be like "Ledecky wins gold."  I'll just cut and paste it in every couple days.)
4.  Kevin Cordes gets silver in 200 breast.  Prenot bronze.
5.  Nathan Adrian gets silver in 100 free.
6.  US wins Women's 4 x 200 Relay.  The legend of Ledecky grows even more.
7.  In 8 years, I will write a Blog Post about the GOAT:  Katie Ledecky.

   What to Watch for:

 1.  Kayla Harrison begins her quest for repeat gold in Judo.  She was responsible for my love of judo.
2.  Women's Water Polo v. Croatia tomorrow.  Watch yet another US Women's team that crushes the competition,
3.  200 IM.  Last ever Phelps-Lochte race?
4.  Golf - if you build the Olympics and hold a golf tournament, but nobody cares, did it happen?
5.  Badminton - the biggest scandal of London 2012 came from badminton.  This is must see TV.
6.  Track cycling - seriously, watch for 5 minutes.  Crazy stuff.


Today was a little off, I know.  We can't always be on our A Game.  I'll be back.