Well, that was a creatively wonderful Opening Ceremony! My sister in Japan did an absolutely compact, wonderful bullet points of the overall event, which was capped off by Celine Dion closing out the ceremonies singing an Edith Piaf song to the fans and athletes in the rain with the Eiffel Tower sparkling over the crowd!
It was also the very first time that the bells of Notre Dame Cathedral rang since the devastating fire years ago. December is the target date for reopening!
NBC Sports has blocked sharing their videos from You Tube, so just stills... Dani's bullet points:
First, it’s took place on the Seine (instead of a stadium!) Bloody brilliant! (my note-INDEED!)
First time in history that the gender ratio in the Olympics got to 50/50. They also counted the male/female statues in Paris and are adding more women of consequence.
The amazing performers located on top of such magnificent buildings all over the city!
Love and Literature!
The inclusivity on the runway on the bridge!
The figures jumping out of paintings and running through the Louvre to view the spectacle outside!
The rain and the unshakable joy of the athletes!
The fiery piano and rendition of Imagine, that brought me to tears!
The horse galloping down the river Seine!
The light show on the Eiffel Tower!
The speeches and their impact on the faces of the athletes.
The Inclusive torch carry.
That cauldron!!!
Now onto the Games...notes from the first few days of what I found interesting/fun, and where the buzz was/is. So, kinda random, folks!
First gold medal of these 2024 Games goes to China in air rifle!
Rugby is pretty fun, like a combo of the NFL and soccer! And easy on the eyes (candy)! Bronze medal match was exciting, with South Africa defeating Australia in a nailbiter. Final had Fiji (!!) defending its title against host country France for their 3rd consecutive gold, and I just discovered that rugby is Fiji's national sport!!! WOW- i would've never guessed! Also just learned that France' Antione Dupont is currently the best rugby player in the world! We got ourselves a match! And what a match it was, as Dupont scored two goals for the French team and the French Men's Rugby team secure France' first gold medal beating Fiji, 26-7! And the stadium crowd goes WILD! This team will never have to buy a drink in Paris for the rest of their lives!
Olympian Gold Eye Candy, France' Antione Dupont, who is also an LGBT ally!
Heartbreak in USA Men's Gymnastics qualifying for the all-arounds on Monday as Brody Malone fell off the high bar TWICE, and fell off the pummel horse once, and will be OUT of the all-arounds! Since Brody is out, and there can only be 2 from each team/country, USA will be repped by Frederick Richard and Paul Buda on Monday, as the top eight teams vie for medals.
Scores from quali don't carry over, so clean slate for these 8 teams: China, Japan, Great Britain, Ukraine, USA, Italy, Switzerland and Canada.
Great artistic eye candy pic of Great Britain's' Max Whitlock- gymnastics.
USA's second medal came in women's road cycling where Chloe Dygert took the bronze. I saw reports of many cyclists very unhappy with the road conditions in Paris, and the rain did not help, as several cyclists wiped out during this competition.
Tennis: Women's #3rd ranked Elena Sabalenka has withdrawn- no reason given. On the men's side, #16th ranked Holger Rune has withdrawn due to wrist injury. No upsets on the first day of singles play on either the men or women's side. The game of most interest though is the men's doubles, as Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz for the first time (last time?) ever, are playing doubles for France against #6 ranked Argentina. The "Batman & Robin" of these Olympics ended up winning the match, 7-6, 6-4, and move on to the 2nd round!
Men's indoor volleyball: 8th ranked Argentina versus #6 ranked USA. This matchup has been a rivalry for the last few Olympics, with Argentina team breaking USA mens team hearts. Not this time, as USA won in three sets, to move on to the next round against Germany on Tuesday.
I think both teams deserve some Eye Candy love! First the USA team:
Now for the Argentina team photo: I LOVE the color scheme! (take note if you are shopping for me!)
Men's Soccer: USA beat New Zealand 4-1 and has Guinea next match to see if they can move on to the quarterfinals. French team later went on to beat New Guinea, and will play New Zealand also in the quarters. USA not only needs a score, but enough goals over Guinea and New Zealand to advance!
Women's Swimming: The big headline out of the first day at the pool was that Australian Ariarne "The Terminator" Titmus smoked the 400 meter final to take gold, leaving Canada's Summer McIntosh (silver) and USA's Katie Ledecky (bronze). Ledecky has 3 more chances to become the the woman athlete with most medals ever!
In the Women's 4x400 meter relay, the Australian team beat USA to win the gold medal, while the USA team barely came in 2nd for the bronze.
Men's Swimming: The USA's men's 4x400 meter relay team anchored by Caeleb Dressel, who already has eight gold medals in his Olympic career, facing off against their aquatic foes, the Australians, won the relay and defended the event for USA's 3rd straight gold medal in this swimming event to close out Day One of competition of the 2024 Paris Olympics!
Caeleb not in this picture after the win, guess I will have to snag one when he wins in one of the solo races...:)
Day 2 Sunday: Yesterday has taught me that was/is a great way to burn out your eyes, beain, batteries, etc...so a more condensed version of Day 2! Women's Gymnastics: The ladies qualifying brought the drama and tears, as host team France, who felt they were medal bound, failed to make the eight team cutoff in a stunning and disappointing finish on their last rotation, vault. Meanwhile, USA team is in the finals, but had a bit of a scare when Simone Biles was dealing with a leg cramp, but then shook it off, and nailed her floor routine, to put her in the all-arounds and all four apparatus rotations for the individual competitions later in the week. Keep an eye on Brazil though, especially Rebeka Aranade, as their team looked very, very good in their qauli's to possibly give the US team a run for the gold.
Fencing (Foil): It was a gold/silver final finish for the USA women's fencing team! Lee Kiefer defends her title against fellow American Lauren Scruggs, with Scruggs making history as being the first black woman to medal in fencing!
Mountain cycling: Haley Batten of the USA grabbed the silver in this event, the best ever finish for USA in this sport! Women's Soccer: USA beats Germany, 4-1, and in good position to advance, faces off against Australia on Wednesday! Men's basketball: After a slow start, the loaded on pro talent USA basketball team ended up smoking Serbia (with Nikola Jokic) , 110-84 to move on to the next round. USA and NBA star Joel Emblid got heavily booed by the French fans, as they are still miffed he chose to play for USA and not his "home" team, France.
Men's Swimming: We have to throw some good news to the French at this point, right? Well, in the men's 400m individual medley, Not only did France's very popular ( I wonder why?) Leon Marchand win the gold medal, he set an Olympic record in this race! Carson Foster of the US took home the bronze.
What we call "found" candy!
and here is Leon getting his gold medal!
Also of note with the USA swimming team, Nick Fink, the oldest member of the US Swim team, and who has not won a medal after numerous tries, tied Great Britain's Adam Peaty for silver in the men's Adam Peaty ( who was going for a historic 3-peat). Congrats Nick! Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh grabbed the gold and silver in the women's 100m butterfly, first time American women have done that in this swimming category.
Tennis: Great Britain's Andy Murray's farewell tour continues in an amazing fashion, as he and his doubles partner, Dan Evans' completed and amazing comeback, being down 5-9 at on point, to beat the Japanese doubles team. Murray and Evans advance. On the singles front, all the big names have advanced to the sweet sixteen round, so some ranked players on the mens and women's side will start dropping as we near the end of 2024 Summer Olympics competition.
Men's 3M Diving on Monday, amongst other events. Not sure is we will see the entire team, but Great Britain's Tom Daley made sure we did ( A LOT of them) for last Eye Candy on this blog post! Enjoy!
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