Olympic Images of the Day: Day 7

I missed a day here (I know), but I got caught having to do something else on Wednesday night, so I wasn't able to tune in for the Olympics post like I planned.  But I was up all night last night, and so here are some of my highlights from an exclusively gymnastics and swimming evening:

For Americans there is Mary Lou.  And Carly.  And Nastia.  And Gabby.  And now Simone.  Yes, for the fifth time (and the fourth straight Olympics) the United States dominated the Gymnastics All-Around competition, though as Tim Daggett and the other announcer whose name they never actually say nauseatingly pointed out, she's the greatest of all time, no debate.  NONE!  It was hard to argue watching her perform, though, as while the announcers were incredibly annoying (and weirdly sexist to Nastia Liukin in their persistent mansplaining considering she's the only one whose, well, actually won this event before and is the one the audience actually wants insights from), Biles radiated on the floor of that Rio theater as she brushed her way into immortality.

Four years after she lost her bronze medal on essentially a technicality, Aly Raisman was back and this time left no doubts that she was great enough to earn a medal in this event.  After crushing the competition in a Floor routine for the ages, she broke down in tears in one of the best Olympic moments of the week, her strength giving way to the pressure she clearly felt to correct what happened in London and prove she deserved to be on a podium in one of the signature events of the Olympic Games.  Well done Aly!

Finally, there was Aliya Mustafina, who was the only person who seemed to really give Biles a worry (at one point she assumed the lead thanks to a fantastic piece of work on the Uneven Bars).  She also pointed out the problem of the American announcers a bit, as Tim Daggett got increasingly cruel to the Russian gymnast in a way he wasn't to anyone else, particularly people that were much weaker than Aliya, who seems kind of baller (she railed against doping, but also pointed out she wasn't willing to compete under any other banner than Russia, thus celebrating the Olympic Games' inherent love of country).  She also became the first woman in sixteen years to medal in this event twice.  Plus, her last name is awesome sauce: MUSTAFINA!!!!!

The past few years being a Michael Phelps stan has been a bit tough.  After a London Games where I questioned repeatedly his need to retire (he clearly had enough gas in the tank to keep going), he got his DUI and was constantly ostracized for his behavior.  Rio has been my redemption, though, as he's been stronger here than perhaps even at Beijing.  Last night in the 200m IM, his signature event, he became the first swimmer ever to win the gold medal in four straight events, and then turned around and managed to land the 100m fly with only 35 minutes separating the events.  Regardless of the rest of his tournament (he still has two finals left), Phelps has ended his career in the classy way he hoped, but failed to do four years ago.

In what (for me) was the most emotional moment of the night, Simone Manuel made her way into the history books, and not just by breaking an Olympic Record in the 100m free.  Manuel became the first ever African-American woman to win a gold medal (or a medal of any kind) in an individual swimming event.  It was particularly moving not just because of the history behind such a moment, but also because it seemed completely unexpected (she won in a tie, wasn't the favorite headed into the event, and it was the result of a late push by Manual that it happened) and because the announcers, two straight white men, not only acknowledged the fact but Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines seemed genuinely moved to be a part of history.  A great American moment all-around.

Finally, there's Nate Adrian, who managed to (the night after he was upset in an event he dominated four years ago) come back swinging with the best smile in American swimming on his face, and rebound into arguably the weirdest and fastest event in the water, the 50m freestyle.  He's not the favorite headed into tomorrow, but for his fans, it was a great moment to rally.  Go Nate!

