Olympic Thoughts

I really like Coco Gauff. She's the present and the future of American tennis. I'm rooting for her to win the gold medal in Paris and the US Open next month. However, there is no reason why she should have been the flag-bearer for the United States. This is Gauff's first time competing in the Olympics. The people honored to carry/hold the flag should have multiple trips to the Olympics, and for America, multiple medals from previous games. 

Staying with the opening ceremonies, I was stunned seeing Rafael Nadal carrying the torch. I understand that he's loved in France for winning 181 French Open titles, but he's from Spain. The torch should be reserved for home-country athletes. I'll give a comparison. Nikola Jokic from Serbia is arguably the best active player in the NBA. Even if he wins the NBA MVP each of the next 4 years and the Denver Nuggets win all of the NBA titles during this time, he's not going to carry the torch in Los Angeles in 2028.

I'll make an exception to this statement. Let's say you are an Olympic star from a nation that is never going to host the Olympics. Think Usain Bolt. The International Olympic Committee is not going to have the games in Jamaica, so he could be part of lighting the torch in a different country. Serena Williams and Carl Lewis should (and will) be part of the opening ceremonies in LA. No reason for them to be part of the Paris torch ceremony. 

Early prediction for lighting the torch in LA in 2028: 2-time Olympic gold medalist and one of the most famous people on earth: Michael Jordan.

Enough criticism. Let's get to the good stuff.

Go to the 4:25 mark of the US women's rugby highlight video. Ilona Maher is just awesome.

I've really enjoyed watching handball. I don't understand all of the rules, and there seems to be a foul on every play (and it's extremely difficult for goalies to make saves), I have two questions.

1. Why is one player (and sometimes two players) always in the corner and get the ball maybe once every 15 possessions?

2. Who decided to use a car horn blast in handball? (Go to the 4:30 mark of this video to hear it). I have flashbacks to being at a friend's house and my dad honking from the car to pick me up!

NBC showed a fantastic segment of Mary Carillo with a snail farmer and an escargot restaurant. If I can find it, I will share it here later. (Of course, NBC Sports isn't allowed videos to be played on sites other than YouTube.)

Teremoana Teremoana is a great name and looks extremely intimidating in the boxing ring. I'm rooting for him!

I miss Ric Blas not being at the Olympics. (If you don't know who this is, please go through my archives including my interview with him.)

Enjoy the games!

Photos by Team USA; Corbis/VCG via Getty Images; Dan Himbrechts/AAP Photos

Fan Points

One of my favorite podcasts, The Poscast with baseball writer Joe Posnanski and Parks & Recreation and The Good Place creator Michael Schur, featured an episode where the hosts discussed fan points. While I had heard of this idea before, the premise is that you have 100 points or 100% to assign to your favorite sports teams/players. Basically, this is a way to show your fandom and what you really care about as a fan. For example, let's say that you are a Dallas Cwboys fan. First, my apologies. You only care about the NFL, so in this case, maybe you assign 95 or even all of your fan points to the Cowboys. Maybe you give 5 points to whoever is playing against the Philadelphia Eagles or another team that will help the Cowboys. It seems rare that a person is only a fan of one team, but this is just an example. Today, I'm sharing my fan points.

22% - Pittsburgh Steelers

22% - Pittsburgh Pirates

22% - Pittsburgh Penguins

Growing up in Pittsburgh and still being a passionate Pittsburgh sports fan, these three teams are part of my identity. Obviously, these numbers fluctuate throughout the year depending on the season. While I'm very interested in what the Pirates do in the offseason, I'm more concerned in the immediacy about the Steelers upcoming game against the Baltimore Ravens. However, this list is designed for the entire year, so I'm not going to show favoritism between my three kids, I mean, teams.

10% - University of Pittsburgh athletics

10% - Ithaca College athletics

I'll admit that I'm cheating here by grouping entire athletic programs into one category. Like my fandom for the professional Pittsburgh sports teams, I grew up on Pitt sports. I went to Pitt football games at Pitt Stadium with my Cub Scouts troop. I remember watching the "Send It In Jerome" basketball game on TV. 

In recent years, I've really enjoyed seeing the success of Pitt's men's soccer team and women's volleyball team. Sure, I should assign specific percentages to each individual team, but this is my blog, so my rules! 

Ithaca is where I went to college, and was and is a big part of my life. I have lifetime friendships from and connections with the institution. In the last year, I've been able to attend an IC football game, women's volleyball game, and women's basketball game in the DC-Baltimore area and loved being able to support my alma mater. 

This is where things get difficult. 

5% - Sheffield Wednesday

I shared the story about how I lived in Lancaster, England for a summer and how my supervisor took me to a Sheffield Wednesday match. It's difficult for me to watch matches, but I generally follow gamecasts and commentary on ESPN and Twitter and listen to a weekly podcast about the team. It will be amazing if the team ever gets back to the Premier League, though I'm just hoping that they don't get relegated back to League One at the end of this season!

4% - Ohio State Football

I went to graduate school at Ohio State and had season tickets to football games when I attended. Watching a game at Ohio Stadium with 100,000+ of your closest friends is an amazing experience. Unfortunately, the team was lousy (for Ohio State standards) when I was there, so I also got to see and hear about some of the bad side of fans. While I don't go out of my way to watch most Buckeyes games, and I can't name more than a handful of current players, I make sure to see them play Michigan and root for them to win a national championship (especially against SEC schools). 

5% - Miscellaneous

I usually attend 2-3 George Mason men's basketball games a year, so while they should probably get their own fan points, I'm including the team here. Miscellaneous also includes things like the US National men's and women's soccer teams, anyone against Novak Djokovic near the end of a Grand Slam tournament, and DC United, Loudoun United, and even the Washington Nationals when I attend their games in person. While I'm not including Coco Gauff in her own category, for the two weeks of the 2023 US Open, I followed her more than anything else in sports. That's the purpose of miscellaneous points.

So that's my 100 points. Although I follow the NBA, there's not a specific team that makes the list. (Sorry Washington Wizards.)  Now that I'm done, I just realizd that this could all be a lie. I should probably reduce nearly everything above in half and add a significant amount of my points to fantasy sports. I spend way too much time on that in my sports fandom!

Feel free to share your list in the comments section below.