good morning! It’s a shame the Olympics are over. What are we gonna watch now? Oh wait – the Premier League is back this week !!
Before we turn to the Premier League let’s hang out with the Olympics for but one more day.
We’ve had a little over two weeks of some of the world’s best athletes competing in a huge array of sports from taekwondo to table tennis to beach volleyball. Some generated memes, others withstood sigfnicant tests in and out of the arena to win.
So let’s turn to our favourite moments from these Olympic games. I’ll share the favourites that I’ve seen (which means no Biles or Marchand or Ledecky or men’s basketball, or any football).
- Imane Khelif wins gold: One of the truly great moments of these Olympics, Khelif somehow managed to tune out so much noise to win the women’s welterweight boxing gold medal. The image of her coach hoisting her alof his shoulders, while she holds the Algerian flag, will be remembered for some time.
- Kim Woo-jin def Brady Ellison in men’s archery final: The Korean and American archer both scored 30 poitns in the final frame of the men’s gold medal match, giving us a one-shot tiebreak. It was decided by 5 milimetres. Insane stuff, with the best in the world bringing home the gold.
- An Olympic record in the men’s 10,000 metres: An exhilerating race where the three Ethiopian runners were working together. Only for Ugandan runner Joshua Cheptegei, the world champion in Budapest, to win gold again here. And how about that race from the American Grant Fisher to win bronze?
- Novak Djokovic def Carlos Alcaraz in men’s tennis final: Probably the best two-set tennis match I’ve seen in years. A match of the highest quality, and one that was so so tense. In the end it was Djokovic, reclaiming years from his peak, to shutdown Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 7-6 to win the gold medal. He is now one of only five players in history to win the career Golden Slam.
- Ukraine win women’s team fencing final: Well, I wasn’t expecting this (because I know nothing about fencing). When I went to check the Ukrainian team was several points behind Korea. But then they steadily came back to win 45-42 in the sabre final. Special mention to fencer Alina Komashchuk who dominated her round.
- Remco Evenepoel wins the road race: A disappointing Tour de France for him but a few weeks ago, but he makes up for it with a dominant victory at the Olympics. And while he came third in the general classification at Le Tour, he had the Eiffel Tower all to himself in what is one of the greatest photographs to come from these Olympic Games.
- France def Japan in judo mixed team final: What a freaking final. I joined late. I knew of the legend of Teddy Riner, but when that roulette landed on his weight class for the gold-medal tiebreak against Japan? Scenes. The crowd went wild.
I had no idea what was going on. I knew he was up against Tatsuru Saito, also considered one of judo’s modern-day greats. No idea who’d win, and then all of a sudden Riner brought home the gold for France. It was incredible.
- Sifan Hassan wins women’s marathon: A truly incredible race with five runners left in the final few kilometres. Only for Hassan, who ran more than 38 miles this Olympic games, to run away with the gold medal and set a new Olympic record. A true accomplishment.
I think I saw some stat that she’s the first person to medal at Track and Field & the Marathon in over 70 years.
This was also the first time in my recent memory that the women’s marathon came after the men’s, which meant that they had theri own special moment during the closing ceremony. I couldn’t be happier with that decision. A legendary race.
Fitzie’s track of the day: Just a Girl, by No Girl
And now for your links:
Alasdair Gold’s talking points from Spurs’ friendly vs Bayern
And here are the talking points from The Athletic ($$)
Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth Argyle lose 0-4 to Wednesday
Emma Hayes’ Olympics gold with USWNT a ‘story woven with love and loss’
