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9/10 Surprises and Heartbreak: Many surprises in track, men's 1500 with Hocker, 400 with Hall, and women's 100m hurdles with Russell come to mind. The one rowing gold was probably the only thing I didn't have on my radar. Swimming the surprise was Torri Huske's 100m butterfly, although that was a surprise against Walsh getting the win. Locking gold at the women's foil semis was a nice surprise watching it live. Outside of golds the women's rugby team probably got the most surprising medal, maybe US men's gymnastics bronze up there too. Lots of heartbreaks, 44 silvers will get you that. Jordan Chiles losing the floor bronze is still a fresh wound. Men's 200m and 4x100m were both tough to see. Swimming's heartbreak has to be Regan Smith's 3 individual silvers. Some disappointment in BMX and Skateboarding, no golds in either is not what's expected but at least there were medals. Beach volleyball not going anywhere was rough. US women's water polo not defending their gold and not medaling is the biggest team heartbreak. Gotta highlight climbing, Brooke Raboutou's silver was the only positive of the team. Sure Sam Watson has a WR and bronze, but he would have gotten into the finals without a slip. Colin Duffy with 4th and Natalia Grossman not making it to finals are both massive heartbreaks for what on paper should have been the strongest boulder/lead team after Japan and Austria. Interestingly, Japan ended up having identical results as the US, a 4th and a 2nd. Goals Achieved Nothing officially is set by the USOC in terms of results, but we all know what the expectation is: 1st place in the medal table. In that regard, it's a tight but in the end proper success backed up by the highest total medal count of a non-hosted games. There's strong foundations going into LA to have a blockbuster Olympics where I think the goal will be an ambitious 50 golds and 150 medals. Future Investment You're going to see lots of Lacrosee, Flag Football, and Softball money in the US in the next 4 years. Cricket will also get a huge boost. I don't think there will be much changes in the basic US team formula: focus on the big 3 (athletics, swimming, women's gymnastics) with hope the diversity and strength of the country's sport infrastructure can produce stars in a plethora of individual events and rank in most team events. 2028 Stars: Ledecky, Richardson, and Lyles should still be competing for the home games and expecting to achieve more than they did in Paris. The new generation of swimmers will need to form in the next 4 years but Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh will lead that pack to SOFI. Too many stars in track and field that will still be at the height of their game in LA. If the NFL allows their players to compete in flag football there will be a new crop of athletes that rival the biggest basketball stars.

Very sound predication in the end. In reality: 121 medals, 40 golds. Considering the 44 silvers won there were many many opportunities to get one more gold. The reasoning for the prediction also came true. A very strong track meet pulling slack for a less successful swim count.

My favorite moment was all of August 3rd, the first day I spent in Paris. - Taking a bike ride along the Siene retracing the opening ceremony path and the course of the road race that started only 30 minutes before. - Getting close to the balloon. - Going to see the road race live and seeing twice the peloton pass by. - Watching the end of the race on a tv bar huddled with dozens of other on lookers as the final riders pass behind. - Getting to dinner while watching the judo team finals and hearing a cheer from bars, windows and the street every time a French judoka won their match. - Walking back to the hotel and passing a community watch party in the park and seeing the 4x400 mixed relay and Femke Bol’s great final lap. The other days in Paris were wonderful, I could write a similar summary for each but the magic of that first day and seeing the wonder the games brought to the city is what I’ll probably most fondly remember from these games.

I’ve been waiting 7 years for that hand off ceremony. Good acts, some nice shots of the city, Tom Cruise was fun. However, it didn’t inspire pride in my hometown beyond our musical pedigree.

That’s the fastest 44 year old I’ve ever seen

Silver for Kenny. Well deserved

Shame for Watson with a minor stumble in the semi. Still a bronze and WR is not a bad combo to be going home with. Congrats Indonesia. I’m next to their contingent and it was a massive celebration

THAT WAS HYPE

Garnbret absolutely the GOAT

Update from the venue: Great competition for the lead, happy for Raboutou for getting top 3 in the semi. Ai Mori with a good boulder round may be unstoppable. Garnbret on the wall Oh and I saw Thomas Bach pass beside me lol

I was at the vs match last night. Exciting game of football and a fun atmosphere even though Stade de Marsaille was maybe a fifth full. Lots of Americans were there and most got on the Brazilian bandwagon, nothing better than a western hemisphere fight for gold. Brazil’s MVP was Lorena, just did not make a mistake on goal until it didn’t matter.

The Olympic record before today was 5.45. Looking like that won’t even get you into finals today. Speed climbing really gets to be introduced this year. Edit: wasn’t even close. 5.26 is the slowest elimination heat. And of course the fastest time was a whole half second quicker

There’s something to be said about missing every answer. Not all good things, but things nonetheless.

Bumping it up to an 8 from a 7 last poll, everyday that goes by I just get more giddy that the Olympics are happening. Probably the higher score also has something to do with a 7 hour flight I’m getting on tomorrow.

Kiefer just put together a perfect Foil competition. It's still early but if I was an athlete I'd vote her in as the closing flag bearer (knowing Biles has already had that honor in Rio and Ledecky should be in LA for the 1500m)