Welcome back! After two intense days, these next Olympic posts should be shorter. Just a reminder, NBC has locked out any other websites from sharing their You Tube videos of events of content, so there's that. Lets dive (hehe) right in! Diving: In the 3M Men's Synchronized Diving, Great Britain's Tom Daley has set a GB record for most medals by a British swimmer, as his silver in this final now gives our openly out and gay (and dad of two) Tom five medals in this event! He and his syncro diving partner Noah Williams were damn near perfect, but the China duo grabbed the gold.
Here is a great still shot of how perfectly in sync Tom and Noah were...Perfect form!
Men's Gymnastics: Team final time, three athletes on each of the six apparatus' for all eight teams/ countries. The USA team has not medaled in Men's Team Finals since 2008, so they are ready to end that streak. China is the defending world champions and came in 3rd in Tokyo behind Russia and Japan, who also has a strong team (Note: I LOVE the Japanese unis!!). Great Britain and Canada are in the mix, Italy has been steady, and Ukraine is a sentimental favorite. Switzerland....stick to making watches and skiing...Winter Olympics is your jam.
On vault, for the USA, Brody Malone, Paul Juda and Asher Hong were the best of all eight teams on this apparatus, and rings, with Frederick Richards sticking the landing, were very solid, so USA 1st after two rotations! Parallel bars were also above expectations, but boos went up when Hong stuck the landing and got a much lower score(by one point!) than what should've been scored!
Ukraine did well on vault, and China dominated on rings, and Great Britain was solid as well on rings. So at the halfway point, China in the lead, with USA 2nd, Great Britain 3rd and Ukraine 4th.
High bar time and Juda does okay (tease: last time I will be saying that about him), Richards does great, sticking his landing after an awesome routine, and Malone gets his redemption moment, as he completes his routine, and sticks the landing; this is his 2024 Olympics moment, as he is the current world champion on high bar, and fell off twice in qualifying, so he will not be competing in any more events.#BrodyRedemption.
Two more rotations to go, with floor routine up next for the USA, and the leaderboard stands as so: China, Ukraine, USA and Japan. Juda up first, and puts in a solid routine, Hong up next and did just okay, Richards pretty much nails it with a big score and stuck the landing on his final flipping pass! Elsewhere on high bar, Ukraine didnot have a good high bar, giving up to points to the USA team. Same problem with Great Britain, as high bar is their weakest, and lowest scoring apparatus. Meanwhile, China was near perfect on parallel bars, and Japan rebounded on same apparatus as well! So it's China, Japan, USA, Ukraine going into last rotation, which for the USA is their demon of the gym: Pommel Horse! Pommel horse finds Juda leading off, and he is nearly flawless, putting up a big number! Meanwhile, China's best high bar gymnast drops from the high bar not once, but twice, opening the door for Japan's best high bar gymnast, Hashimoto, puts on a dazzling performance and snags a huge score. Back to Team USA, Malone is up next, and puts in a solid performance, Brody finally breaking his stoic persona snd yelling "Lets Go!" to his fellow teammates!
So it all comes down to one guy to get TEAM USA to the medal podium. That gymnast's name is Stephen Nedoroscik, who was selected to this team to do one thing (apparatus) and one thing only: pommel horse, which is his specialty, this is his only apparatus, and was put on the team because of it. Elsewhere, Japan has overtaken China for the gold, and Ukraine did not have enough points for bronze, so Clark Kent/Superman (he wears glasses EXCEPT when he is competing) has it all riding on him for either a possible silver or bronze medal.... "Superman" SLAYS the horse, and the drought is over, as Nedoroscik secures a bronze medal for the USA team the first one since 2008! Btw, Stephen can solve a Rubik's Cube in about 10 seconds! #NerdsRule
And here is proof of why Stephen is being nicknamed Superman/Clark Kent:
Stephen most times, Clark Kent:
Stephen when he is Pommel Horse Superman!
Women's basketball: Let's start with this, the USA team is going for their EIGHTH straight gold in this sport! WOW! Talk about dominance! And thanks to the sparked interest in the women's NCAA tourney and the WNBA, some of the players we may recognize this time! In their first game, they crushed Japan, 102-76 to move on to the next round! Aja Wilson dropped 24 points to lead team USA.
Tennis: A meeting of the legends, as Novak Djokivic takes on Rafael Nadal in men's singles, with Novak holding a 30-29 edge over Rafa over the many years they have faced off. Make that 31 as Novak defeats Nadal, 6-1, 6-4, as Novak continues his quest for his first ever Olympic gold medal. Men's Skateboarding: Only saw the highlights, but USA's Nyjah Huston snagged the bronze in this event! Which leads me to write my cheesiest Eye Candy promo line to date:
"He was a sk8er boi, she said later, boy.." cue 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris!
Swimming: Women's 400 IM medley saw swimming phenom Summer McIntosh of Canada snag her first gold medal of her young career, blowing away the field. Americans Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant take the silver and bronze!
In the men's 100M Backstroke, team captain Ryan Murphy snagged the bronze, making history as the first American to win medals in the 100M backstroke for three consecutive Olympic Games.
That's a wrap for this post, I will leave you with some unique eye candy...in basketball at the end of the game, some players swap each others jerseys, after the men's rugby match between USA and Argentina, well, let's just say I would like this to become a common tradition!
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