Olympic Images of the Day: Day 5

Honestly, that may have been the best night of the games so far!  What an incredible evening for Team USA and really for anyone who loves the world of athletics, as swimming and gymnastics were just unbelievable last night, and I left duly impressed by pretty much everyone (and relatively hoarse toward the end of the endeavor).  Here are some of my best moments:

Is it just me or is Michael Phelps more fun this year than he's been, well, ever?  Honestly, and I count myself as a longtime, ardent fan of his, but as also a big fan of Andy Murray's, I clearly have a thing for dour athletes, and Phelps is usually the cranky one when compared to his hang-loose partner Ryan Lochte.  This year, though, perhaps because he knows that it's not just his pronouncement but his age that is ensuring that he will be retiring after Rio, he's more relaxed, and even seemed to revel in his defeat of Chad le Clos' whose bizarre antics prior to the 200m fly, which he didn't even medal in, baffled swimming analysts and the announcers and perhaps even Phelps himself.

If you haven't gotten on the Katie Ledecky train yet, I honestly don't know what to do with you.  Undefeated at the Olympics so far, she got yet another gold yesterday in the 200m free, and seems to be a really lovely human being, hugging her opponents and humbly amassing fans (while inspiring a generation of young women and men to get into the pool the way Michael Phelps did for her so many years ago).  Truly a class act, and I'm excited to see her continue her streak as the week moves on.

So the United States gets another team of immortal gymnasts to be on the cover of every Wheaties Box between her and Tallahassee, and arguably this is the best group ever, with Americans dominating the competition, particularly led by Team Captain Aly Raisman and gymnastics wunderkind Simone Biles. In a lovely tribute to her decades of excellence in the field, the team named themselves the "Final Five" in honor of Marta Karolyi's retirement, a move that brought the famously stoic coach to tears.

I was a little worried, I have to admit.  My imaginary Olympics boyfriend (well, one of the top ones), barely made it to the 100m free in swimming, coming out of the Heats in last place and nearly missing the semifinals, but Nate Adrian rebounded in a spectacular fashion, dominating his semifinals and is heading into tonight as the favorite to repeat his gold medal from the London Games.  Also, Nate Adrian is adorable.  Like, the  most adorable.

Finally, and I know this is a thirsty way to end this post (though, really, isn't thirstiness kind of the point of the Olympics at this juncture?), but look at Marcelo Chierighini, Brazilian swimmer.  That's obscene.  No one should be allowed to be that good-looking.  But I'm glad he got license to anyway.

Olympics Images of the Day: Day 3

Okay, THAT is what I'm talking about at the Olympics!!!  An amazing night for both Team USA and just in general a magnificent night for competition, period.  I'm reminded each year of how much I like the first week of the Olympics, where swimming, diving, gymnastics, and tennis all are the principle sports, and how much it's lost on me later on in the competition when we go to track, soccer, and basketball (which I can never get into as much).  Yesterday was a combination of all of those sports, so let's take a look...

Michael Phelps has been a personal hero for years, and to see him back in the water, and in such peak form (even better, in my opinion, than some of his work in London), was a rare treat.  The men's 4x100m relay four years ago was an enormous disappointment for American swim fans, watching as Ryan Lochte couldn't sink the basket as the anchor.  This year Nathan Adrian (everyone's imaginary Olympic boyfriend) held it together, though he went into the final leg with such a lead thanks to Phelps and the rest of his teammates that it was a relatively easy task.  It'll be tough to match last night's relay in terms of excitement the rest of the games.

For weeks, I've heard nothing but how incredible Simone Biles is (and Tim Daggett, who is the most annoying announcer this side of Scott Hamilton, would not shut up about her) that it felt like it would be hype that would be impossible to live up to, but man did she.  She looks to have qualified for three different individual events in addition to the all-around and the team event, putting her in contention to take an astonishing five medals in gymnastics.  It was bittersweet to see one-time champion Gabby Douglas fall under Simone's shadow, but Biles is an athlete that few could rival.

The word bromance is disgusting, but if there's one brewing in the swim lanes at Rio that I can get behind, it's adorable Prince Harry-lookalike Adam Peaty and the long-locked Cody Miller both cheering and hugging each other in the pool after Peaty smashed his world record once again to take the gold and Miller exuberantly won the bronze.  If they had a reality show, I'd watch it.

