Olympics..

1. Watching the Men's Gymnastics - Individual Events. (with the exception of the Pommel, none of the Americans qualified. I don't care. I'm not really nationalistic. I don't care about the politics or which country folks are from - I care about the athletes. It's not their fault they are from XYZ country, that's fate and outside of most people's control. My mother is the same way. Nationalism is kind of irrational and illogical? It makes no sense to me. Wouldn't life be better if we forgot about it.)

Wales: I heard the Israeli won a silver in the events, but I didn't see it. What's that about?
ME: I saw it. He won on the floor exercise. I watched it. It wasn't a huge deal. I find the women more impressive on the floor. (Actually the floor doesn't do a lot for me either way. But I do like the tumbling. Although Carly Yuno was admittedly amazing on it.)

I honestly think it's her inability to record or find the events in her app. Youtube isn't the most reliable of apps, and Peacock is admittedly hard to navigate, which is why I'm still DVR'ing it.

At any rate, Carl Yulo is amazing. I'm happy he's winning. The Phillipines is a very poor country. $400,000 ? You live like a billionaire over there.
Lando (former co-worker) used to visit the Phillipines and tell me about it. He said, they had card board houses over there. And to get hot water was a feat. Beautiful and kind people though. He used to tell me stories about the government corruption and the police corruption. Wherever you go? There you are. Apparently. I would like to visit that part of the world someday. Although he said it had a lot of snakes - and Lando hates snakes.

Damn it. They cut off the end of the vault again. I have to find the next taping of it. Can't. Went to Peacock to get the replay. Peacock doesn't have the best interface by the way. I find it hard to grab stuff, plus ugh, commercials unless you pay Premium.

2. One of the most exciting events, surprisingly enough, was the women's road bike race. Kristin Faulkner, from the US, came from behind - she was about fourth or fifth, and in the last three-four miles, suddenly jumped ahead of everyone by at least a mile, then two miles, and won the gold. It was amazing. She wasn't predicted to win. It was her first Olympics.

3. The other big event of the day was Ryan Fink winning the 1500 Meter Freestyle - completely unexpected. They were expecting the Irish guy to win. It blew the commentators away. The excited commentators are kind of fun. The swimming ones go nuts.

I went to sleep during the track events. Although that was mainly due to my mistake of taking my tremor and beta blocker together. They tend to cause drowsiness if taken together. (That's an understatement. Within about three hours of taking them? They knock me out. I used to take them at night - but it's dangerous to take the tremor med with the blood pressure med.)

4. There have been various people pulling out of events or missing them - specifically in track. Jamaica's Sherri Price - got confused about the gate rule change, and missed her event, but her teammate won. Sharicka had to scratch on a few events due to feeling ill or not up to snuff. She'd had some issue in a race in Hungary and thought she was past it, but apparently not, and is off her game. So her teammates and various others got opportunities they may not have gotten otherwise.

Athletics is so dependent on various things outside an athlete's control. The equipment, the weather, etc. Surfing was delayed due to weather. There's a serious heatwave in Paris with the temperature in the 90s and high humidity. The uneven bars were slippery - and they had to water them down and chalk them again. After various athletes slipped. Then there are athletes that have taken various performance enhancing drugs in the past - which had previously barred Russia and China from the Olympics in the past. Now? Russia is barred due to politics, not the athletes fault - so they aren't competing. (I asked Mother why Israel wasn't barred, and she reminded me that it was different - and well went into details that I honestly was happier not knowing about. ) But this is why the competition is well different? If Russia were there? The gymnastics line up would be different. Same with the other events. Who enters, who qualifies, who is on...I mean Brody is the best in the world on various events, but he was having an off week and had had injuries in the past - that affected his performance, a performance that had been brilliant at the world championships. So he wasn't in the individuals, this opens things up for others.

It's why it is hard for me to put much importance on athletic performance?
One week you are on, one week you are off. Don't get me wrong - I think they are amazing and brilliant to watch. And I'm insanely impressed.
But, I'm not ...well, I'm not fannish about it? If that makes any sense?
Probably not?

I'll put it another way? I'm watching the Olympics because it's comforting to watch people do amazing things, and accomplish great physical feats with their team mates, and individually. Representing their countries in a positive and peaceful manner. And competing and battling in a peaceful manner, without discrimination, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any of that crap. It's just about the performance. That's it. Politics aren't involved.

And watching them hug and root each other on, regardless of their country.
Smile when a competitor blows them away and say wow. I love that. The Olympics has always given me hope for peace. As long as we have events like this - I have hope for a peaceful tomorrow.