'Ike' (Phone)'s Link
The United States won the first gold medal of the 2016 Rio Games.
Olympic competition has officially begun, and 19-year-old Virginia “Ginny” Thrasher took home the gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle competition. The teenager won the NCAA championship for West Virginia University earlier this year.
Thrasher’s interest in the sport was sparked during a family hunting trip five years ago. A soon-to-be sophomore engineering major at West Virginia, Thrasher was competing in her first international shooting competition.
The USA Shooting Team would be the exception, as WSF has been a YUGE supporter of the team and I chaired our annual WSF/USA Olympic Team/Wounded Warriors Outdoors Sporting Clays event at The Sheep Show the past several years.
If I have the time, I'll watch the marathon, because long distance running and ultra-distance running was my passion for a very long time.
Consider if you will for example the CURRENT women's beach volleyball event. You know, the ones where it's amazing that they can even breath with the bottom part of their bathing suit jammed in their lower intestines. Now imagine that same event with the emotionally disturbed men who think they're women dressed as such and participating with the real women.
Sorry for the mental image!!!!! But you get the idea!
That particular competition would go from being the most watched to the least.
would be cool if they mistook a beached head for a volleyball...just for a few points or so
It looks so easy on the television when those guys are up there nailing 10s from 70m. Actually, I think it is easy for those dang S. Koreans.
Fun game with a few people playing. It gets more challenging as it gets dark. Sometimes some arrows will go missing.
It seems to degenerate into a drinking game pretty quickly. :-)
I believe you are the only man in the US that I have heard say that. The opening and closing ceremonies are unwatchable to me.
I was a swimmer and runner in high school and college so I enjoy watching those events, but can understand if people get bored with them. I have the same affinity with nascar. I also have played indoor and sand volleyball for 20+ years and really am amazed at the people playing those in Rio - the men's team plays the entire game about 3' above the net.
I so love comparing my best freestyle times to those of the women breaststroke competitors....it's humbling for sure.
He said the ground around the hotel where the US Shooting teams were quartered was just littered with dead pigeons from the air rifle shooters.
That air rifle competition might be a little harder than you imagine SF....
I can't get enough of the competition and the rivalries. The hard work and conditioning these young men and women put in is incredible.
Rare air indeed to make and compete on a Olympic team for your country.
The Rock
Phelps did slap him around when he was wagging his index finger #1.
That felt and looked good, real good.
The Rock
My 3 1/2 year old has his first celebrity crush. He walks around repeating her name and can identify her on TV with no prompting.
A: "B, who is your favorite swimmer?"
B: "Katie Ledecky" (said with a sheepish grin)
A: "Why?"
B: "Because 'Merica!"
Now can the Olympic Committee please get him an UBER Driver for life so he can party his butt off !!
And maybe after the Jerrad thing.......... Subway can sign him back up !!
The gal that won the gold in Judo is pretty cool too. She has won the gold back to back and will now retire and become a firefighter.
BIG BEAR - UBER drivers don't allow bongs in the car...8^)))
In all seriousness, Phelps is Herculeian...
I just don't enjoy several of the events....I mean, synchronized diving? What's next competitive penmanship? Good grief!
I'd rather watch competitive belly flopping...
That right there is pure GOLD.
The Rock
I'm just enjoying being British and being ahead of one of the most populous nations in the world...being second to the US I can cope with, as long as we're both ahead of the Rest of World
Speed cubing champion Anthony Brooks is used to racing the clock when he’s solving a Rubik’s Cube puzzle, but since we’re in the middle of the 2016 Olympics, he decided to challenge the world’s fastest man, running the 100 meters, to a head-to-head race.
As fast as Usain Bolt is on his feet, he’s no match for Brooks who solved this cube well ahead of the 9.81 seconds it took Bolt to complete the 100 meters. But it’s Bolt who gets to go home with a gold medal, at least until speed cubing is made an Olympic sport.
We are so ecstatic about this Bronze medal! If you watched, you could tell J’den is, too. It’s an indication of hard work, focus, blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice and dedication. My son is an Olympic medalist!
There are several things I’ve learned during these Games that I’d like to share with you:
1. It takes a community. There isn’t one person who can take the credit for J’den’s successes. Not even J’den! He’s had great coaches, family support, friends & teammates behind him for many years to help prepare him for where he is today.
2. This world is very small. Everyone at these Games was here to win or support someone trying to. We had a blast with people from Iran as they cheered for America and we, in turn, cheered for their athletes. If you want to have a good time, find the Iranians!!!
3. Wind storms are very scary in Rio – especially if you’re 9 stories up!
4. Being unable to connect to the Internet isn’t the end of the world – it just feels like it.
5. Wrestling is the greatest sport in the world with the best community of followers. We will cheer for anyone – as long as they’re not wrestling one of ours.
6. Mongolian coaches with literally strip naked, lay down in the middle of the mat and throw a hissy-fit to get the call.
More personally –
7. Americans are uptight. We don’t trust other nations like they do us. They look up to us. They desire our freedoms. They don’t understand how we take so much for granted.
8. I am one of those who take my liberties for granted. I live in the best nation in the world and can sometimes snub my nose at people who aren’t like me. I don’t want to be like that any more.
9. This world has too many critics. (Couch Coaches) Our young men and women who train in this sport work too doggone hard for you to sit at home and belittle their efforts. They’re not doing this this to make you happy. They do it because they love the sport. They are not always going to be at their best. They get sick. They have injuries. The have brain farts and lapses in judgement. THEY ARE HUMAN! Lay off a little, because…
10. If you could do any better, YOUR MOM would be writing this blog!!!
Love each and every one of you!
I’ve enjoyed sharing this experience and my kid with you.
Signing off from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the 2016 Olympic Games of the 31st Olympiad.