Steve is feeling under the weather, so Ethel is reporting.
Thirteen year old girls on skateboards defying gravity. A mad scramble up a climbing wall. Synchronized diving. A dressage horse dancing to rave music. The Olympic Games in Tokyo has been a wild ride of sporting excellence, and has (hopefully) widened the horizons for athletes.
This delayed Olympics has been different, perhaps because of the pandemic delay, the many controversies about Russian athletes, and the amazing Simone Biles and USA Gymnastic team. But the Olympic committee also realized years ago that there was athleticism to be found outside the usual track, gymnastics floor or swimming pool. Four new sports were introduced this year: karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing. These are fast, dangerous-looking sports that attract young athletes and audiences. Watching part of the speed climbing races was thrilling, and terrifying — what if they fall? Skateboarding combines physical toughness, art, and a lot of nerve as boarders fly and flip and land on their feet (most of the time). The surfing competition, in which Carissa Moore took the gold for the women’s shortboard, gave me a whole new appreciation for the athleticism required to catch those waves.
And one of the biggest stars to emerge from this year’s Olympics is Mopsi the horse, ridden by American Steffen Peters, who performed a dressage (fancy horse handling) routine to rave music in their freestyle performance. While they didn’t medal for the routine, millions have watched on the Internet as Mopsi got his jam on in the ring. Go on, search for “Olympics dressage horse rave” and see what comes up.
NBC and its affiliates are airing the Olympics, and doing a bang-up job telling the stories of these outstanding athletes. Visit NBColympics.com to see results of the many, many events you probably missed. The closing ceremonies will be on Sunday, August 8.