‘Ottawa’ Steve Simmons: Weather Halts Olympic Events, Not Violence or Viruses
RIO DE JANEIRO — The pool water is green. The ocean water by Copacabana Beach has an odour you can identify from miles away. At least one media bus has been damaged by either rock or gunfire, two versions of the same story. And that’s not to mention the bomb threats or the gun shots.
And you know what?
After more than a week in Rio, with all the problems and concerns, with the calls for cancellation, the fears of virus and safety, in a city of so much poverty, the Olympics found its first real scheduling snafu Wednesday.
It wasn’t violence. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t Zika. It was rain.
Bad weather did to the Olympics of Rio the kind of damage nothing else has been able to do. A number of sports, including tennis, sailing and rowing, were cancelled and will have to be rescheduled.
And you know what else?
For all the warning, for all the talk of safety, for all that’s been stolen through six days, I have never worried about my safety. These Games of apparent trepidation will never remind anyone of Sydney in 2000. But so far, these aren’t the worst of Games. Atlanta 1996 may have that title forever.
THIS AND THAT
Canadian swimming seems to be in a great place. Track and field has never been deeper. So we ask this question: When did rowing become such an Olympic afterthought? If the sports federations and Own The Podium people found a way to attack the deepest sports like swimming and track, there’s no reason why Canada shouldn’t be more competitive in rowing … The next time a Canadian Olympic athlete complains they don’t get enough coverage — see the annual refrain of Adam van Koeverden — don’t blame the media. Blame the federations and the Canadian Olympic Committee. The star-laden Canadian track team had their press availability here Wednesday. Not available: any of the eight medal winners from last year’s world championships. No Andre De Grasse. No Damian Warner. No Brianne Theisen-Eaton … I may not love rugby sevens as a sport, but many do. In fact, one American colleague believes this is a sport of the future. It’s fast-paced, the clock runs for all 14 minutes, it’s over before you blink. Perfect, he said, for the millennials, who can watch rugby while they play with their phones … OTP has targeted team sports as a building piece of Canadian Olympic sport: And this is the most teams Canada has had at a Games since it hosted one in Montreal … The most under-rated viewing sport of the Olympics: team handball. We should love this in North America. It’s fun, high-scoring, moves quickly, part basketball, part soccer, part hockey. Looks like the kind of thing every high school should play … One theory on why Michael Phelps came back after he retired: He needs to be busy. He needs to be disciplined. When he doesn’t swim he tends to get himself in trouble.
HEAR AND THERE
NBC paid the IOC $1.23 billion for the rights to broadcast the Rio Summer Games. I guess, if you’re kicking up that kind of coin you can pretty much do whatever you want. NBC has ruined the Olympic swimming and track and field schedules, by forcing them too late at night. Which is odd, considering NBC rarely shows anything live. So what does it matter what time anything starts? Phelps had his post-gold medals press conference at 1:30 in the morning here. Who besides Dana White has press conferences that late? The swimmers, used to morning and night swims, have had to adjust their schedules and don’t particularly like the late starts. Other than get the Portuguese alphabet changed, at $1.23 billion NBC can pretty much do whatever it wants here … The only thing worse than covering the Olympics is not covering the Olympics … Canadian track coach Peter Eriksson: “If swimming can do it, why can’t we?” Interesting that the head coaches who turned around the Canadian track and swimming programs are not from Canada. Wonder if men’s basketball, if they could ever put a team together, should consider that … The one-man Canadian boxing team, Arthur Biyarslanov, begins his quest for a medal Thursday. Remember when Canada mattered at boxing? Remember how much fun it was to have an Olympic team in 1984 that had Willie deWit, Shawn O’Sullivan, Dale Walters, Billy Dunlop and Lennox Lewis? And then Lewis and Egerton Marcus in 1988? Sad what’s happened to a Canadian staple? … A tweet from Canadian swimmer Audrey Lacroix: “Good news: I’m done. I can eat whatever I want. Bad news: Olympic Village McDonald’s closes at 9PM.” I say blame NBC … Phenom Katie Ledecky has a receding hairline as a teenager. Talk amongst yourselves.
