Like everyone else, every two years I become addicted to a bunch of sports I don’t care about during all the time between Olympics. Given that I’m doing next to nothing this summer, I’ve been following the games pretty closely, and I think that yesterday’s schedule was one of the best days so far (although I’m ready for it to be topped tomorrow when the USWNT face off against Japan in the football gold medal match). It’s stupidly obvious to say that the athletics of each event are incredible, but there’s just as much excitement off the field/track/pool/pitch/etc, and equally as many wonderful, joyful, and inspiring moments. Once again, yesterday was a good day for that. While my favourite non-directly-athetic moments of the games so far are the opening ceremonies (of course) and Usain Bolt being a class act and pausing an interview to respect another country’s national anthem (my favourite athletics-related moments being Gabby Douglas’s all-around win and the last-minute goal by Alex Morgan in the football semifinal against Canada), these are my top five fantastic moments from yesterday’s coverage:
Aly Raisman, women’s gymnastics. After Raisman was beat out for the bronze on vault due to the gymnastics’ weird tie-breaking rules, it was nice to see those weird rules go her way on the beam (also, how awesome was Deng Linlin’s routine?!). Even better was her gold-medal winning floor routine. But outside of the athletics, I loved the sportsmanship all of the women showed. It’s bothered me how the media seems intent on portraying several of the gymnasts as “mean girls” types, but there was none of that last night, with Raisman hugging her competitors and Aliya Mustafina flashing her a thumbs up after her routine.
Continue reading “Olympic Fever: Off the Field Awesomeness on Day Eleven” →
I don’t know much about the Liga Mx. I follow the English Premier League and the Spanish Liga, and I’ve even started watching a bit of Bundesliga recently (although I’ve yet to find a broadcast with English commentary so the only words I can pick up are things like “Dortmund” and “das fitness coach”), so I hardly have time to watch yet another league anyway, although I sometimes catch a match on Univisión while I’m at the gym. I know a few key words and names in Mexican football, Hérculez Gómez and Chivas and Chicarito and the Azteca, but comparatively, I’m in the dark. Before reading Robert Andrew Powell’s gripping book, This Love is Not for Cowards: Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juárez, I had certainly never heard of Los Indios de Ciudad Juárez.
thebestpossibletime 