At this point in American women's swimming, there are truly great swimmers that represent the best in the world, and then there's Katie Ledecky, in a class by herself.  Ledecky smashed her own world record (much like Peaty) in the 400m freestyle, nearly five seconds over even second place Jazmin Carlin.  She's set to win multiple races this Olympics-it's likely she'll be at the top of that podium again soon.

Tennis saw some of the greats batted down this weekend.  The Williams Sisters and the Murray Brothers both were ousted in doubles.  Venus Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Roberta Vinci were all brought down in singles.  But nowhere was there a greater shock than Juan Martin del Potro taking down World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round.  Admittedly del Potro was a tough first round pick and had beaten Djoker at the Olympics before (in London, actually), but still to see one of the best tennis players of all-time felled in that way was stunning, and Djokovic, who recently finished his Career Grand Slam but lost badly in Wimbledon and is still missing an Olympic gold medal, was clearly heartbroken by the loss, breaking down in tears on the court.  A stunning defeat, which busts the men's tournament wide open.  No man has ever won two Olympic gold medals in Olympic single's tennis-could Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray try for the honor this year?

It takes a lot to get to the Olympics just once.  To make it five times takes a different type of endurance. And for Tania Cagnotto, it clearly was personal at that point, because despite this being her fifth Olympics and hitting a Top 10 finish six times previously, she had never medaled before Rio.  And then, yesterday, at the top of the 3m synchronized springboard, she finally achieved that dream, winning a silver medal in a moment that had to be a huge relief for the 31-year-old (now) Olympic medalist.

Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

We haven't done a link roundup in a while (we actually haven't done seven days in a row worth of posts in a while, so I'm hoping everyone is enjoying my oddly consistent streak of posts-there should be more to come!).  Here's some of the stories I found fascinating around the web this week:

In Entertainment...

Jack and Finn Harries (aka JacksGap)

Film Experience: The much awaited latest installment of the Supporting Actress Smackdown (one of my favorite things in all of the internet) has arrived, with Stinky, Nick, Nathaniel, Guy, and the crew discussing the 2003 Supporting Actress race.  We haven't quite gotten there in the OVP (I'm actually stunningly behind in that race and haven't even hit 50% yet, but there's an amusing story about why I haven't seen House of Sand and Fog that I'll share when we get there in the OVP).  Either way, this is always a wonderful discussion of actresssing on the edges, so please head over and say so so we get more installments.

IndieWire: Despite the fact that Talya Lavie won at Tribeca this past week, the Croisette remains decidedly behind in honoring female filmmakers, with only two women (Alice Rohrwacher and Naomi Kawase, who won the Grand Prix in 2007) competing at this year's festival.  This despite the fact that Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Andrea Arnold are all serving as jury members in some capacity at the competition-you'd think that a celebration of some of the boldest and grandest films in the world would be smart enough to recognize that viewing under-represented voices would be integral to a celebration of art, but apparently not.

In Contention: We get a rundown of the films that cinephiles, and not the general movie populace, is looking forward to this summer (that sounded snotty...I don't mean for it to sound snotty...I might have meant for it to sound snotty).  Boyhood, A Most Wanted Man, Snowpiercer, and Night Moves are the ones I'm most interested in, but these guys can sell you on just about any movie.  Share in the comments what you're most looking forward to!

The Guardian: J.K. Rowling will be bringing her Casual Vacancy across the pond, as the novel is set to be turned into a three-episode miniseries from HBO, which means that Rowling needs to start looking for Emmy dresses (as is the wont of HBO and the miniseries).

YouTube: After a three-month long absence, Finn and Jack Harries are back with a new video...hopefully this means we won't have to wait so long for our next JacksGap attack.

In Politics...