SCENE AND HEARD
With a victory in his next match, Daniel Nestor puts himself in a position to be something of a trivia question. He won a doubles medal in Sydney in 2000. If he wins another here along with partner Vasek Pospisil, he will be a short list of those to win medals 16 years apart. This is Nestor’s sixth Olympic Games … What’s hard to get used to: It gets dark here about 5 in the afternoon. It looks like it’s cold outside. Even if it isn’t … Non Olympic note: So who had Prince Fielder and Alex Rodriguez retiring in the same week? … There are 271 Russians in the Olympics, which remains a great point of controversy here. For the first time ever, athletes are speaking up against the Russians and moreso against doping in sport. For years, they rarely said anything to disagree with the IOC. Here it has almost become a new sport. And good for the athletes for doing so … Kyle Lowry is fourth in the Olympic basketball tournament in assists. What’s it all mean? … Two Pan-Am Games updates: Ellie Black, who won five gold medals in gymnastics in Toronto, was nowhere near the podium here. Swimmers Penny Oleksiak and Kylie Masse both didn’t qualify for the Pan-Am swim team. Here, they won medals … A touch of Oleksiak trivia: The Monarch Park Collegiate student’s given name is Penelope … Twenty years ago beach volleyball was a made-for-TV Olympic gimmick. It is remarkable to see how it has developed to an almost mainstream sport. It’s huge here … The national sport of Brazil is not robbery, but you could make a case. This week may set an Olympic record for most camera equipment stolen at a Games.
AND ANOTHER THING
These are the lineup Olympics. Lineup for food. Lineup for drinks. Lineup to pay. Lineup to get in to venue. Lineup to leave venue. Lineup to go to the washroom. Lineup for just about everything. Two words that should never be used in the same sentence: Brazilian efficiency … This isn’t complaining. This is just how it is. You pay for a cold drink at concessions. You don’t get a drink. You get a receipt. You then move down the line. Even if there is no line. The four people behind the counter, near the drinks, do nothing until you get to the end of the counter. Then one of them may ask you what you want, or ignore you. Depends on the moment. And this is without a lineup .. A broadcast thought: Is there anything Elliotte Friedman can’t do? … Kia Nurse is one of those rare athletes who puts on a Canadian uniform and changes and grows and plays at a different level. She was barely a factor at UConn’s championship run this year and is lighting it up at the Games just as she did at last summer’s Pan Am Games … The star of the undefeated Lithuanian basketball team is not Jonas Valanciunas, who is playing just over 20 minutes a game. It’s Mantas Kalnietis, averaging 18.5 points a game. Kalnietis normally plays for EA7 Emporio Armani Milano of the Italian League … A weird rule here: No toilet paper in the Olympic toilets … Another oddity: In this country known for coffee, it’s tough to find coffee … And hey, whatever became of Missy Franklin?
Judo is big in Brazil
How big? Was having lunch Tuesday with Olympic judo live on TV. The entire restaurant basically stopped. Everyone staring at the television. Many screaming. The passion was evident.
And me? I still don’t understand the scoring.
A few minutes later, they replayed the first gold medal for the host country, Rafaela Silva in Judo, and it was as though the whole country stood at attention and cheered. Based on the screaming, they understood the scoring.
A sport Brazil doesn’t care for: Rugby Sevens. When Canada played Australia in the semifinals the other day, if you removed the Canadians and the Australians and Olympic officials from the stands, the crowd would have been announced as basically zero.
The power of the Olympics?
It’s an NCAA basketball tournament on human growth hormones and more. Without a pool sheet. You find yourself caring about games and sports you otherwise wouldn’t walk across the street to watch. And suddenly, you’re being grabbed by rugby sevens or synchronized diving or archery or beach volleyball. Or by an athlete’s story.
And players you didn’t know or care about before are suddenly part of your conversation and you’re invested.
Even if there is poverty almost everywhere. Even if the drug cheat Russians are being allowed to participate. Even if rocks are being thrown at buses, or was it gunfire? And even if the concessions stands run out of food on the first hour of the first day.
Pretty powerful this sport stuff. It grabs me every time. Does it grab you?
The preliminary runs in the men’s 100 metres begins Saturday morning and there is some concern about the year Andre De Grasse has had heading into the Games.
In fact, there are some track specialists who don’t see DeGrasse as much of a factor at all for a 100-metre medal against the likes of Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin. That could be true, although De Grasse shocked the track world when he tied for a bronze medal in last year’s world championship.
So what’s changed? Turning professional changes a lot of track athletes. They don’t get to choose their coaches, they are told who to train with, how to train, where to train. De Grasse appeared to be running better when he was aligned with USC coach Caryl Smith Gilbert. But one thing he has proven in the past: At the biggest moments, De Grasse has been at his best. And there’ s no bigger moment than the Olympics.
DeGrasse won the NCAA championship in the 100 and 200 metres races a year ago, won the Pan-Am Games in both those distances and wound up with bronze at the worlds. A medal here in the 100 would put him in position to be the heir apparent to Bolt, if there is such a thing.