Vice President Al Gore (D-TN)

Politico: Politico Magazine (probably the best reason to visit that site nowadays) does yet another fascinating insight piece/interview on a complicated politician, in this case former Vice President Al Gore.  It starts a lot of interesting debates and invites a number of important questions to the man-who-would-be-president, particularly on whether or not Gore is the right man for the message ("once a politician, always a politician is a solid way of putting it from Sen. Claire McCaskill), what his thoughts are on President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain, and inevitably whether he would run in 2016 (he didn't give an exact no, just for the record, though if he didn't run in 2004 or 2008 I have little anticipation that he'd run in 2016, even though I think he would have been and would still be a phenomenal president).  And though it's a political article, not an entertainment article, do any Oscar/political junkies (am I the only one?) get supremely frustrated every time the media gives Davis Guggenheim's Oscar away to Gore?

Roll Call: In one of the cuter ads of the cycle, Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) brought his folksiness and a bit of a Pace Picante throwback to his campaign after being battered by the Koch Brothers.

Huffington Post: In perhaps one of the scariest developments in recent days, the Missouri House Judiciary Committee is advancing articles of impeachment against Gov. Jay Nixon.  Aside from a lot of obvious (though cheeky) articles about "Nixon Being Impeached," the reality is that the utter flimsiness of the articles of impeachment against Nixon are insane.  The reasons he's being impeached is for an executive order allowing gay couples that were married in other states to file federal income tax returns in Missouri, for not filling vacant legislative seats fast enough, and for releasing the names of Missourians who have concealed weapons permits to the federal government.  Does anyone else feel this is simply because Nixon is a Democrat and the Republicans are in the middle of a power grab (were he to be removed from office, Republican Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder would assume the office)?

Washington Post: A lot was written this week about how brilliant Monica Wehby's (Republican Senate candidate in Oregon) recent positive campaign commercial is, and while I will admit it's touching and it's nice to see a positive political ad and it's also nice to see a woman doing well in a Republican primary, I have to say that the collective orgasm the media (particularly the Post) had over the commercial has me disappointed.  Watching the video, there's little to no actual substance about issues that Dr. Wehby would address in Congress.  The commercial desperately makes me wish that she was my doctor, but not my senator.

Just One More...

ESPN: I haven't really had time to comment on Michael Phelps' return to the pool (it's always stunning when an athlete comes out of retirement the first time...though then no one ever believes them again when they say they're quitting).  Phelps beat Lochte in the heats, but Lochte eat him by .2 seconds in the 100-meter butterfly, a promising return to the pool for Phelps after a long hiatus...and perhaps a preview of Rio in two years?  We can only hope.

Does Anyone Else Miss the Olympics?

I was thinking the other day when I was at Target that I hadn't heard much about any of our favorite Olympians of the past year, and low and behold, what did I see on the cover of Golf Digest but that 22-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps.  Granted, he wasn't sporting a Speedo, but the polo still worked for him.

After seeing this, I decided to seek out his two swimming brethren, Nathan Adrian and Ryan Lochte.  It turns out the adorkable Berkeley Dreamboat has been off doing his civic duty and taking part in a voting campaign:

As for Lochte, he's been making random guest appearances on television, once on 90210 (which I haven't so much as seen a clip of) and once on 30 Rock (of which I've seen every single episode).  The below photo is from his hilarious confrontation with Alec Baldwin, where he plays a sex idiot.  I have no comment, except that casting director needs a larger bonus this year.  Lochte also got in the pool yesterday at the Minneapolis Grand Prix and won!  We're already on the Road to Rio...

Olympic Summer Camp Photo Album

Yes, there's still one more day tomorrow, and you know I'll be imaging up the Olympics Closing Ceremonies, but I wanted to put this together.  I've been thinking a lot about how the Olympics is like Summer camp.  You spend two very intense weeks with a bunch of people that you don't know very well.  You run, jump, swim, and dive.  You develop a crush (hey Nathan Adrian-call me maybe!).    You promise to write, but you never do (have you ever watched a world championship in swimming?).  And you complain loudly about the things you hated (I am still waiting for someone to explain to me what the hell Ryan Seacrest is doing at the Olympics), but the things you remember are the faces and the memories.  So we have a photo album to remember them by, here's a look at all of the friends we've made over our last two weeks in London...

Missy

...Ryan

...Allyson

...Misty May and Kerri

...Aliya

...Serena

...David

...Usain

...Danell

...Oscar

...Carmelita

...Kayla

...Allison

...Lolo

...Andy

...Kyla, McKayla, Ally, Jordan, and Gabby

...Nathan

...Moneypenny

...and Michael

Olympics Image(s) of the Day: Day 9

22 Medals, 18 Golds, 3 Olympics, Millions Inspired

Oscar Image(s) of the Day: Day 8

I have been strongly deficient in sleep this week, so I'm just going to reveal just two photos today.  You can bet anything that tomorrow, the tennis champions will start showing up here, though.  Tennis, swimming, and diving are my favorite Olympic sports, but tennis hasn't been as available for me until today.

Katie Ledecky, who puts us all to shame, celebrating her first gold medal at the age of 15!!!, in the 800 m freestyle.

And of course, the Olympic stud takes his 17th gold and 21st overall.  Sigh...

Olympic Image(s) of the Day: Day 7

All right, so first off, if you aren't reading Annie Barrett's (always) hilarious commentary about the Olympics, head over to Entertainment Weekly and start!  But first, check out the best images of the day:

Kayla Harrison, whose personal story and devastating road to the Olympics will have you in tears (I'm crying just typing this), became the first American to ever win a gold medal in judo.  Well done Kayla!

My two boys (well two of three-after Nathan Adrian's adorkable performance in the swimming team music video, there would be no maybe about me calling him), together on the medal stand for the last time, and Michael takes his first individual gold medal of these Olympics, and won the 200 m medley for the third Olympics in a row.

Okay, this has nothing to do with anything, but could these two gold medalists be more adorable?  I mean, really, whose gut reaction to this picture isn't first "ahh" and second "why don't they use Speedos anymore in the swimming competition?"

And last, we have to end with yet another Olympic gold medalist, Gabrielle Douglas, the spunky girl from Virginia who became the fourth American woman and the first African-American woman to win the gold medal in the women's all-around.  And also, is there some sort of bronze shortage I'm missing out on?  Because that seems to be the only reason for them not to have given Aly Raisman a bronze in a tie in the women's all-around.  I'm not saying they shouldn't have given Aliya Mustafina the bronze as well (considering the daggers she stares when she doesn't do well, I'm not denying her a medal), but they could have both gotten one since they got the exact same total.

Anyway, have a good night-track starts tomorrow!  And Nathan Adrian-call me!!!

Olympic Image(s) of the Day: Day 5

  

First off, to prove that yes, I'm aware there are more than just American Olympians, I love this picture of Chad Le Clos of South Africa, enjoying a surprise win at the 200 m butterfly (and a huge win-that was a great race).

For the first time in history, a mother was able to give a medal to her daughter.  Of course, the mother and daughter are quite recognizable.  The mother is Princess Anne, the Princess Royal of Great Britain, and a former Olympian herself in equestrian.  Her daughter, Zara Phillips, won a silver medal in the Team Eventing Equestrian competition.  Being a huge fan of the Royals and their mystic, I couldn't pass up including this photo.

I was, well, I'm a little leery to say how old I was, but let's just say I wasn't yet a teenager, when Jaycie, Amy, Dominique D, Dominique M, Amanda, Shannon, and of course Kerri took home the gold medal in Atlanta and left a country and a generation awe-inspired that anything was possible.  Today, (from left) Jordyn Wieber, Gabrielle Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, and Kyla Ross have done the same thing.  Well done ladies!

And, for me, he is the Olympics.  As a swimmer, and roughly the same age as Michael Phelps, he's hands-down my favorite Olympian.  Whether it was a talent crush or an actual crush (in reality quite a bit of both), I have watched him since his first Olympics, and was crying quite a bit when I saw him take medal number 19.  You rock Mike!